“Easy Eating is a project for Avant-Gardening, a course at the School of Visual Arts, NY, that investigates artists who employ gardening, farming and/or food as their medium.  Throughout the year, we researched this rich field of artistic activity and explored such wide ranging issues as environmental activism, food justice, and guerrilla gardening.  We had cooking demonstrations, and took field trips to community gardens in the Lower East Side, Thomas Hirschhorn’s Gramsci Monument in the South Bronx, and the studio of food and farming artist Tatfoo Tan in Staten Island.  

From this array of experiences the students identified a primary concern that they all shared: a desire to learn how to cook food that is healthy, affordable and, most importantly, EASY to prepare.  We stress EASY because for most college students, it is their first time living away from home, and the first time they become fully responsible for what they eat.  They discussed how EASY it is to get in the habit of eating pizza, grabbing lunch at a fast food restaurant, or opening up a can of soup.  As a result we present EASY EATING, a collection of RECIPES designed for the college student and other like minded individuals that are HEALTHY, AFFORDABLE and….. EASY.” - Nicole J. Caruth and Kirby Gookin