I’ve been talking about constraints and creativity and cooking off and on for years, especially after I came out of the theater from The Five Obstructions, leaping with glee.

Now Lars von Triers’s devilish little setup has finally been applied to the Brooklyn cook-off sensibility, in an event called The Food Obstructions. I face the five obstructions (at least) nearly every night in my kitchen, and I’m not one for competition, but this does look like fun. I’ll be out of town on the book hustle, though. Perhaps I can recreate the hilarious scene where Jorgen Leth is lying on his hotel-room bed in Cuba, sweating and panicking about his ridiculous challenge…