Can a rabbit eat a wolf?

What do an AI-driven art project and a wartime cookbook have in common?

In her seminal book “How to cook a wolf”, first published in 1942, M.F.K. Fisher describes unorthodox and pointed ways of cooking various types of food in a form of 73 recipes. It was published under the austere conditions of war, when food was scarce and rationed. Fisher proposes recipes like “war cake” – an eggless butterless wartime dessert, which is teaching people how to substitute ingredients and make a dessert out of available (and often surprising) ingredients. 

The title of the book alludes to Fisher’s philosophy, how one can adapt to the harshness of wartime, food rationing and tight budgeting without losing one's dignity and joy in eating. She sublimates the notion of a cookbook, by, first, presenting us with her recipes and then providing meta-commentary, like reminiscing about her delight at no longer enjoying War Cake, although she loved it when she was a child out of necessity or mere lack of gastronomical finesse. This rapport between the recipes and the author literally turns this book into a wartime, food-inspired, modernist self-help book, in its most positive sense.  

Why are we discussing this book now? It’s not just because the author is incredibly witty or its relevance to our current times, but also because it served as an inspiration for the very first collaboration that Rabbits’ Choice has hosted with the artist Maria Cohen and Deep Food. 

The concept of a “Rabbits’ Choice” was conceived by Maria Cohen as an alter ego of herself (and wider society) during the trying times of the Covid epidemic. A rabbit is quite an ambiguous creature, in various cultures it has varying connotations, from ingenuity and trickery to reproduction and fertility. They are also seen as leading a vulnerable existence, living in prescribed social structures due to the large number of predators who hunt them, including wolves. 

However, in the Rabbits’ Choice universe they always have a choice, just as humans do in our society. We can adhere to our prescribed social roles and norms, often driven by shame and fear or we can make a choice to free ourselves and continue on an unexpected, but true path. This is where the question of “How would a rabbit eat a wolf” comes from – if you were a rabbit and the prey-predator role was reversed – what would you do with a wolf and how would you consume him?

Here we come back to the philosophy of M.F.K. Fisher, how do you keep the big bad wolf away from your door? How do you cook the wolf? 

The audience at our collaborative pop-up event was asked this exact question. By turning this question into an embodied edible experience, we offered an intriguing way to consider how humans might find forms of co-being in the presence of conflicting values. 

Participants were invited to the table and asked to imagine how they would cook and eat a wolf if they were rabbits. They typed their answer into an AI chatbot, which was trained on Maria Cohen’s artistic vision and Deep Food’s philosophy. Based on their response, they were offered a tailored edible item representing their affinity with Rabbits’ Choice and Deep Food’s visions. In this exercise we do not just want to keep the wolf away, we want to question the notion of prey-predator relationship, empowering the “prey” to think in radical ways and impregnate the meek rabbit with an abundance of choice and power. If you were a rabbit, how would you eat a wolf?  

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We want to extend our gratitude to our collaborators Deep Food and Joseph Wan.

Their project titled “How to Eat a Wolf” was a special iteration of eXplainable AI for Empathy conceived specifically for the collaboration with Rabbits’ Choice and artist Maria Cohen presented at our first pop-up on 4-5 July 2026 in London. 

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