collecting memories
I started working on SCRAPBOOK in December 2020. I wanted to collect food-related documents from during quarantine because I saw that other people in the food industry had been keeping track of time in the same way I was. Some of them were keeping a journal of meals they had made during quarantine, some were making and delivering food to people, and lots of people were supporting restaurants by ordering take-out. I wanted to have an archive to show these patterns of behavior; our shared humanity while we were separated. I emailed some friends in the food industry, and then decided to open up the call for submissions to people on Instagram. The collection phase lasted 5 months, from December 2020-April 2021, during which I received submissions from chefs I admire, strangers with whom I’ve since become friends, and close friends as well. I worked with my friend Alex Arzt who runs the printing press A Magic Mountain Press in Oakland, CA. We had monthly video calls to figure out what the book would look like and how we’d organize it. My friend Mars Rojas helped with the book design, and then after a little over a year of work, Alex began printing the books in February 2022. The book is now available to order here and at a few bookstores in LA and one in NYC (I’ve listed the stockists at the bottom of this page).
On April 2nd, 2022 I celebrated the release of SCRAPBOOK! It was special to me to be able to celebrate this project in person exactly two years since the pandemic began, in the same space I’d last hosted my last party.
I made green olive and rosemary focaccia, cashew herb dip with spring crudites from the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market. Sunny donated some of their delicious tahini dip, and Michelle Boulos of No Good Cakes made an incredible vegan rosewater and passionfruit cake.
All photos were taken by Lauren Tom
On April 2nd, 2022 I celebrated the release of SCRAPBOOK! It was special to me to be able to celebrate this project in person exactly two years since the pandemic began, in the same space I’d last hosted my last party.
I made green olive and rosemary focaccia, cashew herb dip with spring crudites from the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market. Sunny donated some of their delicious tahini dip, and Michelle Boulos of No Good Cakes made an incredible vegan rosewater and passionfruit cake.
All photos were taken by Lauren Tom
Vegan rosewater cake with passionfruit curd, rosewater buttercream and passionfruit jelly made by No Good Cakes
The books! The mixture of pieces I collected for the book are organized in semi-chronological order to tell the story of how we lived through quarantine in LA with food as the thread.
Stockists:
Arcana
Printed Matter
Omnivore Books
Del Vaz Projects
Oooga Booga
Email me here︎︎︎ if you’d like to stock SCRAPBOOK.
