Cooking with Kafka
I’m getting fat!

In 1916 Franz Kafka wrote on a postcard “I’m getting fat!” and listed all the foods he’d been feasting on. Over a hundred years later, artist Alex Braden in St. Louis, Missouri, reads this and recreates Franz Kafka’s menu. What does it look like? See for yourselves! Have fun with the “I’m getting fat” photo series – enjoy your meals!

On 20th July 1916 Franz Kafka wrote a postcard to his fiancée Felice Bauer from the Bohemian health resort of Marienbad: “Despite insomnia and headaches I’m getting fat, not as fat as my director, but in suitably subordinate terms. Yesterday’s menu: at 10.30am – 2 x milk, honey, 2 x butter, 2 bread rolls; 11am ½ kg cherries; 12pm smoked pork (original: Kaiserfleisch), spinach, potatoes, vanilla noodle pudding (original: Vanillenudeln), bread rolls; 3pm cup of milk, 2 bread rolls; 5pm chocolate, 2 x butter, 2 bread rolls; 7pm vegetables, salad, bread, Emmental cheese; 9pm 2 cakes, milk. Now what?” Today, over a hundred years later, Alex Braden – an artist and passionate chef – takes inspiration from Kafka’s menu on the other side of the Atlantic: Alex lives in St. Louis in the US state of Missouri. What does it look and taste like when Kafka’s favourite foods are recreated on the banks of the Mississippi in the American Mid-West? See for yourselves! Have fun looking at the pictures and recreating the dishes!

10.30am: Late breakfast with milk

Original entry: 10.30am – 2 x milk, honey, 2 x butter, 2 bread rolls. Pictured: milk bread, honey, butter, milk

12pm: Early lunch with pork

Original entry: 11am ½ kg cherries; 12pm smoked pork (original entry: Kaiserfleisch), spinach, potatoes, vanilla noodle pudding (original entry: Vanillenudeln). Pictured: Cherry-glazed smoked pork, butter-cream spinach, mashed potatoes, vanilla noodle pudding and a milk roll

3pm: More bread rolls … and milk!

Original entry: 3pm cup of milk, 2 bread rolls. Pictured: milk rolls, milk

5pm: Time for chocolate buns

Original entry: 5pm chocolate, 2 x butter, 2 bread rolls. Pictured: milk rolls, milk chocolate, butter, milk

7pm: Healthy dinner of vegetables

Original entry: 7pm vegetables, salad, bread, Emmental cheese. Pictured: grilled tomatoes and onions, melted swiss, pain au levain, micro greens, carrots and watermelon radishes

9pm: Sweet snack in the evening

Original entry: 9pm 2 cakes, milk. Pictured: vanilla crumb and milk chocolate, vanilla crumb and cardamom cream, milk

Did these pictures make you want to recreate Kafka’s favourite dishes? What are your favourite foods – from the Bohemian region or the Mid-West, or from completely different parts of the world? Contact Verena Hütter at the ZEITGEISTER editorial team, verena.huetter@goethe.de, and we’ll put together an international ZEITGEISTER cookery book!