Michael Rakowitz Publishes Date-Focused Cookbook and Exhibits at Whitechapel Gallery

Michael Rakowitz has unveiled a new cookbook, A House With a Date Palm Will Never Starve, which features recipes that prominently include dates. Esteemed chefs Prue Leith, Yotam Ottolenghi, and Alice Waters have contributed to this work, alongside dishes from Rakowitz and his mother, Yvonne. An exclusive preview includes two recipes: Yvonne Rakowitz's Iraqi charoset and Michael Rakowitz's masgouf, a barbecued fish marinated in date syrup. The artist's exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery in London is open until 25 August. On 26 July, the gallery will host a supper club where Rakowitz and chef Philip Juma from Juma Kitchen will serve dishes from the cookbook. Additionally, Rakowitz's public art piece, The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist, is displayed on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square until March 2020. This 2018 work reconstructs a lamasu from Nineveh, Iraq, using empty date syrup cans, following its destruction by IS in 2015. In a Summer 2019 interview with ArtReview, Rakowitz shared memories of his immigrant grandparents' home in Grand Neck, Long Island, which felt like an Iraqi haven filled with rugs, art, and music during family gatherings, providing solace during the Iraq War that began in 1991. His cultural heritage has profoundly influenced his culinary and artistic expressions. The cookbook is published by Art/Books.