Bartolomeo Bimbi – Sour Cherry Turnovers with Goat Cheese
Bartolomeo Bimbi, Cherries (1699), Poggio a Caiano, Villa Medicea The Florentine still life painter Bartolomeo Bimbi (1648-1729) enjoyed the patronage of the Medici family and to this day, several of his works can still be found in the Medici villas (including the painting above). Bimbi worked in a large scale and his paintings are often...
Adriaen Coorte – Pickled Asparagus
Adriaen Coorte, A bundle of asparagus (1703), 30 x 23 cm, oil on canvas, Fitzwilliam Museum The Dutch Golden Age painter Adriaen Coorte was relatively unknown until the mid-20th century when a Dutch art historian began publishing papers about his work (1). This may have been because he was not a master in the local...
Florentine Ricotta, Prosciutto & Walnut Salad with Cranberry Balsamic Dressing
Florentine artist, The Flour Bolter of Baldassarre Sauarez, Known as Il Mantenuto (1650), Florence, Accademia della Crusca According to Silva Malaguzzi in Food and Feasting in Art, this work of art was commissioned by the Accademia della Crusca. It was tradition for each academician “to choose a nickname associated with flour.” The motto translates to...
Paul Cézanne – Chocolate Ginger Cake with Simmered Oranges
Paul Cézanne, Still Life with Ginger Jar, Sugar Bowl, and Oranges (1902-06)Oil on canvas, 60.6 x 73.3 cm, MOMA Paul Cézanne‘s Still Life with Ginger Jar, Sugar Bowl, and Oranges was painted during a period of turmoil in his personal life and completed in the year of his death, 1906. After an estrangement from his...
Henri Matisse – Apple & Shallot Croquettes
As a Midwest girl I was very excited when Chicago blogger Dana from Real Food Rehab sent me an email regarding a collaboration. She very kindly interviewed me for her site and we quickly began to assemble ideas. The Art Institute of Chicago has always been very near and dear to my heart (it houses...
John Olsen – BBQ Tikka Prawns
Culinaria – The Cuisine of the Sun is an exhibition of paintings by the artist John Olsen that recently opened here in Sydney at the Tim Olsen Gallery. The show is enjoyable for anyone who is interested in food or art as it contains a collection of paintings in Olsen’s signature squiggly style of all...
Damien Hirst – Cineole Cupcakes
Cupcakes and pharmaceuticals are not a likely combination but I stayed true to the spot painting production and created a slightly different shade for each little cake and arranged them in a random order. The cake is the red velvet variety sans the red colouring. It is moist and rich and wonderfully sour paired with...
Willem Kalf – Papegaaientongetjes (Parrot Tongues)
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...
Frida Kahlo – Jalapeño Cheddar Cornbread
Frida Kahlo, Fruits of the Earth (1938-39)oil on masonite, 40.6 x 60 cm, Coleccion Banco Nacional de Mexico In the painting Fruits of the Earth (1938-39), Frida Kahlo‘s subjects defy gravity. The foodstuffs sit upon a horizontal picture plane with no shadow, denoting a high perspectival point. There is a particular focus upon the corn,...
Antoine Vollon – Parmesan Mustard Shortbread
My favorite recipes are those that intertwine the idea of sweet and savory. When I mentioned to a friend that my next still life painting was titled Mound of Butter (1875-85) she suggested I make shortbread. Updating the typical sweet cookie recipe into a savory biscuit makes the perfect base for a roasted tomato or...
Frida Kahlo – Roasted Chicken with Pumpkin Mole
I tasted my first authentic mole in Mexico City on a History of Art trip to study the art of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. With the vibrant paintings swirling through my head, I became completely intoxicated with mole poblano. From the Mexican word molli meaning ‘concoction,’ mole is commonly known in the combined form...
Johann Christian Berndt – Pear, Goat Cheese & Prosciutto Pizza
Johann Christian Berndt, Plate 21 (1809-1812), colour plate of pear varieties from Johann Ludwig Christ’s book, Vollständige pomologie, Royal Horticultural Society Johann Christian Berndt was a German copper engraver who worked in Frankfurt in the late-18th and early-19th century. He contributed to the botanical book Vollständige pomologie (Complete Pomology) by Johann Ludwig Christ. Pomology refers...