{"id":163509,"date":"2024-06-05T13:17:37","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T17:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=163509"},"modified":"2024-06-07T18:12:43","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T22:12:43","slug":"at-this-bates-baking-event-you-judge-a-book-by-its-edible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2024\/06\/05\/at-this-bates-baking-event-you-judge-a-book-by-its-edible\/","title":{"rendered":"Video: At this Bates baking event, you judge a book by its edible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As often happens when food and community blend together, the result is greater than its ingredients.  Such was the case at the third annual Edible Books Festival, held on the first floor of Ladd Library on April 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe baking was memorable, but coming together with everyone, trying everyone’s different creations and just seeing how everyone interprets different books was a great experience \u2014 a celebration overall,\u201d said Isabelle Job \u201924 of Wenham, Mass.<\/p>\n\n\n

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(Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

She and Jaden Witte-Schrock \u201924 of Niwot, Colo., were part of a student team that created a cake inspired by Chekov. \u201cI loved everyone coming together: staff, students, and professors,\u201d said Witte-Schrock. \u201cI really enjoyed that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of its name, the Edible Books Festival doesn\u2019t mince words: It invites the Bates community to bake and cook dishes that play off the title or theme of a well-known book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year’s event drew 11 entries. Cheryl Lacey, director of Bates Dining Services, has been a judge each year. \u201cThe creativity this year was off the charts, and there were some hilarious puns.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Perrin Lumbert, a library assistant for interlibrary loans in Ladd Library, won “best-tasting” for this homage to the novel The Mandarins<\/em> by Simone de Beauvoir: pineapple-orange cupcakes, topped with fresh mint, chocolate, and mandarin slices. “I found mandarins at the third store I went to, so I could actually be faithful to the pun,” said Lumbert. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here are three: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. \u201cLemony Crickets: A Series of Unfortunate Desserts,\u201d inspired by Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events<\/em>, created by festival organizer Hannah Dawkins, a library assistant in access services.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. \u201cA Pear for Owen Cremini,\u201d inspired by John Iriving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany<\/em>, created by Grey McGloon, also a library assistant in access services.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. \u201cTropical Can of Corn,\u201d inspired by Henry Miller’s Tropic of Capricorn<\/em>, created by Christine Murray, social science librarian. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    This year\u2019s festival drew students from three language courses, including a seminar course taught by Lecturer in Japanese Keiko Konoeda, who created a dish based on their work exploring topics in Japanese literature and food. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"The
    Using Milano cookies as gravestones, the staff of the Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library created this chocolate graveyard sheet cake as a tribute to Over My Dead Body<\/em>, about the hidden histories of American cemeteries. “Emma 1895” refers to the 1895 death of Emma Armstrong, a beloved local woman who died at age 28 after childbirth. She and her husband built and lived in what is now Frye Street Union. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Konoeda suggested that her students participate as a group activity, and that appealed to Ellie Asada \u201926, an economics major and Japanese minor from Honolulu. \u201cWe were reading poems and children’s books at the time, and this seemed like a perfect way to bond.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The class drew inspiration from a Japanese children\u2019s picture book based on a poem by Shuntaro Tanikawa, \u201cThey Have Died for Me,\u201d which the students translated into English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cThe book is a poem about how animals \u2014 beef, fish, and pigs \u2014 have died for us, becoming food on our plates,\u201d said Foy Ma \u201925 of Beijing, a double major in philosophy and mathematics with a Japanese minor. \u201cIt\u2019s a reminder to live gratefully.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    “The poem tells a universal message not specific to Japan,” Konoeda said. “But some may say the spirit of gratitude for the animals that give up their lives is culturally particular”: viewing humans and animals in life together, “unlike seeing humans having dominion over other creatures.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"The
    Lecturer in Japanese Keiko Konoeda (right) talks about the dish created by her students, based on a Japanese poem about being grateful to animals who become food. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    The dish imitated the dish on the cover of the picture book, including a hamburger patty (“a very common “Western food” dish in Japan,” said Konoeda), atop which the class used ketchup to draw a picture of a cow, plus fried eggs, salmon sushi, and a rice ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    From students in the German course \u201cAdaptation,\u201d taught by Associate Professor of German Raluca Cernahoschi, came a gingerbread based on the Heidi<\/em> novels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Cernahoschi and her students spent the semester studying how various cultural products \u2014 books, movies, etc. \u2014 get adapted and reinvented for different cultural purposes, like a novel turned into a film or, for the Edible Books Festival, a Swiss children\u2019s novel turned into a gingerbread house. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cOne of the things we studied in the course is how even simple-seeming decisions related to Heidi products have a lot of implications,\u201d said Cernahoschi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Phyllis
    Students in the German course \u201cAdaptation,\u201d taught by Associate Professor of German Raluca Cernahoschi, pose behind the gingerbread house they created based on the Heidi<\/em> novels. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cThis is a lesson in cultural adaptation but also in design,\u201d she added. \u201cAs the students considered how to turn Heidi<\/em> into something edible, they had to grapple with a series of such questions. How can words on a page be translated into food on a plate? What can they expect their audience to know about Heidi and respond to? How can the cultural specificity of the novels, 19th-century Switzerland, be transposed to a 21st-century Maine environment?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Isabelle Job, Jaden Witte-Schrock, and classmates from their advanced Russian course, taught by Visiting Lecturer in Russian Cheryl Stephenson, created an entry based on Anton Chekhov\u2019s Uncle Vanya<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    “We made a cake that has a tea blend in it with lemon, rose, lavender, and vanilla, and each of those flavors are associated with a character,\u201d said Job, who is an art and visual culture major with a Russian minor. \u201cAnd then we put motifs on top with the frosting, and so they all kind of corresponded with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"The
    The Edible Books Festival draws a crowd to the first floor of Ladd Library on April 12, 2024. This year’s event featured 11 dishes inspired by the titles of famous books. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Witte-Schrock, who is an economics major and Russian minor, said that infusing the cake \u2014 which earned the “most-creative” prize \u2014 with tea flavors was highly intentional: He and Job are officers of the Bates Tea Club. \u201cIt was really fun playing with these different flavors. It also felt timely and bright with it being spring and us having flower motifs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cMy favorite part?\u201d responded Foy Ma when asked the question. \u201cIt’s not actually making the food. It’s actually enjoying everyone else’s food! People are really creative and they’re really talented.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"The
    This tasty, if homely, version of the Bobcat came from the staff at the college’s Sponsored Programs and Research Compliance office, who were inspired by the epic and unintentionally funny baking fails on the Netflix cooking show Nailed It!<\/em> (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In terms of its name, the Edible Books Festival doesn\u2019t mince words: It invites the Bates community to bake and cook dishes that play off the title or theme of a well-known book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":163510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,130,179],"tags":[12326],"class_list":["post-163509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-collaboration","category-language-literature","tag-edible-books-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163509"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163692,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163509\/revisions\/163692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}