'You're Cooked' Is a Cookbook In Packaging That Resembles a Fire Blanket Box
by Rudy Sanchez on 12/19/2022 | 2 Minute Read
Half of the fatal home fires in New Zealand are related to drug or alcohol intoxication. Sure, getting the munchies is easy after tossing a few back, but cooking requires a clear head, especially around the pointy bits of knives, the oven's heat, and the stove's fire.
New Zealand Fire and Emergency gets it; you’re hungry. But they’d instead have you leave the stove and oven in the off position. To that end, they released a collection of safer recipes that satisfy and are easy enough to make when you’ve indulged to the point of intoxication and help reduce house fires.
The “You’re Cooked” awareness campaign features mostly basic eats, like canned beans on toast. Others have more appetite appeal, like the chugget (chicken nugget) sandwich and the people’s nachos. Some are downright bizarre, like kiwi onion carbonara, which might be bad enough to trigger an international incident with Italy. Then there’s the cheeky recipe for leftover lasagna, which is really just a suggestion to eat your roommate’s food.
Working with Motion Sickness studio, Think Packaging, and Fraser Chatham, You’re Cooked also includes a physical cookbook in packaging that resembles a mounted fire blanket. Two tabs hang along the bottom of the book, just like an actual fire blanket box, and tugging on them opens the bottom flap, releasing the cookbook. The campaign’s logo resembles an intoxicated point-of-view, and the top of the box gets branded with New Zealand’s Fire and Emergency logo.
House fires are serious business, and the results can be devastating, even fatal. You’re Cooked's light-hearted campaign raises awareness over the dangers of cooking while drunk or stoned and includes safe recipes in a superbly designed book, though it’s unlikely it will win any James Beard Foundation awards.
Images by Fraser Chatham.