It is with great sadness that we share the news that Joseph Shuldiner, founding director of the Institute of Domestic Technology, has died. Joseph passed away in November of 2019, from cancer.

Joseph’s innate wellspring of creativity and his ecstatically inquisitive nature formed the foundations of the Institute, driven by his vibrant and expansive spirit. Constantly innovating and pushing the boundaries of how we think about the food we eat, he took pleasure in teaching scores of Institute students to be ever more self-sufficient in the kitchen, challenging the notion that convenience is somehow preferable to a deeper connection with our human need to create.

Extraordinarily generous and endlessly enthusiastic, Joseph was a source of encouragement to countless acolytes, sharing his vast knowledge with friends and strangers alike. He is deeply missed by the many people – family, friends, students, and colleagues – whose lives he immeasurably enriched.

As Institute followers may know, for the last several years Joseph was devoted to writing his magnum opus: a compendium of recipes, techniques, and ideas for making and cooking with homemade ingredients. This essential new approach to from-scratch cooking is drawn from Joseph’s many years of experience teaching, learning, and thinking creatively about food, and will surely inspire a whole generation of intrepid new students.

The IDT Cookbook, officially titled The New Homemade Kitchen, will be released by Chronicle Books on June 2, 2020. A book launch is planned to honor both the cookbook and its esteemed author. Please check back for updates.