For Tiberio Simone and Matt Freedman, two of the most beautiful things in the world are food and the human body – not necessarily in that order. Their coffee table book, La Figa: Visions of Food and Form examines the relationship between food, touch and the ingredients that make life delicious. Their project, five years in the making, is a combination of sensuous human shapes decorated in food, where natural beauty and fresh flavors are one in the same. Listen to Tiberio and Matt explore the connection between how the food we eat has the power to nourish us through all of our senses and awaken our inherent attraction for flavor and pleasure. A totally sensuous exploration of how we are truly what we eat.

Italian born, Tiberio Simone is a James Beard Award-winning chef and pleasure activist. He has been cooking for as long as he can remember, beginning in his mother’s kitchen. Tiberio started his career by working at an Italian restaurant in Seattle, where he moved at the age of 21. He eventually became the pastry chef at Seattle’s Four Seasons Olympic Hotel. Years later – tired of corporate cooking – Tiberio launched his own company: La Figa Catering.

Matt Freedman is both a professional photographer and a professional technologist. In 2007, he was able to combine his passion for photography and technology by becoming the staff photographer and Director of Technology for JUST CAUSE Magazine – a bi-monthly magazine focusing on solutions, with stories of individuals, organizations and businesses doing good in the world. In 2009, Matt once again merged photography and technology to produce Burning Man: A Photo Essay – the first iPhone app about the Burning Man festival. A “coffee table book for the iPhone,” the app combines Matt’s photography, writing and software engineering.