CULTURE
“I have a picture of the ring as we turned the lights off. We thought it was two weeks. Here we are 51, soon to be 52, weeks later, thank you so much Governor Parson, you are such — nevermind, that’s a whole other story.”
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High-Flying Cuisine Circus Harmony cookbook takes dinner and a show to a new level Written by
RILEY MACK
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ever before has the circus combined performances that make audiences’ stomachs drop with recipes that make them grumble. Circus Harmony, a youth circus group based in St. Louis, is serving up delectable dishes alongside riveting circus performances with their new Interactive Cookbook, which debuted online on March 16. ith a release date specifically chosen to coincide with the anniversary of the COVID-19 shutdown, the digital cookbook features more than 40 recipes available for free on the Circus Harmony website, circusharmony.org. Recipes are displayed side by side with video recordings of the students performing fun, circus-skilled adaptations of the cooking process. The recipes, including everything from breakfast to dessert, were chosen by Circus Harmony members and feature some of their family-favorite, tried-andtested dishes. Others, however, are straight from the imagination of the young circus performers. Jessica Hentoff, the 65-year-old artistic/executive director of Circus Harmony, is the brains behind the unique cookbook idea, which seems to be a direct reflection of herself — high-energy, with a million things going on. In a phone interview about the project, she is interrupted at times by the squawking of her pet parrot and the knocking of her nextdoor neighbor, who wanted to ask if she knew there was a man wandering around her property (she did not). Undeterred, Hentoff explains the hard work and immense creativity that went into the creation of the cookbook. “Some of it is very bizarre —
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One student, donning a clownfish costume, performs in aerial silks before he becomes a sushi roll for his family’s sushi recipe. | COURTESY CIRCUS HARMONY let’s just say it,” she says. Hentoff gives examples that include her coworker’s famous hair trick, her pets’ roles in the circus acts and chartreuse pickles. And she recounts a chef, a slice of pizza and a monkey riding unicycles for their St. Louis thin-crust pizza recipe. During a guacamole-based performance, a boy dressed as a chef tries to whack another boy dressed as a mole. (Get it, guac-amole?) For a microwave mug-cake recipe, a student does acrobatics edited to look like she’s performing inside the microwave. A costumed turkey (along with his dad, also dressed like a turkey) promotes a tetrazzini recipe by taking to the slack wire. “It’s like kitchen-creative to the max,” says Hentoff. Circus Harmony students, ranging from ages eight to eighteen, were each allowed to include as many as two recipes and accompanying acts in the book. Many
of the acts are filmed inside the students’ kitchens with help from their families. A few stunts were performed in their circular ring in the City Museum. While each student was allowed to choose their own recipes, the entire Circus Harmony team reviewed the options to decide which performances would best suit the storytelling and to ensure there would be a variety of dishes. “With kids, you could end up with all chocolate chip cookies, basically,” Hentoff says. Oddly enough, the cookbook does not include chocolate chip cookies, though “we do have a delicious chocolate chip scone recipe,” she assures. “These recipes are ... what the kids wanted to put in, so I wouldn’t use it to go on a diet.” The timing for the cookbook is no coincidence. The release date is meant to mark 365 days of the American shutdown. Circus Harmony performed about 700 shows a year between
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the students and coaches in the pre-COVID-19 era. They now resort to six-feet-apart circuses outside and some performances over Zoom, and feel that the joy in their audiences has never been the same as before. The cookbook is part of changing that. Still, for Hentoff, there is just a hint of resentment in this anniversary. “We remember leaving the ring; I have a picture of the ring as we turned the lights off. We thought it was two weeks,” she says. “Here we are 51, soon to be 52, weeks later, thank you so much Governor Parson, you are such — nevermind, that’s a whole other story.” Just like speaking with Hentoff, viewers will never know what to expect when flipping through the digital pages of the Circus Harmony Interactive Cookbook (except, of course, the audible sound of a page turning, “a little detail that I adore,” Hentoff says). But, Hentoff explains, viewers are promised one thing: “This is totally something unlike anything else you’ve ever seen, for circus or for cooking.” “Somebody call the Food Network,” she says. “They should be covering this.” n
MARCH 24-30, 2021
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