Dumpling Workshop
Dumplings filled with insects as new “home cookery”
In Europe, insects have so far only played a role in food as energy bars, burgers or superfoods. But how could insects establish themselves in “home cooking”?
To address this question, I have designed a workshop that works its way across Europe and focuses on dumplings. Dumplings can be found in countless variations in almost all cultures – with equally varied fillings.
The workshop invites people from different backgrounds and lifestyles to vary the regional dumplings with insects. New recipes will be created that may extend the regional dumpling culture with sustainable sources of protein.
| student: | Janusz Elmi Sarabi |
| project: | The Insect Project – Resilience Part I |
| year: | 2023/24 |
We love eating dumplings and making them. Why don’t we extend this love to insects? And fill our dumplings with delicious insect-based fillings.
This travelling workshop will combine these two very different and at the same time very similar foods. Participants will be introduced to the world of dumplings and given the chance to design and try a wide variety of fillings themselves. By creating a pleasant atmosphere, participants are invited to let go of their preconceptions and experiment freely with shapes and fillings.
The dumpling workshop is intended to integrate itself into the local culture, by which the language of the workshop infrastructure changes with each relocation. The tile motifs are also unique from city to city and are created in collaboration with local ceramic artists. The approx. 12 participants are made up of 4 to 6 fixed places for local chefs, ceramic artists, restaurant owners and insect breeders. A further 8 or so places are open to all interested people who would like to take part in the workshop.
The aim is to leave participants with an experience and inspiration to pass on, as well as an open, constantly growing recipe book. The participants fill out forms in which they document their favourite filling, favourite shape and a dumpling, which are then scanned and published in a blog. They can then be viewed there by all interested parties, participants and future participants.
As this is all very time-consuming, the workshop takes place in the third week of each month. There are 24 stations all over Europe, so the workshop runs for 24 months.