Famous Artists Share 10 Recipes for the Creative—and Delicious—Dishes That Are Getting Them Through Lockdown

As much of the world hunkers down, practicing social distancing
and sheltering in place, everyday life is shifting dramatically.
And for artists, like the rest of us, that means preparing for an
extended stay at home by stocking up their larders.

In search of a little culinary inspiration, we turned to artists
who have worked with food in their practices, either as a material
or subject matter, to ask them what they’re cooking during these
unprecedented times.

Here are the dispatches they sent in from around the world—from
New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Italy, Thailand, and more—on their
favorite recipes, their strategies for stocking up for long
stretches, and advice special diets. So as we face this extended
period of home isolation, we hope their contributions get your own
creative culinary juices flowing.

Enjoy!

Dan Colen, Hudson Valley, New
York

Dan Colen has made “paintings” from chewing gum, and has
owned a farm in New York’s Hudson Valley since 2011. 

I’m at my farm, Sky High Farm in the Hudson
Valley, with my girlfriend, baker, artist, and food advocate, Lexie
Smith. We’re baking, fermenting, dehydrating, and we are stocked up
on local grains and local meats from the farm. The diet and menu is
stuck somewhere between macrobiotic and grass-fed meat lovers.

At the farm, we are currently planting seeds in the veggie
garden and expecting births of cows, pigs, and lambs. All the food
raised and grown on the farm is 100 percent for donation to
underserved communities in New York state, which feels especially
necessary right now. Of particular note at this moment, and
something I feel really fortunate to get such close witness to, is
an initiative Lexie has started in response to the epidemic through
her project Bread on Earth.

She has offered her community a free sourdough starter kit,
sending out small portions of sourdough to anyone who requests it,
with instructions for use and further sharing. In her words, the
spirit is as follows:

“We’ve quickly become acutely aware of our ability to pass
things between us, even while living in an alienating and isolating
world. Spores making their way across a population can look like
solidarity and sustenance, too, not just fear and sickness. Even if
the starter stays with you, you’re now a point on the evolving map
of this living culture.”

I’m still trying to decide if art is on hold or more active then
ever.

Michael Rakowitz, Chicago

Michael Rakowitz uses Middle Eastern food
packaging in his ongoing series “The invisible enemy
should not exist” (2007–) which recreates ancient Iraqi artifacts
that have been destroyed or looted in recent years. The
artist prepares and serves
traditional Iraqi food in the ongoing
project Enemy Kitchen (2003–).

I wanted to make Iraqi dolma, which Iraqi Jews call
mhasha, but the local supermarket did not have any produce
other than bok choy. So, instead of stuffed vine leaves or onions
or cabbage, I decided to make do with what was there.

I have never really cooked with bok choy other than to steam it
and serve with an oyster sauce or soy sauce. I figured I would
challenge myself and give this a try. Also, my six-year-old son,
Jude, decided to become a pescatarian three months ago, and so I
had to make it without meat, which acts as an essential binder to
hold the hashwa, or stuffing, in place.

So, I decided to make the traditional Thursday night meal for
Iraqi Jews, which is kichree, an Iraqi version of the
Indian dish using basmati rice, red lentils, tomato paste, onions,
garlic, cumin, and olive oil. I made the kichree stickier than
normal, and then parboiled the bok choy for about 10 minutes to
make it easier to roll.

I then took a fistful of the kichree, placed it on the leafy end
of the bok choy and rolled it down to the stem. After doing this
with all 10 stalks of the bok choy, I pan seared each dolma in a
non-stick pan with olive oil and salt. I served it with a homemade
garlic yogurt and a Syrian tomato salad with our last tomatoes that
my friend Suhail taught me and my wife to make.

Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw,
Brooklyn

Husband-and-wife artist duo Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw are also
former food truck owners and once competed on the Food Network’s
competitive cooking show Chopped. Their food-related
work includes a giant ice cream sundae sculpture with a real
chocolate syrup fountain that was exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum,
and a performance piece where they sat in a giant tub of milk and
cereal at Miami Beach’s SATELLITE Art
Show. 

We are riding it out in our New York City apartment with a
fridge full of seafood, a cabinet full of beans, and regular trips
to the coffee shop while we still can. Prepping for the worst, but
can’t leave this city! So far, pizza is still delivering,
so totally OK.

“Super Secret Seafood Gumbo”

Ingredients:

1 pound gilf shrimp, shells on, head on (frozen if you must)
1 pound other seafood: crab, mussels, clams, oysters, etc.
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 large onion
1 rib celery
2 tsp cayenne pepper (add slowly to attain preferred spice
level)
5–6 cloves garlic
1½ cups okra (frozen fine, but fresh is best)
½ can whole tomatoes, hand crushed
3 bay leaves
12 oz andouille sausage (substitutions can be made, or sausage
omitted and replaced with more seafood)
More seafood!

For the roux:

3 sticks butter
1 cup flour

Rice

Hot sauce

Instructions:

Remove shells and head from shrimp. Throw the shells in a pot
with one to two quarts of water. Boil for 30 minutes, then
strain the liquid and reserve. You will use the shrimp stock
later.

Melt butter in a large pot, a Dutch oven is great. This is where
everything will eventually congregate. Then slowly whisk in the
flour. Allow butter to cook with flour, stirring often until the
butter begins to slightly brown. It will smell nutty. Do not burn
the roux! It will be the color of peanut butter. Keep
warm.

In a separate sauté pan (cast iron preferred) on high heat,
add some butter or oil. Add chopped onion, pepper, and celery.
Allow it to slightly brown, then sauté until tender and stir. Throw
it in the pot with the butter roux. In the empty sauté pan, add
andouille sausage and brown. Then add sausage to roux pot.

Turn the pot onto medium heat, slowly add about 1½ quarts of
shrimp stock. You want to make sure you add the proper amount
of stock so it is slightly thick, so eye it as you pour. Then
add ½ can of hand crushed whole tomatoes (more if you like that
acidity), bay leaves, salt and pepper, and cayenne to taste. Then
on low heat, cook for an hour or so until everything (except
seafood) really gets to know each other in that pot. 

Take a pause and say an hour long prayer to the sea and to New
Orleans for granting you this delicious meal. (Also say a prayer
that all our jobs will soon return and people still buy art.)

Finally, throw in the seafood, cook until cooked
through. At this point, we recommend you turn off the heat,
let it sit for an hour. (Time to enjoy a delicious HURRICANE.) Then
reheat when ready to eat. Serve with rice and that delicious
Louisiana hot sauce.

PLAN B: ULTIMATE QUARANTINE EDITION

Replace all seafood with RATS! Catch a rat by baiting live trap
with slice of pizza. Instead of putting rat in at the end of the
gumbo, throw it in earlier with all other ingredients, and let it
braise for HOURS—like hours and hours. Replace all fresh vegetables
with whatever canned veggies you salvaged from your dead neighbor’s
cupboard. Add lots and lots and LOTS of hot sauce, more tomatoes,
more bay leaves, more peppers. Say a prayer that you will survive
the apocalypse.

PLAN C:

Take what ingredients you might have to the middle of the woods.
Set up camp. You will likely die. GOOD LUCK.

Paola Pivi, Aosta, Italy

In addition to her fanciful feathered polar bears,
Paola Pivi has also made many artworks of and with food, including
an early work, Pizza (1998), in
which she attempted to cook the largest pizza pie she could. (It
measured 91 inches across.)

“Every day”

Stack five KitKat bars on top of each other in front of you.

Preferably enjoy also with exciting TV program.

Gina Beavers, Newark

Gina Beavers’s 3-D paintings,
based on images she finds online, often depict food, from slabs of
raw meat to colorful soft-serve ice cream. 

I don’t cook, I really don’t. I do have a few
tried-and-true recipes for
potlucks but even those don’t require cooking!

Our go-to plan as this became real has been tons of snacks, like
just grazing on dips and spreads all day and then a more real
dinner, which usually is just warmed up pre-prepared stuff, usually
from Trader Joes.

Speaking of, we have a car, so we were able to drive to the TJs
in Millburn, New Jersey. Anyone in the city who has a car, highly
recommend checking out your suburban Trader Joes that are fully
stocked and only allowing like 20 people in at a time, it was the
most relaxed, spacious TJs shopping experience ever!

So, my recipes! These are both
no-bake and crowd pleasers, they should last a couple meals and all
of the ingredients are available at conventional supermarkets, like
a Key Food, C-Town, or Shop-Rite. One is my mom’s taco
salad recipe (sweet and salty!),
and the other is a classic Southern peanut butter pie from the time
my parents spent living in South Carolina a decade ago.

“Mailyn’s Taco Salad”

Ingredients:

head of iceberg lettuce
large tomato
12 oz. pack of shredded cheese (cheddar/Jack or the Mexican pack
made for tacos)
ground beef, turkey, or veggie substitute
1 pack of taco seasoning mix
I big bag of Doritos
bottle of Catalina dressing

Instructions:

Cook the ground meat or veggie meat with the taco seasoning
according to the directions on the packet.

Dice the tomato, wash and tear the lettuce, and crush the
Doritos into small pieces.

Let the meat (or substitute) cool somewhat.

Combine lettuce, tomato, Doritos, ground meat, and cheese.

Toss with dressing, I usually use a whole bottle.

Mix well and serve!

“Classic No-Bake Peanut Butter Pie”

Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup powdered sugar
3 oz cream cheese
8 oz frozen topping (cool whip in a tub)
1 store-bought graham cracker crust in pie tin

Instructions:

Cream ⅔ cup of peanut butter, all the cream cheese and ⅓ cup of
powdered sugar.

Spread mixture evenly over crust.

Spoon frozen topping over the peanut butter layer

Mix ⅓ cup of peanut butter and ⅔ cup of powdered sugar to make
crumbles.

Sprinkle crumbles evenly over frozen topping and the pie is
ready to serve!

Janine Antoni, New York

Janine Antoni’s 1993 piece Lick and Lather saw the artist
create 14 identical self portrait busts, half from chocolate and
half from soap. She then softened the features of each figure by
licking the chocolate and washing the soap. 

I made the call on Monday to move my whole studio to my home,
where my assistants would be able to walk and avoid the subway.
Relocated, we sat in my garden, putting final touches on a
sculpture. We stood in my kitchen, stewing chicken and slow-cooked
pulled pork. For a witchy potion, I dropped some garlic cloves in
my honey (to give my tea a boost).

Kader Attia

Kader Attia often uses couscous, a grain common in North
African diets, in his sculpture. The French-Algerian artist also opened
La Colonie, an art space
and restaurant, in Paris in 2016.

I decided to definitely stay home on Sunday, March 15.
Since then, I have tried to get as many vegetables as possible, to
stay healthy and help me and my family’s immune system. One of my
favorite recipes, which my mother taught me, is something very
simple and very healthy:

In a large salad bowl, mix together a lot of spinach leaves,
rice, chicken, garlic, onions, salt and pepper, and turmeric.

(Turmeric and black pepper each have health benefits, due to the
compounds curcumin and piperine. As piperine enhances curcumin
absorption in the body by up to 2,000 percent, combining the spices
magnifies their effects. They may reduce inflammation and improve
digestion, particularly in supplement form.)

Put the preparation in a steam cooker.

Wait until the rice is cooked (it has to remain a little bit
firm).

Add olive oil when it’s cold.

Eat.

Mary Kelly, Los Angeles

In her 1974 work Post-Partum Document:
Documentation I Analysed Fecal Stains and Feeding Charts, Mary
Kelly documented her infant son’s feeding schedule.

Soup, soup, and more soup. I find this to be the most comforting
kind of food in any crisis. I make generic French vegetable soup
often, just puréed mirepoix and good stock, or Italian spinach and
Arborio rice with broth and sautéed onions.

Then there are special soups like Alice Water’s chicken noodle—a
curative libation from the gods—or Thomas Keller’s lentil and sweet
potato—difficult, but worth it. And there’s my personal favorite,
celery root vichyssoise. This is how I make it. Live in the moment.
Keep well.

“Celery Root Vichyssoise”

Ingredients:

1 medium-sized celery root, peeled and chopped
1 small potato, chopped
1 leek, chopped
½ brown onion, chopped
1 glove garlic, chopped
1 stalk celery with leaves, chopped
Approximately 4 cups chicken stock
Squeeze of lemon
Pinch of salt and a lot of black pepper

Instructions:

Sauté onions, leek, garlic and celery. Add celery root and
potato, cover with stock and a squeeze of lemon. Simmer till soft
and purée. Serve with swirl of cream and parsley garnish.

Gabriel
Rico, Guadalajara

Gabriel Rico makes strange, surreal ceramics, sometimes
featuring tubular sausages, raw steaks, and other
foodstuffs. 

Lentil soup is very easy to prepare and it is a food that I
always ate at my parents’ house. Sometimes they added bacon or
chorizo. Personally, I like to add banana and epazote, a native
plant from Mexico. You can substitute basil and complete with baked
bread.

I found this recipe on the
internet which is very similar to the one we prepared at home.

Rirkrit Tiravanija, Chiang
Mai, Thailand

Rirkrit Tiravanija often creates art installations that
revolve around cooking and sharing meals, turning galleries into
impromptu restaurants since the early 1990s. He opened a hybrid
restaurant/gallery, Unclebrother, in
Hancock, New York, with his dealer Gavin Brown in 2015.

I was introduced to this drink through Anette Aurell’s guru, Dr.
Jubb, who at the time had a small health shop, Jubb’s Longevity, on
East 12th Street [in New York].

Dr. Jubb is a breatharian, meaning he just survives on the
breath, or as he says “going without.”

The lemonade is a drink one could have continuously as
sustenance—but use a straw, as the citric acid does wear your
enamel thin. I drink it as a part of my 14-day detox (and 14-day
self-quarantine ), so a complete two-week diet just on lemonade and
homemade vegetable juices. I like the minimalism of how one could
sustain on very minimal cooking and production.

The vitamins from the lemon should fortify one for all the
attacks from the virus. The turmeric is very medicinal could be
good for inflammation, it’s also a good antioxidant and helps with
depression, the brain, and many many qualities.

The cayenne can boost metabolism, reduce hunger, lower blood
pressure, and aid digestive health.

The coconut oil can encourage the body to burn fat and provide
energy for body and brain. It also has good HDL (cholesterol in the
blood good for the heart), and may have antimicrobial effects which
can kill harmful pathogens, such as bacteria, viruses, and
fungi.

“Electrolyte Lemonade”

Ingredients:

3 lemons
1 pear (preferably the Bartlett, or the Williams)
5 tbsp coconut oil (cold press and organic would be best)
4 tbsp raw honey
1 tsp Celtic sea salt
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cayenne chili
3 cups water (I use Fiji water)

Instructions:

Combine using a very powerful blender; I use a Vitamix
blender.

PS: You can charge the water with electrolyte, hence the
electrolyte in the recipe.

The post Famous Artists Share 10 Recipes for the
Creative—and Delicious—Dishes That Are Getting Them Through
Lockdown appeared first on artnet News.