Inside Balbosté’s sold-out pop-up restaurant at Matter and Shape

The Brand Identity: A series of meringues, arranged from large to small, where the flavour intensifies as the size decreases. The biggest is soft and gentle; the smallest hits sharp and acidic. It is a dish that also happens to be a diagram – an edible illustration of the concept that underpins an entire restaurant. Scale by Balbosté is the pop-up created for Matter and Shape, the design fair held annually in the Jardin des Tuileries during Paris Fashion Week.

The fair, launched in March 2024, invites exhibitors to present exceptional products and projects in an elevated setting, and for the 2026 edition, Paris-based creative culinary studio Balbosté curated the entire culinary programme for the first time – designing everything from the branding and spatial identity to the dishes themselves. "We needed to create two different experiences,” explains Charlotte Sitbon, Founder & Creative Director of Balbosté.

“A more flexible lunch where people could sit in smaller groups, and a more collective dinner around one long table.” During the day, the space operates almost like a tangram, with fragmented tables that guests choose depending on their group size. In the evening, everything shifts into a single, shared surface – something more ceremonial and communal. That movement between individual and collective is the idea of scale made spatial.

It extends to the plate too, where dishes are available in different sizes, allowing guests to shape their own experience. Balbosté itself is a collective of around 20 people – 10 chefs and 10 designers – all working in the same space. The name comes from the Yiddish word balaboste, referring to a woman who hosts and brings people together with care and generosity. That spirit of connection and shared experience sits at the centre of everything the studio produces.

“Our goal is to create a real dialogue between food and design by bringing chefs out of the kitchen and designers away from their computers, to build something truly collaborative,” Sitbon says. For a design fair audience, the visual treatment of the food needed to hold its own alongside the objects on display. Each table had its own colour palette and atmosphere and was linked to a designer exhibiting at the fair, turning every dining setting into an immersive environment where food, design and materials spoke to each other.

The Tangram-inspired table – a modular centrepiece whose vibrant, geometric sections could be reconfigured throughout the day – served as the primary gathering point. Its bold colours provided a playful contrast to the raw, moiré-patterned pavilions designed by JA Projects. But Sitbon is careful to distinguish visual ambition from empty spectacle. “Today, it is very easy to create highly visual food, especially in a world driven by social media, where the more Instagrammable something is, the more attention it gets,” she explains. “But for me, visual impact alone is not enough.

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The article highlights a unique approach to brand strategy through culinary design, which is significant for the industry, offers fresh insights, and is directly relevant to brand strategy professionals seeking to enhance customer engagement.