How can one open the door to a stranger, how can one have the trust to enter? In spite of the fear of the moment, chance and a belief in the decency of people is the alchemical stew in which a cookbook emerges.
The Limerick Cookbook, Social Recipes and Alchemical Attempts developed from a performance art project made in Limerick Ireland for the ev+a Irish Biennial in 2006. Jennifer Nelson and Dimitri Kotsaras traveled the city randomly by drawing pieces from a torn city map. Carrying grocery bags they rang doorbells to ask if they could cook dinner for people on the spot in their own homes. Hundreds of people said no, but 9 families let them in to the intimate space of their kitchens. The recipes that these chance encounters permitted were culinary and social. The book is both a cookbook and a journal of the journey. It is a document of the changing demographics in Limerick and the strategy for cutting across boundaries of class and ethnicity by sharing a meal together. Primarily it is a document of trust.
An edition of 500 hardcover color copies was published in 2008.