Mary Ann Caws is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature, English and French at the Graduate School of the City University of New York. She is the author of many books, including The Modern Art Cookbook and Creative Gatherings: Meeting Places of Modernism, both published by Reaktion Books.
Connecting the senses is what The Modern Art Cookbook is all about
. . . the larger purpose of this delectable anthology is the
association of reading, looking and cooking . . . Mary Ann Caws has
a discriminating eye, a catholic taste, a fine feeling for feeding,
as A. J. Liebling called it, and a wonderfully well-stocked larder
of culture. As a trans-historical truffle-hound she is hard to beat
. . . Mary Ann Caws's purpose is triumphantly achieved. The
marriage of lookery and cookery is beguiling: the total effect is
mouth-watering.
*Alex Danchev, TLS*
The best thing about this beautifully packaged book is the lavish
quantity of coloured plates: still lives and drawings, the odd
photograph, some familiar, others not, all of them of food . . .
[Caws] has paired pictures and recipes in the most imaginative way
. . . A visual feast to salivate over.
*Evening Standard*
Try Cézannes pears and quinces with honey or Roy Lichtensteins
roast fillet of beef. Less a kitchen book than a feast for the
eyes.
* Country Life*
this book provides a rich fund of anecdotes and recipes, mined from
the notebooks and journals of writers and artists who also liked to
cook. Picassos charlotte au chocolat, Cézannes knockout bitter
orange wine, David Hockneys strawberry cake and Roy Lichtensteins
grilled bass all figure here, illustrated by their own or other
artists pictures
* Telegraph Magazine*
a magnificent mélange of art, literature, food and history,
offering the exciting prospect of being able to enjoy dishes by the
world's greatest painters, novelists and poets. Pablo Picassos
Spanish omelette, David Hockneys strawberry cake and Ezra Pounds
Poetic Eggs are top of our list to try.
*Elle Decoration*
Its the rare artist who doesnt occasionally make the antics of the
kitchen the subject of a work or two. But far from offering a dry
review of that phenomenon or a delicious-looking but unfulfilling
cocktail book of plates, Surrealism scholar Mary Ann Caws has
assembled a collection of artists personal writings, from diary
entries to poetry, to examine the connection between art and
paintings in The Modern Art Cookbook.
*Art and Auction*
Beautiful food art, quirky artist recipes, and dinner table gossip
make this book an epicurean treat.
*Foreword Reviews*
a gathering of freely associated artworks, poems, anecdotes, and
recipes all related, if loosely, through comestible delights . . .
the book is a veritable smorgasbord of strange and often charming
details
*ArtNews*
Mouthwatering . . . Captivating images of works by Mary Cassat and
Gustav Klimt are partnered with recipes used by Salvador Dalí and
Frida Kahlo, amounting to the perfect gourmet tour through art
history. Beyond artworks and recipes, the work also includes diary
entries, poems, and bits of correspondence that illuminate arts
long love affair with food. Youll not only learn to cook Monets
madeleines but youll understand why Cezanne had a penchat for
drawing potatoes. If visions of abstract paintings and juicy
roasted vegetables are dancing in your head already, we dont blame
you.
*Huffington Post*
[Caws'] cookbook is a compilation of recipes culled from various
artists repertoires or inspired by their preferences, interspersed
with paintings, photographs, snippets of poems, fiction, and essays
about food or cooking. For instance, theres a recipe called
Cezannes Anchoiade in homage to the daily anchovies he ate rolled
between sautéed eggplant slices on the way to his studio. Instead
of pictures of the finished product, a painting by Julian Merrow
Smith of two silvery anchovies accompanies the recipe . . . What
Caws is doing is highlighting the intersection between the act of
creating art and cooking.
*Bookslut.com*
Ever wanted to make Monet's madeleines or Cezanne's baked tomatoes?
The Modern Art Cookbook offers these recipes and more, with each
recipe either written or inspired by a modernist artist, writer or
poet. In between are art works, letters and excerpts from novels,
giving a fascinating historical account of the intersection of food
and art.
*Viva, New Zealand*
a witty and thought-provoking journey through modern art, sprinkled
in between are numerous recipes from these artists – including Ezra
Pound's poetic eggs and Monet's madeleines.
*Irmas World*
A masterful blend of scholarship,detective work and recipes by
modern masters.This is a gem: wonderful to read and exciting in its
prospect of cooking delicious meals created and eaten by great
artists.
*Frederic Tuten, author of Tintin in the New World and
Van Goghs Bad Cafe*
Who wouldnt want to taste Allen Ginsbergs borscht, Frida Kahlos red
snapper, or Cézannes baked tomatoes? Mary Ann Caws a phenomenal
writer, critic, translator, and curator of cultivated pleasures has
assembled an intoxicating mélange of reminiscences, art works,
poems, and recipes. This savory compendium offers imaginative
satisfactions of the highest order. I cant wait to bake David
Hockneys strawberry cake!
*Wayne Koestenbaum*
One of our leading connoisseurs of Modernist art and literature in
all their manifestations, Mary Ann Caws has here assembled the most
delicious set of anecdotes, paintings, photographs, poems, and, of
course, recipes that present us with the joys of Modernist cuisine.
From Nerudas Ode to an Artichoke to Helen Frankenthalers recipe for
Quick, Heavenly Hors D'oeuvres, to Mallarmés tip to remove the sand
from chanterelle mushrooms but not to wash them before cooking, you
will find your mouth watering! Tomorrow, I plan to try Picassos
recipe for Spanish omelette so simple and practical that it must be
the creation of an artist!
*Marjorie Perloff*
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