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‘A Cookbook for Iwan’: Tom Parker Bowles in conversation with Manuela & Iwan Wirth

  • 21/09/2024
  • St Margaret's
Three people talking on stage as part of the literary festival, with a book on a table in between them
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A smiling man and woman seated on stage

'A Cookbook for Iwan': Tom Parker Bowles in conversation with Manuela & Iwan Wirth

Originally created by Manuela Wirth as a gift for her husband Iwan, A Cookbook for Iwan reflects the appreciation of good, honest food that the couple – the founders of the Fife Arms and art gallery Hauser & Wirth – share, transformed into a recipe book that is truly one of a kind.

The book’s recipes are accompanied by handwritten notes, whimsical illustrations, and playful photographs that capture the idiosyncrasies of its contributors. Among them are artists including Anna Maria Maiolino, who explains how to make a classic spaghetti alla napoletana, and William Kentridge, who reveals how to make a cocktail often enjoyed in his studio. Annie Leibovitz, Lorna Simpson, and Christina Quarles pass on family recipes, while Martin Creed and Jenny Holzer take a characteristically conceptual approach, with original artworks finding their place among the book’s soups, stews, pastas, and pies.

At Braemar Literary Festival 2026, food writer and critic Tom Parker Bowles, who wrote the foreword for the book, joined Iwan and Manuela Wirth in conversation about the recipes that were gathered from the personal culinary repertoires of contemporary artists, curators, chefs, and collectors.

© Fife Arms 2026