Sunday, March 15, 2009

le chose du jour



I've always admired the fun that Europeans manage to inject into their graphic design sensibility. They don't shy away from the silly, the lower-case, the cartoon, even when dealing with serious subjects.
Imagine my delight when I stumbled across these two little gems.



The first is Los Bajos de la Alta Cocina (loose translation: "the lows of high cuisine", which comes to us from Chef Aduriz at the amazing Mugaritz, outside of San Sebastian. The second is a fuego negro: pintxos y viƱetas(loose translation: "a fuego negro: small plates and cartoons"), from the young chefs at one of my favorite places in the world, A Fuego Negro, in San Sebastian.
Leave it to the most innovative chefs to fuse cooking with art in a whole new way. These books bring the graphic novel into the kitchen. The Mugaritz book is hilarious, featuring the misadventures that come with a michelin-starred restaurant. A Fuego Negro's book is a bit more of a history, and includes a very nice selection of recipes. I'm seriously salivating over both, at a level comparable to the last time I was in their dining rooms.

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