Friday 14 May 2020

Part 1 | The Welcome

Aaron Cezar: We’re happy to serve our second ‘home delivery’ of Family Lunch! In London, our regular lunches bring together our family of resident artists, supporters and staff with guests from across the UK arts community. While we practice social distancing, we have adapted our format to connect virtually with all of you, our global family.

Our founder, Delfina Entrecanales, who recently marked her 93rd birthday and her retirement from the Foundation, has long been obsessed with feeding artists. In the restaurant of Delfina Studios (1987-2006), there was a table where studio artists could eat for just £1, sharing food and ideas at the same time.  In Delfina Foundation’s kitchen we continue this legacy, with cooking and eating going hand-in-hand with community-building.

Food became so integral to Delfina Foundation that we dedicated a whole programme to it: The Politics of Food. Today’s dish comes from Marta Fernández Calvo, an artist-in-residence during our most recent edition of the programme. While nourishing your body, Amanda Abi Khalil will nourish your mind, presenting her ongoing curatorial project that spans Lebanon and Brazil.

It was at a Family Lunch in March 2018 that Amanda met Frances Reynolds, Founding Director of Instituto Inclusartiz, who subsequently hosted her in residence in Rio de Janeiro, a city that Amanda has now adopted as home for the time being.

Part 2 | The Food

Spanish Omelette – by Marta Fernández Calvo, Artist-in-residence 2019

Former Politics of Food artist-in-residence Marta Fernández Calvo shares her rosemary-infused Spanish omelette recipe, its secrets and the story behind it.

In my work, the kitchen is a space of resistance where people can come together and where recipes become pieces of music, alter egos, performances and fictional exercises with which to cross borders and evoke joy, grief and love.

Latartademarta began in 2010 in Dublin. There, I made my living by cooking Spanish omelettes, tortilla, at home which I took by bike to be sold at food markets and in stores across the city. After several years in Ireland I made the decision to move back to Spain. Being place already full of tortillas I had to think of an equivalent Irish recipe which could cross borders and support me when I returned. Therefore, I spent my final year in Dublin honing my carrot cake recipe, Latartademarta, to perfection.

Latartademarta is an exercise of translation, an alter ego to face the sort of migration that is ‘going back home’. It puts on the table the economies that support an individual practice, strongly marked by the procedural and the performative and it claims the power of the domestic and the everyday as a place and a position in contemporary art.

This video documents the last tortilla I made and delivered in Dublin before migrating to Spain and it being transformed into Latartademarta.

I love secrets in recipes. I think they are like superpowers. My tortilla has two secrets that you can either share with your guests, or them transform them into a smile when they sigh over your dish. You can find these secrets in bold.

2kg waxy potatoes – peeled and finely sliced
6 eggs
750 ml sunflower oil
2 tbsp olive oil
A sprig of rosemary
2 tsp salt

Place a large non-stick frying pan on a medium heat with plenty of oil. When the oil is hot add the potatoes to the pan ensuring that they are covered by the oil.

Put a lid on the pan and cook for 15-20 mins, stirring occasionally to make sure they fry evenly. When the potatoes are soft transfer them into a bowl (discarding the excess oil). A the salt and mix well.

Take a bowl and separate the yolks from the whites. Beat the whites until fluffy and then stir in the potatoes. Add the yolks and stir again until it looks like a mousse.

Add a drizzle of olive oil to a clean non-stick frying pan on a low heat and infuse with a sprig of rosemary. When the oil is hot, remove the rosemary and add the potatoe and egg mix. Use a fork to make sure the mixture is evenly spread over the pan.

After 8-10 mins, the edges and base should be golden, the top set, but the middle still a little wobbly. Turn it over in the pan by placing a plate on top, turn the whole thing upside down and then sliding the tortilla back into the pan. Cook for a further  8 mins. Try not to overcook as it is delicious when the center is still moist.

Part 3 | The presentation

Amanda Abi Khalil – Delfina alumni curator, 2018

From her isolation home, curator Amanda Abi Khalil discusses her forthcoming exhibition on hospitality, inspired by the Lebanese diaspora in Brazil.


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