Feasting on Art

The day Ozoz’s package from the Netherlands arrived was a very exciting one, not only because of the delicious caramel cookies but  also the beautiful cookbook filled with the things I love. Ozoz writes the food blog Kitchen Butterfly and is one of the most dedicated bloggers I read, posting every other day. She kindly sent me a copy of the cookbook Dutch Culinary Art which she first wrote about on her blog back in December after meeting two of the three writers. The book is filled with traditional recipes introduced by sweet little anecdotes about their origin and history. Dispersed throughout are opulent still lifes and pleasant kitchen scenes. Ozoz’s blog is more than just a record of recipes and culinary delights, she provides useful travel guides as well as everything you would need to know about food before visiting the Netherlands. I only wish I knew about her blog when I lived in the UK and frequented the ‘Orange Country‘ – her affectionate name for the Dutch countryside. Thank you again Ozoz for the beautiful book and for working with me on this collaboration!

Visit Ozoz’s blog Kitchen Butterfly for a recipe for Pumpkin Ice Cream & Lemonettes.

Willem Kalf, Still Life with a Chinese Tureen, 1662
oil on canvas, 64 x 53cm, Staatliche Museen, Berlin

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Hello friends!! On April 3rd Feasting on Art will be one year old! I am very proud of this site and to celebrate I am holding a recipe competition. To perpetuate the dialogue about food and art I want to get all of my readers involved so don’t be shy, even if you’ve never left a comment please participate! The very first painting I posted here was a still life by Renoir and it seemed only appropriate to post another of his paintings a year later. I chose a still life that could be adapted to either a sweet or savory recipe, see my posts for Strawberry BBQ Pulled Pork, Strawberry Shortcake, and Berry Vlaai for inspiration. I know that many of you are in the middle of winter so feel free to use frozen strawberries, strawberry jam or even a flavored liquor or vodka in your recipes. Also don’t assume strawberries have to be the central ingredient, you could make a lot of interesting things with lemon using strawberry as an accompaniment. You can find the contest and prize details below.

Pierre Auguste Renoir, Strawberries, 1905
oil on canvas, 46 x 28 cm, Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, France

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I am so happy to reinstate the monthly collaborative feature here on Feasting on Art. Alyson, the designer behind the website redesign, is also the blogger behind the charming design site, Unruly Things. I visit her blog daily to gush over pretty vintage finds and inspiring photography. In addition to her design company Seventy & Sunny, Alyson runs a letterpress shop called Postal Press where her appreciation for specimen charts manifested into a letterpress calendar. It seemed only appropriate that we would deconstruct a botanical art illustration.

Visit Alyson’s blog, Unruly Things, for the recipe for Pear Almond Sticky Buns.

Johann Christian Berndt, Plate 21, 1809-1812,
colour plate of pear varieties from Johann Ludwig Christ’s book, Vollständige pomologie, Royal Horticultural Society
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In her beautifully composed photographs, Marian Drew includes the lifeless bodies of Australian fauna collected from the side of the road. The photographs represent a meeting of Europe and Australia through the insertion of wallabies, kangaroos, and possums into the still life tradition. The images assume a painterly tone achieved by long exposures and careful application of light via torch. This process allows Drew to highlight important elements in the composition as well as experiment with shadow as a form.

Marian Drew, Crow with Salt, 2006
digital image on German etching paper, 112 x 134 cm, from the series Art Fair

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Originally I started this blog to establish a forum to study and write about art as well as experiment in the kitchen (experimenting with photography was an added bonus!). I do however, have certain goals, one of which is to curate an exhibition revolving around the idea of a meal. I won’t go into detail but you can imagine my delight when I discovered Caitlin Williams Freeman’s Mondrian Cake from the cafe at the San Francisco Museum of Art. It is my dream! In cake form!! I decided I had to make one but I wanted my version to be easily recreated in any home kitchen. The cake was delicious but there are a few things I will change the next time I try this recipe. First, I will use angel food cake rather than pound cake – I think it would better absorb the natural food coloring and not appear so yellow. Secondly, I will try mixing the berry juices into the batter to see if I can achieve an even stain. Although the slice of cake pictured below turned out pretty even, my results throughout the rest of the cake were spotty at best. Finally, I would wrap the outside in fondant to hold all of the segments together. Using the natural food colorings will not achieve the bright results found in Freeman’s cake but it does provide a pretty tasty way to insert a bit a flavor into each slice.

The painting recreation was inspired by Bridget from The Way the Cookie Crumbles.

Piet Mondrian, Composition No. 8, 1939-42
Oil on canvas, 74 x 68 cm, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth

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