Culinary Memories

The Many Ways of Viewing (Cook)Book History

Back in the sands of time (9 years ago) I was still deep in my career in rare books and museums, and as a part of that work, I developed an exhibition examining cookbooks and book history through the seemingly very disparate lenses of MFK Fisher's translation of Brillat-Savarin, and Salvador Dali’s Diners de Gala cookbook.

These don't, on the surface, make a lot of sense as comparative texts, outside of the fact that they both broadly deal with food: But in working with both, I was able to draw connections for museum visitors who otherwise might have found cookbook history to be a boring or dry subject.

Recently, I decided to revisit the text from this old exhibit, and thought I'd revive it here, with some extra context and discussion to go around the original text.

I'm big into finding themes as a way of categorizing broad, messy, interdisciplinary topics, and just like I did with Our Fermented Lives, I located themes for this work too. Those themes are rooted in Fisher's and Brillat-Savarin's work, and I use them to tie together broader concepts of book and food history.

Why these books?

There are plenty of versions of Brillat-Savarin's writing out there: But my beat up copy of MFK Fisher's translation, filled with marginalia, remains my forever favorite. The combination of both their work feels like a naturally flowing conversation, and as a reader it feels like a conversation I'm a part of.

The Dali book is very different: Meant to be experienced as a viewer experiencing Dali's work rather than participating and reflecting. It's more exhibition than conversation.

One is all text, no illustrations, and more of a philosophical musing on the nature of food and eating, while the other is (kind of) a cookbook with a metallic gold cover, glossy, full color image-splashed pages, and its own musings on food.

Where did their seemingly very different works overlap? Where did they diverge? Through the lens of these two books, I considered the different ways we experience food physically, emotionally, and socially.

And it started with the imagined conversation below.

I'll be sharing each theme over the coming weeks, but today, we're beginning with the introductory text on cookbook history, an introduction to both books and their authors, and orienting you into the approach I took in writing this work and organizing the exhibit.

Where it makes sense throughout this series, I'll also connect each to different recipes and essays in this newsletter along with artifacts used in the exhibit.

I've also included some reflection/discussion questions: And I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments or the subscriber chat!