Curious Gastronaut
There are so many ways to use your Curious Gastronaut™ cards. Below are some examples of how you may use them. Learn about the marvellous world of food without actual food in the mix with the Master Matcher mode, or playfully experiment with the Incredible Inventor mode or go head-to-head in the Feisty Foodie mode—there’s something for everyone. Pick a mode or invent your own!
MASTER MATCHER
- Perfect for younger players
- No food handling
- Non-competitive
- Solo or collaborative
INCREDIBLE INVENTOR
- With food
- Non-competitive
- Solo or collaborative
FEISTY FOODIE
- With food
- Competitive
- Timed
- Teams
ABOUT:
Curious Gastronaut™ was created by a rather curious human named Nalisha Chouraria – play & child culture designer, illustrator and founder of Studio Oddball on the Gold Coast, Australia.
Have you ever noticed how everyone’s eyes light up when they talk about astronauts and space exploration? I thought that there had to be a way to evoke the same excitement, curiosity and wonder around food.
It all started in 2015, when I was living in Sweden. One stormy night (OK I made up the stormy bit), I woke with a start. I had an idea, inspired by the little people in my life. What if, instead of trying to force children to eat food they fear, we use play to inspire curiosity and joy around food? After all, food is much more than fuel. We should explore the food world like an astronaut explores space…’We should all be Gastronauts!’. After years of extensive research, countless hours of play testing and two awards later, it launched as the game we see here today.
A child’s food preferences directly affect their eating behaviour, which in turn is linked to the formation of obesity, overall health and wellness. All children suffer from neophobia–a fear of new foods, to some degree, and as a result, mealtimes can be stressful, foods remain unexplored, and children become malnourished.
Food preferences start forming in childhood, and while some are innate, most are learned. For children to learn to prefer and select healthy foods, it is critical to provide them with early, positive, repeated experiences with those foods. We are most receptive to developing new tastes in early childhood and therefore, children should be provided with more opportunities to experience as many flavours, textures, aromas and combinations as possible.
There was a need for non-stressful, pressure-free and engaging ways to provide multiple food exposures that children need, to develop new tastes and eventually become healthy, confident and adventurous eaters. Children best explore and learn about the world by playing and using their imagination. So why not the food world? Enter Curious Gastronaut™.
By bringing the endless benefits of play to the table, Curious Gastronaut™ makes trying new food and learning about the edible world fun. It encourages children to use their imagination to think about food beyond just something they have to eat—they can see it, smell it, touch it, hear it and taste it.