<INGREDIENT> + 7
Lara Arditi
The idea that language uses syntax to organize pre-existing morsels of verbal expression to create sensibility is a notion that, when applied to cooking, becomes what is commonly known as a recipe.
When thinking of recipes, the expectation is for them to yield a palatable dish, but the true nature of cooking is more an accident guided by intuition. When given parameters of <INGREDIENTS>, <AUDIENCES>, <PURPOSES>, <SPACES> <PREPARATIONS>, <VESSELS>, <UTENSILS>, people are not necessarily concerned with selecting what is good or bad but manipulating these elements to create a means a discourse, a meal.
This principle is reflected through four books with a stripped-down nature that use the functional aesthetics of the spreadsheet. This serves as an homage to the original function of recipe books in Medieval times when records of food were kept to show the domestic histories of the wealthy and did not make its way into the kitchen until the 19th century.
This aligns with contemporary cookbooks which have taken image-heavy, aspirational roles, where they often remain on coffee tables, rarely appearing in kitchens.
This series of hand-sized, loose-bound, word-dominated, monochromatic books uses a constructed mathematical process for cooking, rather than a predetermined literary tract to free up space for conceptual thought as the basis for ideation in food.