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I have to be in Düsseldorf at 12h through 13h. Arpad, who has organized a big soup event for today is waiting for me.
I move amidst high density residential areas through Bonn, Köln, Düsseldorf, Essen, Dortmund, crisscrossed with a fair amount of highways. Furthermore, the plain landscape makes it hard for one, not being familiar with the place, to keep orientation, but nonetheless I manage to find the Fichtenstrasse 75, located in an outer district of Düsseldorf and arrive at 12.30h.
I find myself on an old industrial area, with large closed down working halls, where once steel bridges were produced. Today the buildings are used as warehouses for discarded maschines, as repair shops, as artist studios and quarters for similar fringe groups. Furthermore, there is the congenial Cafetin, run by Carola and Karoline since 4 month. On the area in front of the cafe, amidst the rust covered production halls are tables with sunshades, flourpots and canvas chairs , so that a feeling of holiday spreads out.
A gravel beach amidst the thicket of cities.
Arpad has made a good decision to cook the soup at this place.. Arpad is one of the few students of Peter Kubelka from the Frankfurt Städel School and has consequently developed the subject arts and food since 20 years. His latest action in cooking is called "Mannheim schmecken - an attempt to save home cooking". The project is structured by 3 sections: to recall, to cook, to pass on.
In the first phase the point is to find out, if Mannheim people across age 65 being passionate on eating and cooking, would be able to recall the most tasty dishes of their childhood and what kind of traditional dishes they love to cook until the present day.
Then Arpad invites guests for a public dinner and composes a menu from the collected recipes, which have been in danger of being forgotten.
He cooks the dinner directly on-site in a pickup truck, optimally equipped for all kitchen needs. Each part of the menu is being enriched by lectures about composition, crosslinks and meanings of several dishes, so a wide spread network of sensory and notional feelings and deeper insight is given to the recipients or eaters.
The third phase consists in passing on the cultural skills, which could get lost. Therefore Arpad cooks the collected, traditional recipes with the kids at schools to convey a sense about the value of cooking itself, about taste and valuable substances in terms of nutritional physiology.
When I arrive with my soup case, I get joyfully welcomed by Arpad his girlfriend Stephanie and the city beach visitors. An uncompareable beefstock has been simmered for hours and is waiting for the last ingredient: the half litre jahressuppe.
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shortmovie: bei arpad dobriban II