Those people at Penguin Books have the right idea: The way to our bookshelves is through our stomachs. Their new paperback series, out in April, is Great Food, 20 examples of “the finest food writing from the last 400 years.” The usual suspects are represented—M.F.K. Fisher, Elizabeth David, Calvin Trillin—but also Alexandre Dumas, Samuel Pepys and Alice B. Toklas (who “includes a friend’s playful recipe for ‘Haschiche Fudge’, which promises ‘brilliant storms of laughter and ecstatic reveries'”), and a host of lesser-knowns.
Best of all, the covers were done by the endlessly talented Coralie Bickford-Smith, who has designed each one around a ceramic style appropriate to the period covered. The Creative Review offers a taste, including some of the gorgeous details—embossed lettering (Stephen Raw’s wonderful calligraphy, which is always a plus), spot varnish, and a little penguin armed with knife and fork, ready to go.
I’m ready to go on these as well. Penguin just might make a completist out of me on this batch.
