Searing Red Dust (The Vanishing Huy Fong Foods Cookbook), 2014
Unique cookbook of unfixed Inkodye prints within clamshell box.
[Judge Robert] O’Brien acknowledged in his ruling that there was a ‘lack of credible evidence’ that health problems have resulted from the odor, as residents claim, but said that the smell seemed to be ‘extremely annoying, irritating and offensive to the senses warranting consideration as a public nuisance.’ — Sriracha plant must cease operations that cause odors, judge rules, Frank Shyong, LA Times, November 26th, 2013.
Realized for LA Heat at the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles, this one-off cookbook contains Sriracha-inspired recipes contributed by Angeleno chefs. The enclosed, looseleaf recipes were printed with a UV light-sensitive ink and left unfixed, meaning that every time a reader opened the box to view the recipes, the prints continued to expose and darken. Readers were encouraged to transcribe or photograph the recipes as they were only viewable, on site, for the duration of the exhibition. Over the four-month run of the show half of the pages were stolen and then replaced.
As the exhibition closed, the project was adapted for the third issue of VIA, a now defunct arts and culture magazine based in LA.
Recipe contributions by Matthew Biancaniello (Eat Your Drink), Kuniko Yagi (Hinoki & the Bird), Jack Benchakul (Cognoscenti Coffee), Wes Avila (Guerrilla Tacos), Randy Clemens (The Sriracha Cookbook), and Natasha Case & Freya Estreller (Coolhaus). Project sponsorship by Lumi.