By: Alex Masse, Peak Associate
Jules Sherred’s Crip Up The Kitchen is a debut cookbook with a twist — it’s written by and for disabled people, giving them the tools to prepare food for themselves and others. The book contains dozens of recipes, as well as advice on everything from shopping to kitchen safety.
Sherred’s love of food goes back to his youth, which he spent in what he calls “a very multicultural environment,” giving him the chance to fall in love with a broad range of food, as well as a wider understanding of food as hospitality.
“All of these great world cultures were what I grew up with,” Sherred said. “[My] comfort food is very much flavour, and spice, and things that warm you up.”
His disabilities, though, interfered with his ability to work in the kitchen, which he calls “the most ableist room in the house,” and a “place of beauty” that prioritizes “aesthetics over function.” For example, even though Sherred’s kitchen is up to code, his wheelchair cannot comfortably navigate inside it. Additionally, due to his mobility issues and chronic pain, his days of cooking for “five-plus hours” are now behind him.
Enter the Instant Pot, an automated multicooker that made cooking accessible again. While initially skeptical, Sherred soon discovered Urvashi Pitre, who lived with rheumatoid arthritis and used the Instant Pot herself.
“As I was watching her cook, I was like, oh, now I get it,” Sherred said. Presently, he estimates about ninety percent of his cooking is done in his Instant Pot.
With the disability experience being incredibly varied, encompassing mobility issues, chronic pain, cognitive symptoms such as brain fog, and more, it can be daunting trying to find a solution that is accessible for everyone. Sherred, though, who experiences all three, states that the Instant Pot accommodates him perfectly: “No matter what type of brain day, pain day, or mobility day [ . . . ] I can just throw stuff into a pot, put on a lid, [and] walk away.”
Additionally, Crip Up The Kitchen builds on the theories and language of disability writers before Sherred: throughout the book, he employs spoon theory to outline how strenuous recipes may be to undertake. Spoon theory, a concept coined by Christine Miserandino in 2003, explores how many disabled people across diagnoses find themselves with less energy than abled people — abled people have “cups” full of energy, while disabled people only have “spoonfuls,” which are easier to spend and harder to replenish. Sherred uses this familiar language in Crip Up The Kitchen, with recipes getting a range of spoon counts, from one to “all your spoons.”
The cookbook also contains dishes from a range of cultures, which Sherred states was incredibly important for him to represent, citing how the recipes many people of colour grow up making and eating are often mocked and exoticized. To him, everyone deserves accessible approaches to their comfort food, regardless of background.
“I have a duty to use my white privilege,” Sherred said, “making sure everyone is included . . . I have an intimate understanding of what it’s like to be erased.”
Currently, Sherred has two new manuscripts in the works. One is a coming-of-age novel about reproductive rights, featuring a transgender protagonist, and the other is a successor to Crip Up The Kitchen, which will focus on baking with an air fryer. To get the latest updates, including future calls for recipe testers, which will be coming “very, very soon,” sign up for Sherred newsletter on his website. Crip Up The Kitchen is available now directly from Torchwood Editions, as well as your local bookstores, including Massy Books, Iron Dog Books, and more.
