NO RECIPE:
​RELATING TO SELF AND WORLD THROUGH COOKING

This is a workshop about trusting your senses and developing your aesthetic through the medium of cooking. We will approach cooking as an intellectual and embodied practice through readings, discussion, and guided improvisational creation in your own kitchen. Some questions we’ll explore include: What is “authentic” cuisine and what is “strange”? What are the kinks of your individual palate? How does cooking for others strain capitalist modes of exchange? Where do art, spirituality, and chores overlap?

Each session will focus on a theme: Play (improvisation, the kitchen as artist studio), Nostalgia (flavors from childhood; food that evokes memories), Obscenity (the erotics of cooking; taboo food, taboo pleasure), Responsibility (cooking as an agricultural act), and Gift (channeling the cooking toward a person; the ties of the gift economy). The themes will be paired with select readings from Tamar Adler, Edward Espe Brown, Rebecca May Johnson, Wendell Berry, and Robin Wall Kimmerer to provoke discussion and imagination.

To conclude the course, each student will submit an original recipe with a headnote that will be compiled into a zine to share with the class.
Wednesdays, 7-9 PM EST (4-6 PM PST)
​Online on Zoom
120 minute sessions, 5 weeks
February 4th- March 4th, 2026
$125 - $375 Tuition
Select scholarships and solidarity rate discounts available upon request.

INSTRUCTORS

Kate Ray is a Hudson Valley based chef and writer, who explores baking as a site for radical imagination through local regenerative ingredients. She transitioned to culinary after 10 years as a programmer and creative technologist, worked at Dominique Ansel and Dirt Candy, and taught a kids’ cooking program at Hudson Table. She loves to play with her food, and has produced installations for the Center for Photography at Woodstock’s FEAST (Fostering Eco-centric Art & Science Together), published an art cookbook with AI artist Helena Sarin, and created a mushroom dinner-concert with flutist Annie Wu. She has always considered her work to be multi-disciplinary and loves to help others expand what they view as creative work. Follow her work through her newsletter Ray Bake or on Instagram @kraykray.
Image credit: James Huang (jameshuangphoto.com)