Transforming Food Waste into Art: Minh Phan's Innovative Approach at Food Forward

Minh Phan, a renowned chef and artist, has found a new calling as the artist-in-residence at Food Forward, a nonprofit organization dedicated to recovering and distributing surplus produce. After closing her acclaimed Los Angeles restaurants, Phan has embarked on a mission to bridge the gap between the art world and the food industry, using her unique perspective to shed light on issues of food insecurity, cultural understanding, and sustainability.

Unlocking the Collision of War and Nourishment

Repurposing Food Waste and Exploring Personal History

Phan's journey at Food Forward began with a focus on finding ways to repurpose food waste, experimenting with items like rotten fruit, leftover puree mashes, and used coffee grounds. However, her mission soon expanded as she delved deeper into the history of the Pit Stop, Food Forward's 16,000-square-foot refrigerated warehouse in Bell. Phan discovered that the building was previously the Cheli Air Force Station, a site where bombs were tested during the Cold War era.This revelation struck a personal chord with Phan, whose parents fled Vietnam during the 1975 fall of Saigon when she was just 2 years old. "I come from bombs," Phan says, acknowledging the profound impact of war on her family's history. Inspired by this connection, Phan has developed a series of immersive installations that explore the collision of war and the most natural act of feeding people.

Bridging Art, Food, and Refugee Experiences

One of Phan's planned installations represents the boat she imagines her parents and other refugees traveled on when they fled Vietnam. On the tracks where the bombs used to be assembled, Phan will build the boat and fill it with the items a refugee would carry with them, including seeds and hidden poetry. Another installation, titled "Indiantown Gap Refugee Canteen Storage," will transform the Pit Stop's cold storage into a mock food pantry, filled with items meant to resemble Spam, Jell-O, and industrial cheese.Phan's goal is to use these installations to highlight the importance of cultural understanding and the role of food in the immigrant experience. "I want to drive home the point that without Food Forward, there would be no understandable food for other cultures, and that is the heart of what my work has been for the last few decades, trans-cultural understanding of ingredients and food," she says.

Honoring Family Traditions and Fostering Generational Health

Phan's personal history also informs another installation, which will recreate her mother's "trans-cultural garden." For the last 40 years, Phan's mother has grown a diverse array of produce and medicinal herbs at the family's home in Huntington Beach, a practice that has deeply influenced Phan's own understanding of nature, seasons, and the cycle of life.By incorporating elements of her mother's garden into the exhibit, Phan aims to inspire others to cultivate their own trans-cultural gardens, fostering a deeper connection to the land and the nourishment it provides. The evening's first course will be served from this garden, and Phan will also serve a version of the spring rolls her mother made for her to take to school, a gesture that speaks to the power of food to bridge cultural divides.

Elevating the Value of Food and Food Workers

Phan's ultimate goal is to "collapse and integrate food into the art world so it gets preserved institutionally." She believes that the value of food and food workers has been diminished because society does not recognize it as a cultural and artistic endeavor. By using her platform as an artist-in-residence at Food Forward, Phan hopes to change this perception and inspire a deeper appreciation for the role of food in our lives.Phan's exhibit, which will be unveiled on October 19th at a ticketed event to benefit Food Forward, is just the beginning of her ongoing collaboration with the organization. She plans to continue delivering a "guidebook" of sorts, providing recipe cards and ideas for how groups can use some of the lesser-known ingredients received from Food Forward. Phan's vision is to make the exhibit a permanent fixture at the Pit Stop, allowing more people to engage with the organization's mission and the broader themes of food justice, cultural understanding, and sustainability.