Recipes for Recipes: A Lone Bookbinder’s Search for the Stories about Food, Family, and Culture in Columbia is an online exhibition by SVAD and Stormwater Studios Artist in Residence, Evelyn Wong.

I. Restaurants

For the interviews with the local chefs and restaurateurs, I started with a basic set of questions to begin conversations on the individuals' relationships to food, their family and cultural influences, and their personal histories. These questions would lead to additional questions in the interviews, and not only did I find that I had an opportunity to learn more about these members of the community, but I also got to learn about myself (normally an introvert and a hermit) as an interviewer and about many similarities we had, even across diverse cultures and backgrounds.

Interview Questions

Introduce yourself - give me your elevator pitch, your name and name of your establishment. What is your place about and why should folks come here, and why should they know you?

1. Where are you - and your people - from? How long have you/your family been here?
2. How did you end up in Columbia?
3. Did you go to culinary school or study cooking? Where did you learn to cook?
4. How long have you been cooking/managing/feeding others/sharing food?
5. What took you down this career path? Did you have another career you had wanted to pursue or still plan to pursue?
6. What’s a typical day at the restaurant/your house look like? When do you start the day? How long do you go until?

FAMILY

7. Tell me about your family. What was their relationship to food or to cooking?
8. What’s a typical home-cooked meal for you?
9. Does your family have any traditions or holidays that they make special dishes for? What are some of your favorite highlights and who makes them? Has anyone ever refused to share a recipe or secret ingredient?

FOOD

10. Do you like cooking or eating more? Or maybe you like sourcing ingredients or creating recipes more?
11. Have you ever tried a recipe that you hated? What was it? What about one that you loved? Do you have a favorite dish personally vs one you like making for others?
12. If you had one last meal to make, what would it look like? Where would you source the ingredients? Who would you cook with and who would you share the meal with?