Cookbooks for art lovers

We love cook books with an artistic or museum bent.

Here are our favourites - all great reads and wonderful presents for foodie art lovers.

The Modern Art Cookbook

Less of a cookbook, more a feast for the eyes, Mary Ann Caw's Modern Art Cookbook is a beautifully produced survey of how artists and writers have eaten, cooked and depicted food.

The book is filled with reproductions of still lifes, photographs and drawings from the the impressionists to cubists and surrealists, and pairs these artworks with snippets from novels and letters and quirky recipes culled from artists including Picasso, van Gogh and Kahlo. 

If you fancy trying your hand at Pablo Picasso's sangria, Cezanne's pears and quinces with honey or Frida Kahlo's red snapper, this is the book for you.

 

The Classical Cookbook

This wonderful book published by the British Museum is a collection of some 50 recipes drawn from the Greek and Roman writings and presented alongside delightful scenes of food, hunters, and revellers from wall paintings, mosaics, and Greek vases.

Each original recipe is followed by a version for today’s cook and recipes include honey glazed prawns, olive relish, cabbage the Athenian way and sweet wine cakes.



This whimsical book is a provocative example of Italian Futurist thinking rather than a traditional cook book.

Alongside a call to ban pasta, sit recipes such as 'Diabolical Roses' -the deep-fried heads of red roses in full bloom and 'Milk in a Green Light' which consists of a large bowl of cold milk with a couple teaspoons of honey, dark grapes, and red radishes illuminated by a green light.



Written by pasty chef, Caitlin Freeman, this is a recipe book of desserts inspired by artworks in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. 

There are 27 recipes for show-stopping desserts including Matisse parfait, Mondrian cake to Thiebaud chocolate cake. Each one includes step-by-step detailed explanations, a picture of the dessert, a reproduction and description of the original artwork.

The book also gives insight into Freeman’s process and even the details of failed attempts - one of which involved a cease-and-desist from Richard Serra.

This is a fun book filled with inspiration for the artistic baker.



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