*Cooking in Maximum Security* has a new English translation from Half Letter Press, who also publish the classic *Prisoner's Inventions*, which is one of my favorite books of all time, a collection of keenly observed, beautifully drawn material improvisations from America's prisons:

pluralistic.net/2021/06/09/kin…

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Prison cookbooks are a genre unto themselves, with "underground" classics like *Jailhouse Cookbook*:

jailhousecookbook.com/

And slick coffee-table books like *Prison Ramen*:

eater.com/23900359/gastropod-i…

But *Cooking in Maximum Security* drills down much deeper on the *method* than those other books, elevating the makerish improvisation of the chefs whose work it reproduces.

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In ‘Prison Ramen,’ Author Gustavo Alvarez Wants to Put Inmates’ Culinary Ingenuity on Full Display

Currently and formerly incarcerated people’s instant noodle recipes shed new light on the commissary staple.

^{Claudia Geib (Eater)}

They explain how to make an oven out of a wooden stool lined with cigarette foil and draped with heavy blankets, into which a small gas burner is introduced:

cookinginmaximumsecurity.com/t…

Or how to turn a toothbrush handle and the razor blade from a pencil-sharpener into an all-purpose paring knife:

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These field-expedient gadget improvisations are *incredibly* satisfying. They have the vibe of a good episode of Scrapheap Challenge, or the high-stakes duct-tape ingenuity of Apollo 13.

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And while these recipes and build notes were collected in the 2010s, the pencil/charcoal illustrations have a classic 1970s feel, like the illustrations out of the *Moosewood Cookbook* or *The Joy of Sex*. If you love the kind of clever repurposings that filled the pages of *Make* magazine, you'll *love* this.

Plus, the food sounds *incredible*. Mouth-watering. Fresh bread whose dough was warmed and risen by setting it atop the heat-radiating surface of a CRT television!

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One thing that sets *Cooking in Maximum Security* apart from other prison cookbooks is the unique character of Italian maximum security prisons, in which visitors are allowed to bring a fairly large variety of goods to inmates, and where the commissary is stocked with an incredible variety of basic ingredients, including things like goat and beef livers (the book reproduces an entire commissary menu, with prices, as an appendix).

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Prisoners have access to beer and wine, and find endless uses for old beer cans. The book also drops in casual clues about life in an Italian prison, for example, when it suggests getting your wooden stirrer by taking down a crucifix and using that.

*Cooking in Maximum Security* arose out of a project called "MoCa" (a play on the essential moka coffee maker that is the most versatile and widely used tool in this book).

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Prisoners met with, and corresponded with, outside helpers who put together the entire volume. One collaborator, Mario, died shortly after sending a long letter (reproduced in an appendix) from solitary confinement, and this letter, along with other notes interspersed through the recipes, give a brilliant anthropological account of life in Italian maximum security prisons.

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The MoCa project isn't done - they've embarked on "Phase II," which will collect recipes from Spanish prisoners.

It's a remarkable book, and an essential companion to *Prisoner's Inventions*.

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I'm on a tour with my new book, the international bestseller *Enshittification*!

Catch me next in #Toronto, #SanDiego and #Seattle!

Full schedule with dates and links at:

pluralistic.net/tour

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