Food can be one of the great pleasures of life. Artists have celebrated food and drink, sometimes documenting works and sometimes using food as a metaphor. All forms of art in the Museum’s collection served as inspiration for staff cooks this year in the series Cooking with the Collection.
Here are 10 food recipes and related collection items to try out at home and explore:
Collection Inspired Recipes
When you have a sweet tooth, this Strawberry Buttercream recipe will certainly satisfy it. Inspired by Claes Oldenburg’s Inverted Q sculpture, the icing might even resemble the sculpture when presented on cupcakes.
If fish is on the menu, try this Cod and Okra meal inspired by Cod, an oil on canvas painting by William Merrit Chase.
This dish was popular during WWII in the Japanese Internment Camps. This Weenie Royale recipe inspired by the Japanese Children’s Day Carp Banners, Paguate Village by Patrick Nagatani makes for a unique breakfast dish.
This Herb Soup recipe, inspired by Le Modele by Pablo Picasso, will make you feel as if you’re in the South of France.
Inspired by Robert Motherwell’s screenprint on paper titled No. 2 from Africa Series, this abstract Chocolate Mousse is a recipe all chocolate lovers will enjoy.
Check out these Burger Buns and Pizza recipes inspired by Flying Pizza and other works by Claes Oldenburg.
Food-Related Collection Items
Food City – This work by Photorealist painter Richard Estes depicts a bustling and jam-packed grocery store. Beauty aids, candy, evaporated milk, and canned fruit are some of the items that can be found at Food City.
Serial – This serial image by John Sokol features popular cereal such as Cheerios, Trix, Wheaties, Frosty O’s, and Cocoa Puffs. This work is a “pun on ‘cereal’ and ‘serial’- [the fronts of actual] cereal boxes lined up to form a serial image.”
The Dirty Dozen – These ceramic frosted chocolate cupcakes by Kristen Cliffel look good from far away, but up close viewers are confronted with some serious questions.
Cooking with the Collection is made possible with support from Acme Fresh Market, the Henry V. and Frances W. Christenson Foundation, and the Samuel Reese Willis Foundation.
