Cat and I have spent the last week putting the finishing touches on the cookbook that we are publishing as part of our DA4GA project called “Eat Less, Live More and Pray for Beans.” The file is in the hands of the printer (Ditto Press in London). We were excited to take advantage of Ditto Press’ 2-color risograph printer. What follows is a sneak preview of a few sections of the publication. In all of the images below, the orange is actually a neon ink and will show up very differently on the book than on these design proofs.
Our thinking and writing during this project was highly influenced by the book Meals to Come by Warren Belasco. Here is one infographic from our cookbook that draws on his analysis of 200 years of Anglo-American food futurism.
Early on in our research we spent of time looking for interesting stories from the many data sets about global and Dutch food. Here are some infographics of trends and changes that caught our eye.
(click for a larger version or download the .pdf)
On the right-hand side is a short essay from the book called “Calling All Beta-Tasters and Gastronauts: This is Your Opportunity to Dive Into the Future Mouth-First.” To develop the recipes we worked with repeat collaborates Heather K. Julius and Scott Heimendinger. Both culinary creatives responded with some amazing recipes which we reveal on June 7th.
When we spoke to Tiny van Boekel at Wageningen University we were quite amazed to hear about “MeatLess” a lupine-flour based product that can be used to make meat that is 80% meat and 20% non-meat. This conversation inspired our “Meat Map” so we could figure out where to put semi-meats on the spectrum.
((click for a larger version or download the .pdf)
And finally, in the process of writing this cook book, we came to realize that we are always on the look out for unexpected ingredients. Now we have one more to add to the list: Maisantozwammen a mushroom grown on transgenic corn.
We hope you are able to visit the exhibit at Naturalis in the latter half of 2012. If you want a copy of the cookbook you can visit the Naturalis museum in Leiden, the Netherlands, where it will be on sale in the bookstore starting June 7th. It will also be available on their online bookstore (http://www.natuurenboek.nl/) starting June 7th. (They ship internationally.) Or you can email us directly at info at genomicgastronomy dot com