apéritif

Three Milks: Alive, Dead & Resurrected

tasting flight

A Selection of Five Sugars

amuse bouche

Invisible Root Vegetable Stew with Waxworm Roux on Waxworm Fritter

Imposter Lumpia “Wax Moth” atop a Honey-Chile Sauce

Immaculate Waxworm Soft Shell Taco with Chile Marrón

main

Producer Seaweed Salad

Primary Consumer Boiled Shrimp Tossed in an Old Bay Blend

Secondary Consumer Pan-Fried Catfish

Secondary Consumer Seared Lemon-Pepper Pike

Tertiary Consumer Blackened Alligator in a Citrus Honey Sauce

digestif

Frackfluid & Baileys

dessert Lemon Curd, Avacado & Sour Cream Tartlet Served with a Miracle Berry The Center for Genomic Gastronomy is an independent research institute that explores the genomes and bio- technologies that make up the human food systems on planet earth. Our mission is to map food controversies, prototype alternative culinary futures, and imagine a more sustainable, just, biodiverse and beautiful food system. The Center its research through public lectures, publications, Planetary Sculpture Supper Club meals and exhibitions. We have collaborated with scientists, chefs, hackers and activists in North America, Europe and Asia. The Center for Genomic Gastronomy genomicgastronomy.com in collaboration with The Center for PostNatural History & PostNatural Art Studio, Carnegie Mellon University

The Center for PostNatural History is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge relating to the complex interplay between culture, nature and biotechnology. The PostNatural refers to living organisms that have been altered through processes such as selective breeding or genetic engineering. The mission of the Center for PostNatural History is to acquire, interpret and provide access to a collection of living, preserved and documented organisms of postnatural origin. postnatural.org

March 28, 2013 - Center for PostNatural History - 4913 Penn Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15224, Earth A Word on Planetary Sculpture eaters as agents of selection

The Planetary Sculpture Supper Club is a collection of foods, recipes and stories that typify some of the ways humans unconsciously sculpt the planet’s biosphere through eating habits, flavour preferences and food technologies. We hope this semi-regular Supper Club is an opportunity to explore the co-evolution of gastronomy and larger ecological, technological and political systems.

Animal and plant breeders have steered evolution for thousands of years. However, eaters and chefs ALSO exert selection pressures on the kinds of life forms and ingredients that are propagated within the eco-agro-culinary system. Every human eater slowly reformulates the planet as they consume it.

The daily choice we make about what to eat for dinner, whether it’s a Big Mac meal or a homegrown salad, impacts the diversity, abundance and distribution of life on the planet. Every time a food-secure eater chooses to eat one kind of food over another they make a small, downstream, but not insignificant selection pressure that privileges certain genomes to propagate on the planet. You, as an eater, are an agent of selection.

With a dramatic increase in the human population over the last century, and an increasing amount of land and planetary biomass dedicated to the human food system, human eaters are some of the most powerful forces of planetary sculpture.

WITHIN OUR GLOBAL CIVILIZATION AND GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEM, EATERS ARE AGENTS OF SELECTION. THE GENES, GENOMES AND INGREDIENTS THAT ARE PROPAGATED ARE THE ONES YOU PREFER TO EAT.

Center for Genomic Gastronomy apéritif *common bacteria and yeasts known to comprise kefir grains Three Milks BACTERIA alive, dead & resurrected SPECIES LACTOBACILLUS Lb. acidophilus Lb. brevis [Possibly now Lb. kefiri] Lb. casei subsp. casei Lb. casei subsp. rhamnosus Lb. paracasei subsp. paracasei Lb. fermentum For this aperitif course, we present to you a tasting of milk in alive Lb. cellobiosus Lb. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus three distinct forms—raw without any processing as it comes WHOLE RAW COW’S MILK Lb. delbrueckii subsp. lactis from the cow, lifeless and reconstituted from freeze dried Sourced from Swiss Villa, Wrightsville, PA Lb. fructivorans Lb. helveticus subsp. lactis powder, and dead milk resurrected with kefir grains of bacteria Labeled as 100% grass fed, no grain, no Lb. hilgardii Lb. helveticus and yeasts. Milk is at the center of many cultural narratives and soy, no corn Lb. kefiri Lb. kefiranofaciens subsp. kefirgranum myths, ideological arguments, commercial interests, scientific Lb. kefiranofaciens subsp. kefiranofaciens “Raw Milk is known to contain harmful Lb. parakefiri debates, and health fads. Who would have thought milk to be Lb. plantarum bacteria and may cause food borne illness. so complicated? SPECIES STREPTOCOCCUS These bacteria can seriously affect the St. thermophilus St. paracitrovorus The first two samplings speak for opposing agricultural and health of anyone who drinks raw milk, SPECIES LACTOCOCCUS economic systems. The raw milk represents the idyllic local however they are particularly dangerous to Lc. lactis subsp. lactis Lc. lactis subsp. lactis biovar. diacetylactis small farm with happy cows grazing in beautiful pastures, pregnant women, children, the elderly and Lc. lactis subsp. cremoris serving the needs of individuals’ gut microflora nearby. The people with weakened immune systems.” SPECIES ENTEROCOCCUS Ent. durans powdered milk comes to us from the industrial food complex - PA Department of Agriculture SPECIES LEUCONOSTOC with an abundance of ethical and environmental problems, Leuc. mesenteroides subsp. cremoris Leuc. mesent eroides subsp. mesenteroides yet it allows for long term storage and ease of transportation dead Leuc. dextranicum ACETOBACTER across large distances, especially useful in moments of crisis. RECONSTITUTED INSTANT Acetobacter aceti One nourishes the holistic body, the other addresses the NONFAT DRY MILK Acetobacter rasens logistics of feeding large populations. We offer the third Sourced from Shurfine®, YEASTS cup as a possibility for addressing both. Please taste and WesternFamily Foods, Inc. Dekkera anomala / Brettanomyces anomalus Kluyveromyces marxianus / Candida kefyr contemplate these worldviews. Labeled as rich in calcium, fortified Pichia fermentans / C. firmetaria Yarrowia lipolytica / C. lipolytica with vitamins A&D, no preservatives, Debaryomyces hansenii / C. famata Deb. [Schwanniomyces] occidentalis pasteurized, extra grade. Issatchenkia orientalis / C. krusei ingredients: nonfat dry milk, Galactomyces geotrichum / Geotrichum candidum Natalya Pinchuk and Dana Sperry C. friedrichii vitamin A palmitate, vitamin D3 C. rancens C. tenuis C. humilis C. inconspicua resurrected C. maris Cryptococcus humicolus SHURFINE® MILK KEFIR Kluyveromyces lactis var. lactis Shurfine instant nonfat dry milk and Kluyv. bulgaricus Kluyv. lodderae water cultured with kefir grains* Saccharomyces cerevisiae Sacc. subsp. torulopsis holmii Fermentation by-products: Sacc. pastorianus Sacc. humaticus carbon dioxide, ethanol (alcohol) Sacc. unisporus Sacc. exiguus Sacc. turicensis sp. nov Torulaspora delbrueckii Zygosaccharomyces rouxii tasting flight tasting flight

Tip of the Tongue a selection of five sugars

BITTER “What is in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” - William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

But what is sweetness? For most, the definition ends at “tastes like sugar,” but in truth the sensation is more complex. Each sweetness is not Equal. SOUR We present a course of five sugars and sugar substitutes in an attempt to expand the definition of sweetness. Through each sweetener’s history we highlight the improbability of its discovery, its unique flavor profile, and the unlikely role that the human tongue played in the development of sugar. SALT

NOTES ON TASTING

Most sweeteners were discovered on the tip of a scientist’s finger. As a reflection of this process, we invite you to taste each sugar from your fingertips. For the clearest tasting experience, reserve a finger for each sugar. Place the sugar on the tip of your tongue and allow it to move toward the SWEET back of your mouth. Cleanse the palate in between tastings TASTING MENU with sparkling water. Sucrose Cane Sugar

Saccharin Sweet & Low Max Hawkins & Melissa Bryan Aspartame Equal

Saccharin Splenda Tongue diagram adapted from: title: Taste buds.svg Stevia Truvia author: MesserWoland source: wikimedia amuse bouche amuse bouche

The Trinity of Entomophagy invisible : imposter : immaculate

We aim to persuade our dinner guests that: IMPOSTER: IT’S THE SAME AS OTHER FOODS THAT CRUNCH AND SQUISH The aversion to eating insects is psychological and can be Our second course (vegetarian lumpia) presents an artistic overcome through good experiences; Insect foods can (and wax moth facsimile that possesses some of the repulsive should) be delicious; insects are not an exotic ingredient; aspects of whole insects as food sources. Laying in a swirl of insects do not need to be prominent and visible as a part of chile-honey sauce, the moth’s body, a single lumpia, crunches your food. to reveal a soft center. But these are also natural aspects Taking inspration from the Catholic ideas of Transubstantiation of many accepted foods (tacos, lumpia, pastries, etc.) and and the Trinity, our dish focuses on the acknowledgement therefore can be overcome psychologically when approaching of our food source as once-living organism and aims to an insect as food. knock down a few insect-food myths. Through a playful (and RITUAL ASPECT: Thyme leaves in the honey to smudge genuinely respectful) ritualized consumption, we follow the onto the lumpia. To invite positive energy and for courage to Waxworm from its food source (honey) to what would have consume the third course! been its adulthood (the Wax Moth) through three tiny courses.

IMMACULATE THE INSECT REVEALED THROUGH ITS TAKE COMFORT IN COMFORT FOOD! INVISIBLE REMARKABLE LIFE CYCLE. TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT! YOU CAN’T SEE THE INSECTS The third course (waxworm tacos) challenges the dinner guest The first course (pot pie filling with waxworm roux on to overcome their fears or hesitations. With at least one good waxworm fritter) incorporates the insect less apparently, experience and a gentle confrontation with potential aversions demonstrating that insects do not have to be a visible out of the way, what lies ahead is one last delicious morsel very component of a meal to add to its flavor and/or nutritional obviously featuring waxworms. content. It also shows that Insects can be incorporated into very ordinary dishes and should not be exclusively a feature RITUAL ASPECT: Tulsi (Holy Basil) dried leaves to sprinkle of exotic cuisine. on the taco before consuming. To perform a blessing of enlightenment. RITUAL ASPECT: Anise Hyssop dried leaves to sprinkle on the fritter before consuming. To spiritually cleanse the space/food before eating begins. Rigel Richardson & Lazae LaSpina main main

Upstream a sampling of a southern aquatic food chain

This course presents a sampling of various organisms from an aquatic food chain of the southeastern plains and southern coastal plains ecoregions of the United States. We chose to E include a producer and three different types of consumers, preparing them in ways that reflect their regions of origin. The samples are plated in a circle, reflecting the cyclical nature of food chains and the transfer of energy throughout. We invite our diners to participate in not only the consuming of these organisms, but also the consideration of our own place within food chains and the ways we alter them for our own personal gain.

Allison Huey & Nathan Trevino

D A. Producer Undaria pinnatifida Seaweed Salad

B. Primary Consumer Litopenaeus setiferus Boiled shrimp tossed in an Old Bay blend C

C. Secondary Consumer Ictalurus furcatus Pan-fried catfish

D. B Secondary Consumer Esox niger Grilled lemon-pepper pike

E. A Tertiary Consumer Alligator mississippiensis Blackened alligator in a citrus honey sauce Illustration by Allison Huey cocktail dessert

Frackfluid & Baileys Miracle Berry exploring the murky layers change the eater, not the food of hydaulic fracking

The Fracktails water bar combines representations of the The last course of the evening highlights one area of emerging basic aspects of the hydraulic fracturing process with some research at the Center for Genomic Gastronomy: using novel small bit of human enrichment activity. The drink consists of ingredients to cook the eater and not the food. The use of various alcoholic beverages encased in ice. The ice is then the miracle berry (Synsepalum dulcificum) is an example of permeated with a small drilled hole and carbonated water is preparing food for consumption by manipulating the eater. pumped inside. The liquors represent the chemicals used in The miracle berry contains a glycoprotein called miraculin, the process, while the carbonated coffee represents the large that temporarily stimulates sweet taste receptors and masks amounts of water used. The syringe represents the pumping of sour-taste buds, causing the brain to have anomalous food the fluids into the underground drilled pipeline, to release the experiences. Once eaters are in an altered state of culinary gasses leaking from the shale fractures. The bubbles from the consciousness, specific meals can be prepared to cause delight carbonated water represent those natural gasses. And the ice and surprise. What other chemical, architectural, biological and structure that surrounds all this represents the contaminated psychological interventions can be identified or imagined for groundwater. The fracking process that the guests get to learn, human eaters, in order to modify taste? watch, and do is the human enrichment aspect of the project. Miraculin itself has a hotly contested history. The plant is indigenous to West Africa, where it is used to improve the Sarah Anderson & Jess Waldman palatability of acidic maize dishes and to sweeten sour beverages. The plant and uses for its fruit were documented by French explorer Chevalier des Marchais in 1725. A failed attempt was made in the 1970s to commercialize the fruit when the US FDA classified the berry as a food additive. It is unclear how lobbying by the U.S. sugar industry effected this decision, because the FDA has refused to release files on the subject. More recently, Japanese scientists have created a genetically stable expression of functional miraculin in transgenic tomato plants.

Natalya Pinchuk with The Center for Genomic Gastronomy Credits

This Planetary Sculpture Supper Club, Pittsburgh is presnted to you by:

The Center for Genomic Gastronomy The Center for PostNatural History Natalya Pinchuk and Dana Sperry

And all the students in the PostNatural Art Studio at Carnegie Mellon University:

Allison Huey Jess Waldman Lazae LaSpina Max Hawkins Melissa Bryan Nathan Trevino Rigel Richardson Sarah Anderson

Special thanks to Lauren for her patience as we bombarded her kitchen.

This work by the respective authors is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.