The Anthropocene Cookbook

Included in Dezeen‘s top 11 architecture and design books of 2022


“By turns enlightening and profound, difficult and preposterous, Cerpina and Stenslie’s account is an impassioned call for ‘visionary thinking’ and dismantling food taboos. Climate-concerned cooks with an open mind will find much to chew on in this surprising culinary tour.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Cerpina and Stenslie don’t think humans should shy away from creative solutions to our food problems. To that end, they hope the book reaches as many eaters as possible, and fast. They began writing it six years ago, and since then, a host of catastrophes—COVID-19, massive forest fires, and wheat shortages caused by the war in Ukraine among them—have exacerbated their sense of urgency. But they remain optimistic. Even as things may seem to get worse, Cerpina says, “we are likely to thrive if our imagination is able to take the challenge.”
—Atlas Obscura

“If you are looking for solutions to the great problems of mankind, you will probably not expect them to be found in a cookbook. But that is exactly what The Anthropocene Cookbook wants: to provide answers to the question of how humans can deal with impending catastrophes such as food shortages and the loss of species.”
—DER SPIEGEL

“Cerpina and Stenslie’s anthology confronts the idea that the Anthropocene era — the time during which humans have had a substantial impact on the Earth’s environment — entails a radical reassessment of what we eat, and how…The Anthropocene Cookbook‘s chapters traverse topics such as alternative approaches to food security, new potentially edible ingredients and the culinary possibilities offered by the human body. Cerpina and Stenslie — who independently are both artists, curators and researchers — embarked on the book to try to provoke creative thinking about the existential challenges facing humanity.”
—Dezeen

“Authors Zane Cerpina and Stahl Stenslie present more than sixty thought-provoking and stomach-churning art projects, such as Evaristti’s spaghetti and meatballs. Using out-of-the-box thinking, their goal is to reimagine the future of food in a radical way in order to understand humanity’s future in the age of the Anthropocene.”
—Gastronomica