Growing up, my father hunted deer, antelope, duck, goose, and pheasant. We foraged for wild asparagus, mushrooms, dandelions, pine nuts, plums and apples. These experiences taught me to see food as something deeply connected to nature and labor, far removed from the sanitized versions often found in stores. My grandfather worked at the Sacher Hotel in Vienna as a young man, and my father spent his career in the restaurant and hotel industry, and advising NASA on their food in space program. He constantly gave us dehydrated foods to test for edibility. The early versions were abominable. I was immersed not only in a family culture of food but also in a broader societal one.

Food has been a central theme in art for centuries, from still life paintings and depictions of feasts to iconic moments like The Last Supper. For me, food represents a unique and sometimes conflicting intersection of human emotions—desire, guilt, nostalgia, and indulgence. By transforming food into unexpected forms, I want to highlight its complexity, juxtaposing its comforting familiarity with deeper, sometimes darker, narratives. Food becomes a lens through which to examine human behavior, culture, and the emotional weight we attach to what we consume.