What does it mean to gather at a time when a pandemic has postponed so many gatherings?

The autumn 2020 issue of C Magazine asks what the word gather means as its very core, ”not just for us humans, but all of ‘us’—stones, gravestones, Prairie grass, comets, seeds, travelling envelopes, berries, buried jugs of water, frozen pixels, iridescent sheets of acetate, bees—who comprise the many concentric circles of our shared world.”

How might collections of recipes—including ones penned by artists—serve as venues for communication, ways to gather? How do recipes connect people, plants, and places, both near and afar?

For C Magazine’s “Gather” issue, I am thrilled to have contributed the essay “Cooking the Books: Recipes by Artists.” Read more about the issue here, and the editorial here.