The Recipe Show: Raw, Vegan Cooking from Sigur Rós

By Willy Blackmore Thu., Jul. 29 2010 at 10:00 AM

Categories: Cooking, Food Websites, Music, Vegan

jonsiandalex.com

Jonsi Birgisson and Alex Somers

Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi Birgisson and collaborator/boyfriend Alex Somers have been sharing their love of food and cooking for the past year through their online-only Good Heart recipe book and four-part cooking show, The Recipe Show--which aired its final episode just the other month.

The pair may be based in Reykjavik, but they aren't pulling from Iceland's culinary traditions in their food endeavors. There's no information here about Þorramatur, a sort of traditional Icelandic charcuterie plate that includes such delicacies as putrefied shark meat and lactic acid-cured ram's testicle terrine. Instead, the The Recipe Show stays far, far away from offal and the like, sticking to their own raw, vegan creations, as both are certified raw food chefs.

jonsiandalex.com

Good Heart

We do tend to learn towards the more Þorramatur-like here at Squid Ink, but even through we don't foresee making any of dishes featured in The Recipe Show, we can't help but find the it hugely endearing--from Birgisson "de-braining" tomatoes and squeezing lemons with his teeth to Somers describing pressing out a pie crust as building castle walls with your fingers. The four episodes include recipes for lasagna (shaved zucchini replacing pasta), coconut-date balls called nammi nammi, macadamia monster mash ("like a nut pate," says Somers) and a strawberry pie, all pulled from their Good Heart recipe book. Its all food we find easy to imagine the two eating--doesn't raw, vegan lasagna somehow seem like fitting fuel for two artists who make such beautiful, ethereal music? The sound of putrefied shark, this is not.