Even before I left for Antarctica I was considering what my response to the bottom of the world would be and how I might tell the story. Recipes were one way, I thought, but from my journals I can see I continued searching for a medium.
Soon after I arrived home I abandoned the idea of adding a chapter to the mixed media piece I’d been working on. Dancing in a Northern Kitchen (2003) was no place for Antarctic recipes and I knew there was more to tell even if I hadn’t yet grasped the full scope.
The work that first emerged (and the vernissage Sasha asked about) was an installation that grew out of insights gained through journal-keeping. Best described as fragments that hover between abstraction and representation, inscribed with lace-like text, Antarctic Chronicles (1998) is an exploration of the role language plays in coding memory. Illuminated by candles, the collection is a meditation on the fragility of the environment and the fragility of memory.
Food has always been a means to an end, supporting my art. Since art college I’d also nurtured an idea to make an outdoor oven to explore connections between art, bread and dance. Bread Breaking Boundaries (2000) came to fruition when I embraced the spirit of a Canada House dinner party and brought a community together through the simple act of baking bread.
In 2010, I finally found a place for the Letters Never Sent to Peter Gzowski in a project that examines the essence of letter writing. Part art installation, part performance and part travelling archive, Voices at Hand houses nearly 4,000 letters spanning 225 years.
My constant companion south of 60°, my journals were only intended for my eyes. It took me years to overcome my self-consciousness and open them. Our bookmaking journey helped me understand that the only way to serve the raw beauty of the experience and tell the story Carol and I most wanted to tell was to let memories closed in my heart have a life of their own. At the core we wrote this book to help our children understand that whether we are taking care of each other or taking care of the land, small gestures matter.
These days my cleanup projects are centred on my 100-year-old home, and picking up litter on walks to and from school with my son. His idea. In the midst of spring cleaning I rely on lessons we learned on King George Island—don’t get overwhelmed, do a little at a time, and why not start with the basement. There is wisdom to be gleaned from sound housekeeping practices.
ANT/ARCTIC
Carol
SEPTEMBER 7, 2013
Antarctica is our memory.
—Laurence de la Ferrière, explorer and mountaineer. The first person and first woman to cross Antarctica (2000)
I’m flying over Baffin Bay in the Northern Atlantic Ocean. I’m en route to an Arctic health conference in Greenland. The midnight water below between these massive islands looks cold. Suddenly there is a bright white-blue dot in the ocean. It’s a huge iceberg, floating from Greenland to Labrador, Canada where others might see it. The berg makes me smile.
I think of the first iceberg I saw, that aquamarine beauty floating one diamond clear Antarctic morning. I recall one night when I ran up the icy hill at Bellingshausen to see Vadim at the aerology hut. He spread the huge ivory balloon on a table and deftly fit the neck over the gas outlet nozzle. Vadim sent the balloon up, the razor wind carrying it into the clouds where the sun still refused to set. This was only one of millions of scientific inquiries to better understand our planet, our home and ourselves.
In the Antarctic I became more aware I live in a polar region. Climate has always shifted but glaciers melt faster than all predictions. We face health and wellbeing consequences, especially in lower-latitude and coastal areas from Greenland to Bangladesh.
Climate researcher Natuk Lund Olsen tells us that food is health, culture, identity and memory, “A Greenlander who has not eaten traditional Greenlandic food for a while experiences ‘a kind of insatiable hunger for just this taste.’”
Inuit leaders urge for respect for their rights as stewards of the land, for negotiating power and for sustainable development. Spring, or Upingarqsaaq (Traveling to the Floe Edge) arrives earlier in Nunavut. Families fish by boat when previously they hunted from the ice floe.
We don’t know yet who will most benefit from a summer ice-free Arctic and the resultant land and resource claims but development must be healthy and equitable. Northerners echoed Antarctic scientist’s survival advice: collaborate, be alert for changing weather and don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
When I think of Antarctica I recall recent images from a cleanup of abandoned materials at Distant Early Warning sites in the Arctic during the cold war. The rows of barrels filled with debris reminded me of the Bellingshausen garbage, collected by people who hadn’t left the mess. We’ve run out of places for garbage.
In Antarctica, everything is stripped down. You have what you have and even less than that materially. It is only who you are and what you do that counts. Wendy jokes that her recipes constitute the 1,000 mile diet, but in fact her cooking at Bellingshausen reflected doing the best with what you have. Our expedition’s hardships on King George Island were few but our opportunities to see humanity at its best were many—from the bottom, looking up.
RECIPE INDEX
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79Pitch-and-Toss-Cookery
Hot and Cold Drinks
55Caipirinha (Brazil)
87Mulled Wine
57Pisco Sour (Chile)
109Spiced Tea (Russian Tea)
Snacks and Starters
179Asparagus Pâté
215Chicken Teriyaki Bouchées
114Fisherman’s Fish
85Roasted Garlic in Herbed Oil
125White Bean and Roasted Garlic Pâté
217Zucchini Toasts with Tapenade
Soups
182Minestrone Soup
89Rosemary Maple Borscht
145Stoney Bay Chowder
127White Bean and Roasted Garlic Soup
Salads
121King George Island Salad (Vinaigrette)
117Roasted Beet Salad (Russian Vinaigrette)
53Sea Cabbage (Laminaria) Salad
Breads
91Cinnamon Buns
59Cook’s Bread
95Fruit Nut Rings
81Honey Oatmeal Bread
217Zucchini Bread/Muffins
Mains and Sides
147All-In Pizza
153Baked Stuffed Onions
234Canada House Cazuela (Chile)
149Caramelized Onions
111Cheese Fondue
225Great Wall Dumplings (People’s Republic of China)
220Lena’s Cabbage Pie (Russia)
149Pissaladiére
187Pollo Relleno (Uruguay)
152Red Cabbage Confit
253Roast Leg of Pork
251Roasted Pepper Goulash with Smoked Paprika
151Rosemary-Crusted Lamb Ribs
229Ukrainian Cabbage Rolls (Ukraine)
Sweets, Cakes and Cookies
237Almond Biscotti with Anise Seed
223Chocolate and Cream
194Chocolate Cake Two Ways
175Chocolate Chip Cookies
191Cranberry Fool
155Custard with Fruit Compote
255Frozen Chocolate Cream
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We could not have done the project without the adventurous spirit, dedication and hard work of the VIEW Foundation volunteers and the support of Bellingshausen’s 1995–1996 staff, the Russian Antarctic Expedition and MEI. Merci beaucoup.
Special thanks to Sandy Nicholson for his steadfast support, tenacity and exquisite photography.
Thank you Patrick Shaw, Mickey and Marjorie Devine, Marguerite Hoffman and Tim Gale for the generous support that made this book possible.
We would also like to extend our sincere appreciation to: David Young, our editor, for his insight, clarity and champion
ing our project. The Office of Gilbert Li, designers Isabel Foo and Gilbert Li, for their brilliance, vision and endurance; Donna Bartolini our recipe editor, for sharing her cooking wisdom and encouragement and Nancy Payne for her copy editing and proof reading.
We are grateful to Charlotte Sheedy and Mackenzie Brady of Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency for believing in and representing our book.
Thank you Elizabeth Viscott Sullivan, Executive Editor at HarperCollins Publishers. We are thrilled about this new part of the journey.
Special recognition to the following individuals and institutions: Lena Nikolaeva, Dr. Valery Lukin, Victor Pomelov and Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI); R.K Headland, Heather Lane, Naomi Boneham, Lucy Martin and Dr. Paul Berkman of The Scott Polar Research Institute; Kevin Leaman, State Library of New South Wales; Mitchell Library; Lynn Lay, Byrd Polar Research Centre, Ohio State University; Soojin Creative; Stephanie Nolen; Karen Connelly; Anne-Marie Vallin-Charcot; National Library of Australia; In the Footsteps of Douglas Mawson Exhibition, South Australia Museum; Cris de Boos, Erskine Press; Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR); International Polar Year 2012; Association of Polar Early Career Scientists, and Polar Professionals.
Thank you to Lita Albuquerque, Sara Angel, Sam Blyth, Sarah Brohman, Barbara Chambers, Barbara Chisholm and Thomas Miller, Bryce Conacher, John Croom, Jean de Pomereu, Maj de Poorter, Michael Devine, Carmen Dunjko, Mark Epstein, Steve Falk, Molly Finlay, Kate Gammal, Ruth Gangbar, Susan Heinrich, Paul Jerinkitsch, Andrea Juan, David Kennedy-Cutler, Serge Kahn, Doug Laxdal, David Lightfoot, Cornelia Lüdecke, Doug McIntyre, Melanie Ostry, Bob Payne, Barb and David Russell, John Spletts, Sean Steven, Karen Tupek, Frank Viva and Tammy Yiu (OSC Cross) for their valued contributions, enthusiasm and in some cases taste testing. Thank you also to the many others, too numerous to mention, who shared ideas, loaned props or broke bread with us at post shoot feasts and more.
And finally, thank you to Mickey, Marge, Sasha and Veronica Devine, Meg and Garth Nicholson, Carol and Bill Trusler and Cameron and Finley Taylor for your faith and your love.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
CAROL DEVINE is a researcher, writer, activist, and humanitarian professional. She is strategic advisor to the Museum of AIDS that aims to open in 2017 in South Africa. She has also worked for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Rwanda, Southern Sudan, and East Timor and was MSF Canada’s Access to Essential Medicines Campaigner, fighting for accessible, effective, and affordable medicines for developing countries. Carol created the Antarctic civilian clean-up expedition on which this book is based. She lives in Toronto.
WENDY TRUSLER is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, writer, and food stylist. The expedition cook in Antarctica, she is the author and stylist of the forty-two recipes in this book. For more than twenty years she has balanced her work as a cook and artist, cooking and catering, styling food for film and television, and developing her art practice driven by ideas related to ecology, continuity, and regeneration. She lives with her husband, son, and Shackleton the cat in Peterborough, Canada.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
{Sandy Nicholson}
CREDITS
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With more than 130 full-color photographs
The Antarctic Book of Cooking and Cleaning: A Polar Journey Page 19
