A Recipe for Craft: A Study in Culinary Traditions is instigated by the closure of the Applied
Craft and Design M.F.A. program at Pacific Northwest College of Art. With the discontinuation of
PNCA’s craft education, a path opened up for a deeper personal inquiry into the essence of craft
and the rationale for standing behind this particular academic understanding of craft. I asked
myself, “Is craft becoming unwanted or unnecessary? Have we stopped caring to think about
craft and its possibilities?” As I began to consider these questions, personal experience in familial
cooking emerged as a captivating lens through which to recontextualize what craft could be, do,
and perhaps beyond its existence in an academic setting. Diving into this line of thinking, my
focus shifted from the mere definition of craft to the intricate dynamics of how craft operates. By
combining an analysis of the “what is” of craft with my personal experience in cooking, I explore
one way that craft will live on outside of institutional spaces. For me, it lives on in the kitchen and
in family culinary traditions—with a dash of embodiment, a cup of practice, and a smidge of
written recipe.