Eating

New Yorkers have long been proud, audacious, and discerning eaters. They are also famously impatient, eating on the move and looking out for a good deal. Some things never change. At the same time, the city’s foodways are always shifting, a reflection of the ever-changing and diversifying population. Today, New Yorkers can experience local favorites and cuisines from all over the world in some 23,000 restaurants and eateries, the most in the nation. In the city’s sometimes comically small kitchens, home cooks—traditionally women—prepare meals that allow them not just to nourish their bodies, but also to commune with loved ones.

Wherever we cook and eat, all the processes and connections that make up the food system come together. But the fragility of this system has never been clearer. Many New Yorkers lack consistent access to healthy and affordable food, a problem made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. Food supplies are threatened by events like war and the global climate crisis. The livelihoods of those who make their living in restaurants are threatened by rising prices and new technologies like delivery apps.

This section highlights the work of innovators who are envisioning new ways to make our eating experiences more affordable, accessible, tasty, and sustainable.

 

From Far Left:

Maira Kalman and Rick Meyerowitz
The New York City Sub-Culinary Map
2004
Color photomechanical
Museum of the City of New York. Museum purchase, 2022

“The idea for The New York City Sub-Culinary Map came to me when I was on an A train, hungry for lunch, staring at the subway map. My brilliant friend Maira Kalman and I spent eleven months chewing over the names and cooking up the art. And we had great, delicious fun doing it, too.” – Rick Meyerowitz

Audrey Rodríguez
Corona Plaza
2021
Oil on canvas
Collection of Audrey Rodríguez

This painting depicts a stand selling Mexican horchatas in Corona Plaza, one of many new public spaces created by the Department of Transportation in the early 21st century.

“My work started from an antojo, the Spanish word for craving. This was an antojo for a familiar warmth—a familial warmth. This craving then turned into a hunger—a hunger to delve deeper into the journey of food as it relates to culture, identity, connection, and the socioeconomic divide in this country.” – Audrey Rodríguez

Left From Top to Bottom:

Charles Frederick William Mielatz
Mott Street
1906
Etching (Reproduction)
Museum of the City of New York. The J. Clarence Davies Collection. Gift of J. Clarence Davies, 29.100.2225

George F. Arata
Mott Street
1906
Albumen print (Reproduction)
Museum of the City of New York. Gift of Louis J. Arata, 2010.11.3822

Mott Street has historically been Chinatown’s “Main Street,” home to the highest concentration of Chinese restaurants in the neighborhood; many of them Cantonese, but with other regions also represented. These two works from the early 20th century bear witness to the street’s restaurant life over a hundred years ago.

 

Right Wallcovering:

David Allen Burns and Austin Young
Fallen Fruit, Event Horizon: Darkness is a Temporary Condition
2019
Archival watercolor on organic fabric
Courtesy of the makers, originally created for the city of Bergen, Norway, commissioned by Kunsthall 3,14

“This artwork uses original photographs taken by us— including images of historic drawings and watercolors from museum archives. The fruits, flowers, and butterflies represent how people, plants, and animals move around the world and co-create our transnational histories. The work celebrates humanity’s relationship to the natural world.” – David Allen Burns and Austin Young

Light Fixtures:

Danielle Trofe Design
MushLume Cup Light Pendant
2022
Mushroom mycelium and hemp
Courtesy of Danielle Trofe

These lamp shades are grown by combining the root structure of mushrooms, called mycelium, with agricultural bioproducts to create a mulch-like material. The material is placed in a mold and, over several days, the mycelium binds together. They are then dried and baked to prevent further growth. Designer Danielle Trofe sees mycelium as a way to utilize existing materials in new processes to create a more sustainable future.

Bench Textile:

Ananas Anam
Piñatex
2022
Pineapple leaf fiber, polylactic acid, and resin
Courtesy of Ananas Anam España, S.L.

As a byproduct of the fruit harvesting industry in the Philippines, pineapple plant leaves are usually discarded or burned. Instead, to make Piñatex, the leaves are collected and put through a purification process which results in a fluff-like fiber. The fiber is then combined with corn-based polylactic acid and coated with water-based resin. After the fiber is removed from the leaves, the remaining biomass is used as a fertilizer for further planting.

Chairs:

Mater
Ocean OC2 Chairs
2022
Beer keg plastic waste
Courtesy of Mater Design

Originally designed by Jørgen and Nanna Ditzel in 1955 and made of wood veneer, Mater has reinvented this classic chair design for the 21st century using a circular production method. The first iteration of Mater’s Ocean collection was created using plastic waste found in oceans, including discarded fishing nets. The Ocean OC2 version of the collection is built from discarded beer kegs and other upcycled hard plastic.

 

Tables From Left to Right:

Table 1:

Bruno Mesz, Marcos A. Trevisan, Mariano Sigman, Roberto Azaretto, Felipe de Ávila Franco, and Javier de Verda (International Flavors & Fragrances)  
A Synesthete’s Still Life
2022
Ceramic, metal, plastic, and aromas 
Courtesy of Bruno Mesz, Marcos A. Trevisan, and Mariano Sigman

Eating and tasting are the subject of many interesting experiments, among them research on the connection between our other senses and taste. This team of researchers from Argentina, is focused on both how our different taste experiences can be translated into the other senses (what does sweetness sound like?), and how the other senses weaken or enhance our tasting experiences. This research can have real-life applications, such as, can we help control a sweet tooth or support people eating healthier by tapping into our other senses?

Start by picking up the headphones with the white sticker. Then, work your way around the table to explore variations of this song and lean in to smell the matching scented object in front of you. Do you think each song smells like its accompanying fragrance? What does each aroma sound like to you?

Kindly wait until this table is empty to use it—one person at a time, please.

Table 2:

Studio Bilge Nur Saltik 
Share.Food Tableware
2013
Ceramic 
Private collection

Sharing is a fundamental part of the ritual of eating with family and friends. Bilge Nur Saltik designed this tableware to facilitate the sharing experience.

Tip the angled cups and plates back and forth with a friend to see how it works.

Studio Jinhyun Jeon
Sensory Spoons
2022
Plastic and lacquered Ottchil
Sensory Stimuli Spoon Collection © 2012–2022 Jinhyun Jeon

These spoons are designed to stimulate your senses—beyond taste—while eating. They use a combination of color, texture, shape, and weight to turn the eating experience into a more mindful one.

Please touch!

Kaffeeform
Weducer Cup
2022
Coffee grounds and beechwood fibers  
Private collection

These cups are made of used coffee grounds. Made in a workshop dedicated to progressive social values in Berlin, Germany, they are a beautiful example of how to turn waste into utility.

Please touch!

Yen-Chih (Sha) Yao 
Eatwell Assistive Tableware
2015
Plastic 
Courtesy of Sha Design LLC

We all have different abilities, but eating should be an easy task regardless. Eatwell Assistive Tableware supports a dignified eating experience for all. This set offers high color contrast to help distinguish food from tableware, slanted bottoms and deep chambers that facilitate scooping, and anti-tip designs among other features that help users consume more food and liquids.

Please touch!

Table 3:

Matthew Migliore

Casa Enrique
Run time: 1:23 min

Llama Inn
Run time: 1:23 min

2017
Courtesy of the maker

Chef Matt Migliore created “TheRealGoProChef” to highlight the work that happens in restaurant kitchens all over New York City. Migliore wanted to educate the public about what goes into executing a service, from start to finish. His videos have captured dinner prep, pre-shift, expediting, kitchen culture, and service.

Table 4:

New Yorkers and visitors alike are posting their favorite dishes, restaurants, snacks, and meals.
Use the hashtag #FoodinNYC to share your favorite food in New York and be featured on this screen!

 

Eating In

Families of all backgrounds gather around a table to eat and to knit ever closer together. Historically, women are responsible for nourishing families and communities, preserving traditions and cooking healthily; the kitchen can be a place of both nurture and oppression. Most of this work is taken for granted and is invisible. While eating together is at the center of some of our most basic and essential societal ceremonies and events, food has also been used to divide and mark our differences, and it sustains undeniable and unequal gender dynamics.

Clockwise From Above:

Philip Reisman
Passover
1928
Etching (Reproduction)
Museum of the City of New York. Gift of Philip Reisman, 91.78.22

Stanley Kubrick for LOOK magazine
Rocky Graziano, He’s a Good Boy Now
1949–1950
Gelatin silver print (Reproduction)
Museum of the City of New York. The LOOK Collection. Gift of Cowles Magazines, Inc., X2011.4.12284.39A

Albert Friscia
Scavengers
1935
Oil on canvas
Museum of the City of New York. Gift of Lidia Di Bello Friscia, 99.80.1

Scavenging for food was a necessity for many in the Great Depression. Today, over two million New York State residents are food insecure. They lack consistent access to enough food for everybody in a household to enjoy a healthy, active life. Half of the state’s food insecure citizens live in New York City: that’s almost 13% of the city’s residents. Most of them are people of color and women, and 18% are children.

Alexander Alland
African-American family at the dinner table
1930s
Gelatin silver print (Reproduction)
Museum of the City of New York. Gift of Howard Greenberg Gallery, 2002.130.12

Alexander Alland
Group eating fruit around a table
c. 1940
Acetate negative (Reproduction)
Museum of the City of New York. Gift of Sonia and Alexander Alland, Jr., 94.104.609

 

Tools

We not only refrigerate our food: we preserve, mold, purée, slice, dehydrate, air-fry, glaze, and reshape the things we eat in all kinds of interesting ways, and there are special tools to perform each one of those transformations. At the same time, food storage, handling, cooking, and refrigeration equipment are multibillion-dollar global industries that contribute to the availability of food, but also to the waste and energy consumption patterns devastating our planet. Technological advances made it possible for New York City to become the rich food hub it is, but the costs of these technologies and tools are a challenge in dire need of re-thinking.

Below, Right:

Knickerbocker Ice Company
Icebox
1831–1924
Wood and metal
Private collection

Iceboxes are a non-mechanical type of refrigerator that was popularized during the 1840s, but whose basic design dates to ancient times. A large block of ice is placed in the top compartment, and as the cold air circulates downward it chills perishable food. Iceboxes— along with smoking, canning, and drying—were one of the technologies used to preserve food before modern electrical refrigeration. Since then, at least for well-to-do families, shopping for food did not have to be a daily chore anymore.

Right:

Andrew F. Bunner
Cutting Ice, Rockland Lake, New York
c. 1890
Oil on linen (Reproduction) 
Collection of the New-York Historical Society

Ice harvesting became an essential feature of the city’s food system beginning in the 1820s, when large blocks of ice were used to conserve food brought from far away regions through the Erie Canal. As iceboxes became more common in private homes, the industry grew to be one of the most important in the Hudson Valley. Rockland Lake, 25 miles north of the city, provided most of New York’s ice. 

Above, Clockwise From Left:

Steve Ellis

Union Sq Espresso Machine
Collection of the artist

Flat Iron Kitchen Knife
Rockefeller Pastry Tips
Collection of the artist

2007
Oil on canvas

“These works are from a series entitled Tools of the Craft. In what appears to be simple oil paintings of kitchen tools, small reflections of New York City can be found in the details. Can you see them? I like to think of them as landscape paintings of the city that feeds us in so many ways.” – Steve Ellis

Far Right:

Unknown maker
Cookie board
18th century
Wood
Museum of the City of New York. Museum purchase, 54.397.2

This mold was used to bake the famous Dutch speculaas (spicy shortbread biscuits). The Dutch brought this tradition wherever they colonized, so these are found in places as distant from each other as New York, Indonesia, and Suriname—a classic example of foodways following empire.

 

Center of Gallery:

Miguel Luciano
Pimp My Piragua
2008–2009
Customized tricycle, fiberglass, and LED lights
Courtesy of the artist

“Pimp My Piragua is a mobile public art project that commemorates the innovations of Latinx street vendors, transforming a traditional pushcart for selling shaved ice (piraguas) into a hyper-customized tricycle-pushcart with a highpowered sound system, flat screen monitors, and LED underbody lights—all while still fully functional as a piragua cart.” – Miguel Luciano

 

Windows:

Máximo Colón
Nourisher Portraits
2022
Courtesy of the artist

These photographs show 20 cooks, chefs, and nourishers from our neighborhoods, El Barrio and Harlem. These are some of the people that feed us.

Top Row, From Left:
Esteban Nugzhi, Ecuador, Super Thai
Rose Mary Guarda, Chile, La Fonda Boricua
Oscar Lorenzzi, Perú, Contento
Jacqueline Stevens, Harlem, Lizzy’s Treats (La Marqueta)
Edward Williams, South Carolina, New York Common Pantry
Julián Hoyos, Mexico, Cascalote
Aziz Khan, India, Bawarchi
Dahyanna Carvajal, Colombia, Pabade Bakery
Davie Simmons, Guyana, Uptown Veg
Juan Lazo, Perú, Quechua Nostra

Bottom Row, From Left:

Hamidou Dabre, Burkina Faso, Teranga
Armando Flores, Mexico, El Caribeño
Jenny Coraisaca, Ecuador, New York Common Pantry
Marcus Woods, New York City, Sylvia’s
Rufina Madrid, Mexico, Piragua cart
José Valle, Mexico, Patsy’s
Eduar Alberto Morales, Venezuela, La Fonda Boricua
Edward Conroy, Long Island, Vinateria
Omar Sambe, Spain, Les Ambassades
Hetelberto Clara, Mexico, Los Cuchifritos

 

Above, Top to Bottom:

Los Deliveristas Unidos
Handkerchief and t-shirt
2020–2022
Cotton
Private collection

“NYC relies on more than 65,000 Deliveristas to transport millions of goods, many of whom utilize micro-mobility equipment to do this work. In 2020, the Worker’s Justice Project organized Deliveristas under Los Deliveristas Unidos (LDU) to confront abuse and lack of regulation and to raise this new industry’s labor standards.” – Los Deliveristas Unidos

Above Right:

Unknown maker
Delivery bike
Undated
Metal, plastic, and rubber
Courtesy of Manny Ramírez, LDU Leader

Electric bikes became legal in New York City in 2020, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, after years of lobbying by delivery workers who were now understood to be “essential” to the operations of the city.

“Using an e-bike instead of a regular bicycle has meant a tremendous increase in earnings, which has helped my family and me. With a regular bike, I could not work more than four or five hours. It was humanly impossible to work more. I would be too exhausted. A regular bike limits your earning potential.” – Manny Ramírez

 

Food and Labor

Over 60% of workers in the city’s restaurants are migrants who do not readily have access to traditional labor organizing structures. Long hours, low pay, wage theft, and physical hazards are some of the dangers faced daily by many of the hundreds of thousands of New York City’s essential restaurant workers.

Similarly, in upstate New York around 100,000 migrants farm the land yearly for products that end up in the city’s supermarkets and kitchens. The state’s dairy industry—its largest agricultural sector—has a particularly long record of abusive behavior. Since the mid-1850s it has been the focus of reform efforts, starting with the adulterated “swill milk” scandal that was responsible for the death of one in five children in the city. Today, the Workers Justice Center of New York reports that the industry’s mostly immigrant laborers are regularly excluded from overtime pay and one day off per week mandates, and that two-thirds of dairy workers in New York have been injured on the job.

Human labor is not just in the commercial supply chain: it is involved in every step that brings food to our mouths, including the oftentimes unseen work of women—the mothers, aunts, grandmothers, and sisters who cook and clean up meals in many households.

Unknown maker

Above, Far Left:

“Trabajadores Agrícolas en Nueva York Merecen Igualdad” (Agricultural Workers in New York Deserve Equality) sign from Justice for Farmworkers March
Paper and ink

Above, Left:

“A Day of Rest” sign from Justice for Farmworkers March
Paper and ink

Left:

Banner from Justice for Farmworkers March
Vinyl and ink

2000–2019
Collection of Rural & Migrant Ministry

“As a child farmworker, I was a girl in women’s shoes. Every child should be able to be just a child. I’m proud of my part in the Justice for Farmworkers Campaign that gave NY’s agricultural workers the right to unionize and to overtime pay. This also helps their kids.” – Ruth Faircloth, in honor of Daughters of Sarah Farm-Working Women

 

Wall Covering, Above:

Tretford Americas
Acousticord
2022
Goat hair, nylon, and viscose
Courtesy of the maker

Acousticord is a carpet and wall covering made of goat hair. The goat hair is collected and carded into fibers in Ireland, and then dyed from its natural color instead of being bleached. The fiber is bonded to a burlap backing to create a textile that is naturally insulating.