What happens when you deep fry a MacBook, plate a military ration like it came out of a Michelin kitchen, and ask a doomsday prepper what's for dinner after civilization ends? George Duran sits down with Brooklyn-based artist and food photographer Henry Hargreaves, whose work turns food into a mirror for how we consume everything else. They get into Deep Fried Gadgets (and the one detail almost everyone missed), the strangest things Americans have actually battered and fried at state fairs — deep fried butter, deep fried Coca-Cola, pickle-topped Oreos — and a few new deep-fry ideas courtesy of ChatGPT that George is genuinely tempted to try.
Then it gets darker and stranger. Henry's Ready for Dinner series took him inside the pantries of doomsday preppers: the man growing tilapia and lettuce in a closed-loop ecosystem, the New Yorker with a bathroom full of water tanks waiting out a West Coast volcano, and the Hasidic prepper keeping a flock of rabbits he's technically not allowed to eat — unless his life depends on it. Plus, Henry's From MRE to Michelin project on the military's Meals Ready to Eat, why the world's best-funded military serves what he describes as tasting like "eating death," and why sealed World War II K-rations now sell for over a thousand dollars.
In the second half, chef, food historian and Market Price mobile oyster bar owner Willow Hubsher cracks open everything most of us get wrong about oysters — why they're more like wine than seafood, what actually separates East Coast from West Coast, how a bad oyster and a dangerous oyster are not the same thing, and the one mental switch that makes shucking stop being scary.
Key Takeaways
- The gadgets were never real. Henry built models of the iPhone, iPad and MacBook for Deep Fried Gadgets — partly thrift, partly because nobody wants to know what a lithium battery does in a deep fryer.
- Deep frying is a storytelling device, not a stunt. The series was about our relationship with technology mirroring our relationship with food: constant, excessive, a little unhealthy.
- State fairs have gone further than you think. Deep fried butter (Iowa, 2011), frozen ranch dressing balls, deep fried Coca-Cola (Texas, 2006), pickle-topped Golden Oreos (Indiana), panko-fried Jell-O, and bacon-cheddar mashed potatoes on a stick in Tulsa. Putting it on a stick "gives it legitimacy."
- Preppers weren't all who you'd expect. Henry interviewed people with wildly different apocalypse theories — and COVID lockdowns handed many of them a victory lap where they suddenly felt vindicated.
- The best prepper setup wasn't freeze-dried at all. One had a fully circular ecosystem: fast-growing tilapia whose water byproduct fed a lettuce crop. Tilapia and greens until the clock runs out.
- Food fight on the battlefield: Henry found the American MRE consistently among the least edible he sampled across militaries, despite the US having the world's best-funded military. The French and Russian rations were noticeably better considered.
- Ration collecting is a real market. An unopened early WWII K-ration runs about $395; a sealed supper unit $880; a complete dinner unit $1,000; a three-piece set around $1,400. The notorious "omelette with ham" — nicknamed the egg brick or the vomlet — was discontinued and became a collector's legend.
- An oyster isn't fishy. Willow describes it as "kissing the ocean" — salty, briny, ocean water with a bite. Steamed clams are far fishier.
- Oysters are terroir, like wine. Salinity, location, and weather events during the oyster's lifetime — a freeze, drought, deluge or hurricane — all shape flavor. Part nature, part nurture.
- East vs. West is oversimplified but useful. East Coast reads brinier (currents come up from the Caribbean); West Coast reads more metallic with a cucumber-melon finish (currents come down from Alaska). US East Coast oysters are best October through March; West Coast has less seasonality.
- Every oyster at a raw bar is alive. Stored properly, an oyster keeps three to four weeks from its harvest date — Great South Bay oysters were shipped alive to Buckingham Palace in the 1700s, before steam engines.
- A bad oyster and a dangerous oyster are not the same thing. Rot you can smell; parasites and bacteria you cannot screen for by taste or smell — which is exactly why pregnant women are advised to skip them.
- Don't purge oysters. Never submerge them in water — unlike mussels, they can drown. About 98% of oysters you'll encounter are farmed.
- Shucking is leverage, not force. Think crowbar, not knife. Willow's three criteria: it's open, it looks pretty, and you didn't hurt yourself.
- Toppings should be acid. Willow is a purist on a good winter oyster; otherwise lemon or a mignonette (any real vinegar plus a chopped allium).
People & Companies Mentioned
- Henry Hargreaves — Brooklyn-based artist and food photographer; series include Deep Fried Gadgets, Ready for Dinner, From MRE to Michelin, and Food Scans; https://henryhargreaves.com
- Willow Hubsher — Chef, food historian, oyster expert; owner of Market Price, a mobile oyster bar in Brooklyn offering private parties, pop-ups and shucking classes; https://www.marketpricebk.com
- Market Price (Market Price BK) — Brooklyn mobile oyster bar and shucking-class company founded ~3 years ago, grown out of rooftop oyster-and-wine tastings
- National Geographic — Network behind the Doomsday Preppers series; a producer friend warned Henry off interviewing preppers
- Bridgford Foods — Producer of the shelf-stable pepperoni pizza MRE introduced to the US military in 2018
- Coca-Cola — Subject of the deep fried Coca-Cola sold at the Texas State Fair (2006)
- Oreo (Golden Oreos) — Base of the pickle-topped fried Oreos at the Indiana State Fair
- ChatGPT / OpenAI — Asked to invent new state-fair deep-fry concepts (avocado toast, cottage cheese, kimchi, tuna tartare, and double-fried french fries)
- CivicScience — Source of the 2025 survey cited: 35% of Americans stockpile for a doomsday scenario; 77% of those expect to be affected by a disaster within a year
- Reuters — Source cited for ~7 million US households able to survive independently for at least 31 days
- State fairs referenced — Iowa State Fair, Texas State Fair, Indiana State Fair, Tulsa State Fair
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