Synergetic Stew - (Spiral Bound)

Book Synopsis

A delightful dymaxion cookbook homage to Buckminster Fuller, featuring John Cage's macrobiotic recipes, Margaret Mead's cucumber salad and more

Buckminster Fuller is globally known as a design scientist, architect, author, poet, engineer and a true visionary. On his 86th birthday he received the cookbook Synergetic Stew as a surprise present from his friends and admirers, who share recipes along with personal anecdotes and humorous recollections of Fuller (for example, a reminiscence about Bucky's love for tea in all its variations). Scattered throughout the book are enticing texts and poems from Fuller himself, including even a recipe for tomato ice cream.

Constructed around 100 achievable recipes, this book is a glimpse into Fuller's life, as told by his peers. A few of the recipes are a joyful ode to Fuller's oeuvre, such as Shirley Sharkey's "GEODESICANDY," the "Macrobiotic Diet" by John Cage or Amy Edmondson's "Allspace-Filling Whole Wheat Bread."

In addition to the facsimile, Jamie Snyder reflects upon often-overlooked facets of Bucky's character, as revealed through anecdotes of his relationship to food.

Contributors include: Bil Baird, Peter Brown, John Cage, Lim Chong Keat, Elizabeth Choy, John Ciardi, John Denver, Amy Edmondson, Ted Ehmann, Werner Erhard, Ronald Feldman, John and Isobel Fistere, Medard Gabel, Eugene Garfield, Neva Goodwin, d'Arcy Hayman, Henry J. Heimlich, Miranda Kaiser, Anne Kordus, Kuyoshi Kuromiya, Mae Lee, Paula Martin, Margaret Mead, Karl Menninger, Yehudi Menuhin, Martin and Margy Meyerson, Ann Mintz, Don Moore, Ed Muskie, Libby Newman, Isamu Noguchi, Gerard K. O'Neill, Steve Parker, Eleanor and George Pavloff, Cedric Price, Kariska Pulchalski, Harrison Salisbury, Shirley and Bill Sharkey, Peter Simoneaux, Hester Stearns, Connie Thelander, Thomas Tse-Kwai Zung, Dennis Tyler, Amei Wallach, Hope Watts and Kathryn Withlow.

Review Quotes

Endlessly amusing...--Andrea Gyorody "Stained Page News"

[Synergetic Stew: Explorations in Dymaxion Dining] contains recipes, of course, but not always as we know them...The recipes are peppered with personal anecdotes, poems, doodles, and other texts...the cookbook recipes are intimate, approximate, and more than a little unusual.--Emily Gosling "AIGA"

Synergetic Stew is a document of a magical life of heady science matched only by Fuller's penchant for "light, wild things."--Andrea Gyorody "Hyperallergic"

The literary nexus of gastronomy and industrial design occupies an esoteric department of the publishing world at the best of times. But Buckminster Fuller's Synergetic Stew: Explorations in Dymaxion Dining, newly-reprinted to celebrate the design scientist, architect, author, poet, engineer and visionary's 125th anniversary, might just be this delightfully niche category's most obscure title of all.--Simon Mills "Wallpaper*"

This personal recipe book - reprinted as a limited edition in July to coincide with what would have been Fuller's 125th birthday - includes Bucky-related contributions from surprising names such as Cedric Price, John Denver, John Cage and Isamu Noguchi, as well as Fuller himself. The unusual ring-bound collection of type-written recipes, anecdotes, sketches and poems reveals another side to Fuller, including his love of tea and a recipe for tomato ice cream. The book's visual design is as quirky and enlightening as Fuller's work itself.--Francesca Gavin "Financial Times"