The Prep Kitchen/Holding Back the Appetite

The Prep Kitchen

A durational performance of sorts, a presentation of production, a means for tracking the development of a discreet food object and the concentration of flavors. Also: A means for critiquing "Food Performance".

In retrospect the above statement is true only in looking at the full 25 hours spent at Race Brook Lodge for A la Fortune du pot, organized by Kalika Farmer, as a single performative event.

From unpacking the car, competing for facilities, heating, roasting, cleaning, roasting, straining, reheating, sharing the mid-cook, straining, straining, straining, presenting the leavings to an absent audience, reducing, straining x 5, cooling, packing up and driving away.

Holding Back The Appetite; A Suite of Discreet Food Objects

For the occasion of the release of D. Graham Burnett's The Sounding of the Whale Burnett requested a suite of whale related foods...

On the Whalers Deck: Ossabaw Pork Belly (cured, confited and fried), anise, white cardamom and Ricard caramel, whole crustacean jelly (lobster, blue crab, head-on shrimp with duck/pork gelatin)

The Whale Market: Carpaccio of Elk tenderloin, 3 jojoba and olive oil scents: The Sea, Scandinavian Spice, Other Whale Hunting Cultures

Fudgie the Whale Split Down His Seam: Butterflied whole Surryano Ham

(images to come)

UPDATE

Work has progressed on what is now called A Market. Two events have been held at the Watermill Center in the Hamptons bringing farmers and community members together to "think tank" the project to assure its usefulness to those whose participation it seeks. The project now has three parts with a 4th on the horizon.
The Market: a farmer organized market place dispersed through the Watermill Center's site and schedule
The Smokehouse(s): a group of 5 smokehouses in Sullivan County, NY free for use
The Bunker: A concrete structure set below the freeze-line at the Poor farm in rural Wisconsin where Kimchi and Miso paste will ferment, pickles and charcutterie will age and be stored to be made useful by groups involved in the project.

Through the developments around A Market a re-invigorated painting practice has cropped up. A Market will both provide source material for structuring paintings and allow for painting to escape the need to "re-perform modernism" or be defined in any critical capacity.

Back in December I worked with Thor Audio and Spiral Groove in presenting A Stereo as part of Arcadian Night, a night of performance and video at the Raceback Lodge in the Berkshires. The show was curated by Andrea Hill and Kalika Farmer. I built custom furniture for a collection of amazing stereo equipment and spent the night listening to my record collection, guests of the show were free to listen along. The show provided an opportunity for Thor Audio to meet with and educate an audience totally foreign to what they do and how extreme an experience a stereo can provide.

This past weekend, July 16th, 2011, I sat-in as guest chef at Mildred's Lane with the dinner A History of Foie Gras and it's Ethics. The dinner featured an all duck menu and a lively discussion of the ethics, issues and history of foie gras.

Work began on what will be a project that develops over several years at the Poor Farm in Wisconsin.
The Bunker will house pickles, seeds and will have pits for fermenting Kimchi and Miso. Farmers, local to the Poor Farm, will grow many of materials needed for production and pickles will come from Art and sustainable farming throughout the country.
The bunker will be outfitted to sustain most forms of calamitous event, natural or not, and in producing the structure and stocking it's shelves will Bunker will function as a site among a network of sites for gathering and sharing information.

see an album from the first phase of the Bunker's development by following the link below

Bunker Phase 1: Kimchi

"summer school" was in attendance the week leading up to the opening of the Poor Farm this summer and participation from them was key to getting the 10' hole dug. Phase 1 was completed by burying 5 gallons of Kimchi in the hole to ferment for the next year. At 10' the Kimchi is resting within the area that will form the entry to the Bunker when completed.

Next summer Phase 2 will commence with the exhumation of the Kimchi and the trench for the Bunker. Stew and pancakes will be made to feed those involved.

If you would like to develop a pickle for the Bunker please feel free to contact me

Post Katrina New Orleans Cuisine: Take One!

Unsustainable2: Tuna

Unsustainable2: Tuna

images (suburban)