Lars Eriksson

About Lars Eriksson

Lars Eriksson is lecturer at the School of Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Meal Science (RHS), Campus Grythyttan. He obtained a PhD in Culinary Arts and Meal Science in 2021after defending his doctorial thesis “To design meals - mise en place, table setting and serving, A method study of the waiter's craftsmanship”. Link to the thesis: http://oru.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:1538016

The thesis was a collaboration between RHS and the Department of Cultural Conservation at the University of Gothenburg and led to joint research between the two universities on crafts as a form of knowledge.

Lars Eriksson, who since 1995 has a bachelor's degree, has run the company Kring Mat for 20 years. In his role as an entrepreneur, Lars Eriksson has designed and developed the form and content for official meal representation. Clients have been government agencies, cultural institutions and private companies in Sweden and abroad.

Research

Lars Eriksson´s research area is in craftsmanship and aesthetic design with a theoretical basis in practice-oriented research. The time-geographical approach has been important for his research, which has contributed to adding a time dimension to the aspect of space in the FAMM model (Five Aspects Meal Model). The FAMM model can thereby become more dynamic and a greater understanding and in-depth knowledge can be achieved about craft actions.
Another area of research concerns reasoning about how space, time, logic and aesthetics interact and thereby affect people's meal experience. This is summarized in the model “Taxonomy for meal design”. Lars Eriksson´s research has contributed to identifying the waiter's professional knowledge as a craft. Through understanding and explanations of knowledge content for craft areas within food and meals, opportunities can be provided for increased professionalisation of several occupations. 

Teaching

Lars Eriksson teaches undergraduate courses at RHS, for example the courses Aesthetic Creation, Sommellerie and the course Development of Meal Experiences. Lars Eriksson supervises degree projects.

Collaboration

Lars Eriksson has led a research collaboration, funded by the Knowledge Foundation, between Konstfack, the business community and RHS. For Norlandia, which runs preschools and elderly care, he has completed staff training for an improved meal environment in nursing homes. For Best Service, a national network for service in Sweden's regions, Lars Eriksson has participated with expert knowledge in an training video about pleasant meals in care environments. Link to the film: https://bestservice.se/videos/