Ingredients for life include food, books and art
Exhibitions, makers, writers, artists francophiles
Hello Lemonistas,
This week we’re taking a look at food, art and design, inspired by a visit to London’s Design Museum, and less so - the controversial, viral social media story of the US$6.2m sale of a banana attached to a wall with duct tape to a crypto millionaire. Click here for the banana story.
We also have a mini-podcast with writer Carolyn Boyd about her book Amuse Bouche and its many delicious ideas about eating your way around France. Check out our Christmas Food & Travel Gift Book section for more information; see below.
The Design Museum, Fitzwilliam and food in art
Beautifully designed kitchen equipment, graphics and fonts, tables, chairs and even cheese graters get a chance to shine at London’s Design Museum.
Housed in the former Commonwealth Insitute complex, the place offers a shop (great for Christmas presents, such as notebooks and drawing pens), a small cafe and a huge atrium full of students curious and seeking inspiration from the exhibits on show around the balconies. I visited a few days ago and sought out items with a food connection. Here are a few examples of what I found in the space.
SEE Catch it while you can. The London-based Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI), whose annual exhibition includes a section about food called EAT, includes a captivating array of oil paintings, including many still lifes and images of gatherings or individuals enjoying food in various settings. Images include a still life of an olive oil bottle on a shelf alongside a jar of herbs, three red tomatoes still on the vine, and some tin foil by the artist Rupert W Brooks. Another image includes ‘Late Breakfast, Udaipur, India’ by Trevor Chamberlain, which shows four women seated at a table beside a body of water.
ROI artist Sarah Spackman says, food still lifes allow us to slow down and look at everyday objects we often overlook. "Food-based still lifes are a powerful subject matter because they allow us to slow down and look at the everyday things we often overlook," says Oxford-based artist Spackman. "I’ve always been drawn to painting food—eggs, lemons, pears—things with striking colours that stand out against softer backgrounds. Although often vibrant in colour, these are familiar objects found in our kitchens or at the supermarket, but in paintings, they demand a second glance. When you isolate something—a Sicilian lemon in a cherished bowl, a loaf of bread—it takes on a quiet beauty, inviting people to really look at it again.
Visit the show, which is described as showing that ‘Food is far more than sustenance; it is a source of culture, emotion, and inspiration that has captivated artists for centuries. From lavish banquets to humble meals, the ways we eat, what we eat, and where we eat reflect our shared humanity, and we hope that the range of artworks celebrate the theme of EAT in all of its complexities”. Many pictures are available to buy.
Royal Institute of Oil Painters | Annual Exhibition 2024
28 Nov 2024 - 14 Dec 2024 | North, East & West Galleries
Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1.
Click here for more details.
Other current artists using food, especially still lifes, as their muse include:
Jessica Brown (represented by Quantum Contemporary Art (quantumart.co.uk). Devon-based Jessica painted on a prepared board made of lime wood and paints (often with oil) intricate, often hyper-realistic, images reminiscent of the great masters of three hundred years ago.
Florence Houston paints jellies! Having trained in oils at the Charles Cecil Studios in Florence, Italy, Florence found the shiny, colourful and nostalgic jelly the perfect subject in which to specialise.
Sculptors Brian Caster and Deborah Wren work in bronze and ceramic to recreate emotions released as we consider our lifes, be it browsing in an Italian market on a hot day or what makes us human. Check out this list of British artists inspired by food compiled by The Art Teacher.
Meanwhile, at the Smithsonian in Washington DC, the National Museum of American History has lots of food-based creativity available online here. Themes include Julia Child’s kitchen, and the effects of ‘new and improved’ foods, changes to the way American ate between 1950 and 2000, as supermarkets and fast food began to dominate.
EXHIBITION Talking about Julia Child, a new book has just been published in the US about her workplace, the kitchen. Written by Paula Johnson, project director and co-curator of the exhibition “Food: Transforming the American Table” at the Smithsonian it examines the kitchen of one of the 20th century’s most famous and beloved chefs. A US review noted that the book and exhibition plays a respectful homage to Julia Child’s legacy through interviews with those who knew her, a compelling narrative and beautiful photography, the book scrutinizes Child’s recipe test lab—once in her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and now fully intact at the museum. The workspace includes her favourite tools and gadgets, appliances, artwork and décor, books, and more.
Buy the book here.
EXHIBITION Showing until 13 April 2025 at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, is a quartet of oil paintings described as heaving with foods, textiles and decorative items. The show is called ‘Picturing Excess' and features paintings from Dutch Golden Age grandmaster Jan Davidsz De Heem. Featuring still lifes of food and banqueting scenes, the exhibition showcases the artist’s extraordinary technical ability to capture colours and texture. The group includes Banquet Still Life (1643); Fruits and Rich Dishes on a Table (1640); Still Life with Boy and Parrots (1641) and Still Life in a Palatial Setting (1642).
Picturing Excess is free to visit. For more information, click here.
Food & Travel Books Christmas Gift Guide
Amuse Bouche
By Carolyn Boyd
Amuse Bouche is a charming guide to France's best regional cuisine and finest eateries by Carolyn Boyd, a UK-based writer with an intimate knowledge of French cuisine and geography.
Among the many questions you might have about French gastronomy, Carolyn answers thorny questions such as what makes a real salade niçoise, what type of cheese is officially France's stinkiest and who exactly is the Brotherhood of the Knights of the Giant Omelette?
A leading expert on French food and culture, Carolyn shares the stories behind the country's most fascinating foods and ingredients. Spanning every region of France and divided into 200 separate vignettes, each entry blends history and travel, personal anecdotes and recipes.
Listen to The Lemon Grove Podcast with Carolyn Boyd: click the link below
Amuse Bouche is a book to be devoured: a beautifully illustrated, joyous celebration of French food, and a charming, practical guide to inspire your own travels - whether you're a proud Francophile or don't know your ficelle from your flûte.
Read Carolyn’s France Traveller on Substack newsletter here and follow Carolyn on instagram @carolyncboyd
Listen to Gilly Smith’s Cooking The Books podcast with Carolyn here.
And finally, buy Amuse Bouche, How to Eat Your Way Around France, here.
Wild Figs and Fennel: A Year in an Italian Kitchen
By Letitia Clark
Wild Figs & Fennel is both a collection of seasonal recipes and a charming journey into the ease and pleasure that defines Italian life. Chef and food writer Letitia Clark brings together simple Italian flavours and lighter, modern interpretations with an aim to put the best of each seasons ingredients at centre stage. From refreshing summer salads to steaming bowls of wintery pasta, you’ll find classics such as Sausage Lasagne with Ricotta, Pecorino and Fennel and Orange Blossom and Honey Amaretti alongside more creative combinations of Lemon Ricotta Souffle Pancakes, and Ricotta, Lemon and Herb-Stuffed Courgette Flowers. The occasional addition of meat and fish enhances rather than dominates, making these dishes fit seamlessly into a modern way of eating.
Buy the book here.
Cold Kitchen
By Caroline Eden
Caroline Eden, best known for her books travelling and eating in places such as Red Sands, Black Sea, and Samarkand, has published what the Times Literary Supplement calls ‘a hybrid work, part recipe book, part memoir, part travelogue’. Cold Kitchen is themed around twelve recipes, such as a Riga, Latvia-inspired “dark beer and rye bread pudding” and a version of a Polish chłodnik, “Russian hand pies”. The book lyrically describes her journey from central Asia to eastern Europe, alongside her cultural observations and life as an English writer living in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Buy the book here.
Foodie Places
By Sarah Baxter
The latest entry in the long-running ‘Places’ series published White Lion sees Sarah Baxter explore 25 culinary capitals to tell stories of a food intimately linked with place. In Foodie Places, Sarah has chosen such links as bouillabaisse in Marseille, France; obwarzanek from Krakow, Poland, and pho from Hanoi, Vietnam. A tasty read. Buy the book here.
Honourable food and travel book mentions go to the reprinted Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons: Enchanting dishes from the Middle East, Mediterranean and North Africa, by Diana Henry; McAtlas: A Global Guide to the Golden Arches by Gary He; Hokkaido, Recipes from the Seas, Fields and Farmlands of Northern Japan by Tim Anderson. ; The Best American Food and Travel Writing 2024, edited by Padmi Lakshmi, and Foodie Places (Inspired Traveller's Guides) by Sarah Baxter. Finally, The Irish Bakery by Cherie Denham and photographer Andrew Montgomery won the Cookbook of the Year award at the Irish Food Writing Awards and is a worthy addition to the cookbook shelf.
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Bruce McMichael
Writer, Podcaster, Event Host & Cook, Lemonista
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