We want your recipes!
Artist Michael Rakowitz is on the hunt for recipes using the ingredient at the heart of his Fourth Plinth commission, The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist — date syrup. His sculpture, sitting at the heart of Trafalgar Square, is made of more than 10,000 tins and recreates an ancient Assyrian Lamassu: the winged bull and protective deity which guarded the entrance to the Nergal Gate of Nineveh (near modern day Mosul) from c700 BC until it was destroyed by Daesh in 2015. These building blocks, and the substance they were built to contain, represent a once-renowned Iraqi industry now decimated by war.
Date trees — their fruit and shade, their fronds and syrup — have enormous significance for communities in the Middle East, both practically and symbolically. Michael is compiling a cookbook of recipes using date syrup, with more than 30 celebrated chefs from around the world. He wants to understand how people use the ingredient at home, as much as in professional kitchens — and that’s where you come in. We’re inviting recipe submissions from across the community in London, from which Michael will select his favourites for inclusion in the book (to be published in May 2019).
If you’d like to be involved, please email info@plinth.uk.com with your favourite date syrup recipes before November 1st.
