MAINE INGREDIENTS: RECIPES INSPIRED BY ACADIA NATIONAL PARK
In 2022, I was selected as one of eight artists-in-residence at Acadia National Park — the first food writer in the history of the National Park’s 30-year artist program.
My residency project, Maine Ingredients: Recipes Inspired by Acadia National Park, features illustrated recipes and essays celebrating the ingredients and landscape of Acadia and the Mount Desert Island and Schoodic region of Maine.
As I wrote in the introduction:
“I thought I knew Acadia well after multiple visits over the past 15 years, but being an Artist in Residence has gifted me with a deeper and richer connection to the park than I ever hoped possible.”
I tried to encapsulate everything I witnessed during my two-week immersion in the project, from the simultaneous sense of expansiveness and comfort I got from sitting on the boulders at Schoodic Point, to the delight at finding tiny pink starfish in coastal tidal pools, to the connections made with locals who use the region’s natural ingredients in inventive and satisfying ways.
The project is available to all as a digital PDF and also as a limited-edition hardcover book, which features exclusive recipes, essays, and illustrations not found in the digital version.
Buy the Maine Ingredients Book
The hardcover print version of Maine Ingredients includes 10 full recipes with accompanying essays and illustrations, including crab shio ramen, beach rose panna cotta, seaweed biscuits with blackberry butter, and a Schoodic wine spritzer.
All copies can be signed and personalized for gifts.
See the Digital Project
This shortened digital version of Maine Ingredients was produced for the National Park Service to share with visitors online as part of my residency. Get a glimpse of what’s in the book here!
Behind the Scenes in Acadia!
As part of my artist residency, I hosted a public cooking demonstration at the Sieur de Monts visitor center on Mount Desert Island. You can catch a glimpse of that event, along with some gorgeous scenery shots, in a video produced by the talented Sam Mallon of Friends of Acadia.