Food city area: Art and Artists

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Food in Art and Art in Food

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJSQmmcsOfR8r7GWEX76E7F9_k8Xf7D0LnHdAekfttGzlJ1tyJv5ap1-6Oa2G0c0M1XCUyHutSVdMmqf-mi0lZjabWSbZ5LAPPspTgBNAP4OAumaHlqRAyhYaHGaexQqRHixULFiypKzul/s1600/varriano6079.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJSQmmcsOfR8r7GWEX76E7F9_k8Xf7D0LnHdAekfttGzlJ1tyJv5ap1-6Oa2G0c0M1XCUyHutSVdMmqf-mi0lZjabWSbZ5LAPPspTgBNAP4OAumaHlqRAyhYaHGaexQqRHixULFiypKzul/s1600/varriano6079.jpg" width="238" /></a></div><i>Tastes and Temptations: Food and Art in Renaissance Italy</i> by John Varriano is like a banquet of fascinating concepts. I felt, when reading it, as if I have been waiting for such a book to tell me many things I wanted to learn about the relationship of food and art!<br /><br />Italian Renaissance cookbooks and books on the art of cooking inform one of the most interesting parts of the study. Varriano compares developments in food theory to developments in art theory. He shows, by many examples, how these two focal points of Renaissance thought are parallel.<br /><br />Intellectual and culinary currents in the Renaissance are linked in ways I found remarkable. Early paintings used a background of gold, with rather stiff colors and skin tones in the human subjects. Painters slowly developed more naturalistic ways to present human forms -- and in this process, they employed a number of food substances. Egg as a medium for tempera, a number of different oils as a medium for paint, and pigments from foods like saffron provided a variety of effects that the innovative artists explored. Renaissance cooks, meanwhile were also developing new uses for oils, eggs, and of course many other foods. Varriano summarizes these trends:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"By 1500 oil had replaced eggs as artists' binder of choice, whereas cooks continued to choose from an array of possibilities. Whichever method they adopted, it derived from somewhere else -- oil paint from Flanders, cooking oil from Arabia, and butter from northern Europe. Collectively, these ingredients became essential to the creation of Italian Renaissance tastes; indeed, many of the visual and gustatory refinements of the period could not have taken place without them." (p. 159)</blockquote><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGuOo-_gSB9J-Z4T2yU5jecAta_AeR_UzlwQ6pY0Dp-VYImIL1I2j3nU4FVG2HIBFkgzxwdqgFDDNL0tNrf8IGbGQ12wTGy1vGPxRwa_uDNdk_hAX4ocrBG_MloX68PxnstkRpSYSlrjhJ/s1600/Cellini-Salt-Cellar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGuOo-_gSB9J-Z4T2yU5jecAta_AeR_UzlwQ6pY0Dp-VYImIL1I2j3nU4FVG2HIBFkgzxwdqgFDDNL0tNrf8IGbGQ12wTGy1vGPxRwa_uDNdk_hAX4ocrBG_MloX68PxnstkRpSYSlrjhJ/s1600/Cellini-Salt-Cellar.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cellini Salt Cellar</td></tr></tbody></table>Art works were sometimes made directly from foods. Sugar sculptures were popular as a luxurious way to decorate the large and opulent dining tables of the richest Renaissance princes and churchmen. Varriano gives many examples of how the sugar statues were made and decorated with gold or with colors. Some were made in molds that also were used for metal objects of greater permanence. Architectural and other decorative banquet items were also made from cheese, salami, capons and other unexpected foodstuffs. (They really make this weekend's <i>L.A.Times</i> <a href="http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-super-bowl-2014-how-to-create-stadium-of-food-game-day-cocktail-20140130,0,39810.story#axzz2sDhpTKYF">Super Bowl stadium made of various foods</a> look pitiful! )<br /><br /><i>Tastes and Temptations</i> also discusses the development, in this era, of different types of elegant tableware, including pottery dishes decorated with classical figures and elaborate metalworks. I've seen many of these in art museums, and felt that the description gave me quite a bit of insight into what I've seen. The famous gold salt cellar of Benvenuto Cellini, shown above, is one of these objects.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJbgM0sG0lDqQy99fypRP1GBwf0R1IYH1mCMmPGy_v1mFvGvCvbZyVcYxwdadSNk4A9ET455OKkdAyRpTxY9Pxdivb_UQJWhv_K2I2CnPCSLBkCg8kNIJ0xjoqX_KHKAyA9PP0LRMNPW9T/s1600/Annibale_Carracci_The_Beaneater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJbgM0sG0lDqQy99fypRP1GBwf0R1IYH1mCMmPGy_v1mFvGvCvbZyVcYxwdadSNk4A9ET455OKkdAyRpTxY9Pxdivb_UQJWhv_K2I2CnPCSLBkCg8kNIJ0xjoqX_KHKAyA9PP0LRMNPW9T/s1600/Annibale_Carracci_The_Beaneater.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The Bean Eater"</td></tr></tbody></table>Still life paintings, religious paintings of subjects like The Last Supper, and paintings of ordinary people and shopkeepers all provide material for studying food as the subject of art. Each of the author's treatments offered new insights about the paintings under discussion. For example, about Annibale Caracci's work "The Bean Eater," Varriano wrote:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"Judging from the man's garb and demeanor, he is clearly a <i>villino</i>, or country bumpkin. The meal so carefully laid out before him is consistent with the peasant diet... beans, dark bread, a t<i>orta da bietola</i> (chard pie), scallions, and red wine -- all foods 'not to be eaten except by those who labor hard.' But in this context, the food probably signifies something more than lower-class humors and appetites."(p. 139)</blockquote>In fact, scallions "incite the libido... Thus, a link between food, sex, and procreation may underlie the eroticism of many of these Italian genre scenes," continued Varriano. He gave illustrations from various writers about the effect of foods on the humors -- that is, Renaissance health theories, and showed how these theories were reflected in various paintings. All, I find, just fascinating.

Food in Art and Art in Food

Tastes and Temptations: Food and Art in Renaissance Italy by John Varriano is like a banquet of fascinating concepts. I felt, when reading ...

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04.30

Thanksgiving Pictures from "Art and Appetite"

Thanksgiving Pictures from "Art and Appetite"

Doris Lee, "Thanksgiving" (1935) "It may be hard to fathom today how Lee's colorfully cheerful depiction of food preparat...

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18.38

Wordless Wednesday: New Book, Old Book

Wordless Wednesday: New Book, Old Book

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05.32

Coming soon...

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFbZmcWd-GqFU-E1MAd-Ejd8nBMqkdSMIquNiW_y6Ojfw3pNbEmJJwSVTG8B3PswR1g7XIQBDvujCHRu60EwosR6XwQY5kJ51P4ifvIJppQSnyFY6NVhQHtPW-84zPXKzh-jcS7pAZQd5l/s1600/art-appetite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFbZmcWd-GqFU-E1MAd-Ejd8nBMqkdSMIquNiW_y6Ojfw3pNbEmJJwSVTG8B3PswR1g7XIQBDvujCHRu60EwosR6XwQY5kJ51P4ifvIJppQSnyFY6NVhQHtPW-84zPXKzh-jcS7pAZQd5l/s400/art-appetite.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />I spent several hours at the Chicago Art Institute today, enjoying their vast collections of American art, Impressionism, African art, Asian sculpture and ceramics, and more. Sadly, an exhibit that I would love to see doesn't start until next week.<br /><br />The saddest part: many paintings that represent culture and cuisine are not on view now -- for example, "Nighthawks" which I wrote about earlier this week. There is little chance for me to get back to Chicago before the show ends January 27, but maybe I'll at least be able to get a copy of the catalog -- no, it wasn't available in the gift shop yet!<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4VapkvCoGHbJjNG41sBmX8yGL0NUqLbbxURmP2BpZEYlnK8hKJpq5haEkI6o4W5scLWKY-Q48mBG0S7Z08yFbTNbjw6amMcWqAZeqqSg0cAbFqkiHcqz1rVRmfOCBfJy984coTWgyb7hW/s1600/candypile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4VapkvCoGHbJjNG41sBmX8yGL0NUqLbbxURmP2BpZEYlnK8hKJpq5haEkI6o4W5scLWKY-Q48mBG0S7Z08yFbTNbjw6amMcWqAZeqqSg0cAbFqkiHcqz1rVRmfOCBfJy984coTWgyb7hW/s640/candypile.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">But there was a candy pile by artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres <br />(who also did the <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2009/01/edible-art-photos-from-fort-worth.html">green candy in Fort Worth</a>).<br />You can eat the candy -- <a href="http://www.timeoutchicago.com/things-to-do/this-week-in-chicago/16153426/art-institute-candy-sculpture-what%E2%80%99s-up-with-that">here's how it works!</a><br />(This caption has been updated to correct the name of the artist and give links.)</td></tr></tbody></table><br />

Coming soon...

I spent several hours at the Chicago Art Institute today, enjoying their vast collections of American art, Impressionism, African art, Asian...

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15.09

Wordless Wednesday: Hopper's Nighthawks

Wordless Wednesday: Hopper's Nighthawks

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03.42

Ideal 20th Century Kitchens

Ideal 20th Century Kitchens

Nick and Nora Charles and Asta in "The Thin Man" -- The Art Deco backgrounds of their beautiful apartment included a pure 1930s ki...

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06.54

Twentieth Century Kitchens

When we want to know what a kitchen was like in the 17th or 18th century, we take a look at the paintings and other art works of the artists of that time. Works by Chardin (1699-1779) in France or Jan Steen (1626- 1669) and many others during the Dutch Golden Age give us wonderful insight into life in those times, including lives of kitchen maids and the atmosphere of various public dining places and food-centered events. I've written about these representations of French and Dutch kitchens <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2013/01/eighteenth-century-french-kitchens.html">here</a> and <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/search?q=Dutch+Golden+age">here</a>.  Though I haven't focused on it, English tradition also includes various indoor kitchen and tavern or inn-keeper scenes from the 18th through early 20th centuries.<br /><br />What about our own time? Do our great artists give us insight into life in our own kitchens and public dining spaces? Or has photography or some change in the role of art made such things obsolete?<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXu7V_D7VLSFKPJ32YgBQ7Zj4rs7nmE9bst9ajGauh_g85-XwPTZLV0UiC4WCcDFtCC2gCyI2H53G2PTI1l76YuS3yuh0cUKpLfXUmT2lubGqisBAb4gJ_vZEAbJq9ReOqOF-pjON4Af6E/s1600/rockwell-kitchen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXu7V_D7VLSFKPJ32YgBQ7Zj4rs7nmE9bst9ajGauh_g85-XwPTZLV0UiC4WCcDFtCC2gCyI2H53G2PTI1l76YuS3yuh0cUKpLfXUmT2lubGqisBAb4gJ_vZEAbJq9ReOqOF-pjON4Af6E/s400/rockwell-kitchen.jpg" width="302" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Norman Rockwell, Saturday Evening Post Cover, 1945.</td></tr></tbody></table>The artist that most quickly comes to mind is Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), whose subject was everyday life in mid-20th century America. Lots of pictures show Americans at table, about to eat a festive meal like Thanksgiving, or other scenes about everyday life. I've chosen the image at left because it reminds me of the earlier artists' work where a kitchen maid might be working on some task, holding a bowl in her lap. America is of course a land without servants -- the first visible fact of this painting is that the returning soldier is helping out his mom. No question, though, it conveys a great deal about American life in 1945, which I feel no need to spell out.<br /><br />Big question: is Rockwell really comparable to Chardin, Steen, and other painters of the Dutch Golden Age or of Victorian scenes? I'm not very well-educated about art theory, but I say yes, he's quite similar in many ways, not just in his choices of every-day themes and subjects, but also in his ability and power as a visual communicator. Why get more theoretical about art than that?<br /><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGFyqXyO9EYTfgIRHuIkbMUbI6YVlJG5rs0NbB9NOfUwUon2kr2ZSiSMwDdpzGLd2sf-HR-971yJ5-CHZUQywGkCvqYJ7kRpCFR4MCDbkxKDVA6UN0xq4qVnDcQh-QTjCoLvEVS3Drj61u/s1600/hopper-chop-suey-1929.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGFyqXyO9EYTfgIRHuIkbMUbI6YVlJG5rs0NbB9NOfUwUon2kr2ZSiSMwDdpzGLd2sf-HR-971yJ5-CHZUQywGkCvqYJ7kRpCFR4MCDbkxKDVA6UN0xq4qVnDcQh-QTjCoLvEVS3Drj61u/s320/hopper-chop-suey-1929.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edward Hopper, "Chop Suey" 1929</td></tr></tbody></table>Edward Hopper (1882-1967) chose the interior of restaurants as his subject for at least a couple of very famous paintings. In "Chop Suey" (right) and "Automat" he shows women at the table in a restaurant. The women in "Chop Suey" are evidently having a cup of tea and a conversation, and other diners are also in the frame. In "Automat" the woman is alone, strikingly alone.  Hopper's iconic <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2013/10/wordless-wednesday-hoppers-nighthawks.html">"Nighthawks" -- showing several people inside a diner</a> -- is the most famous like these.<br /><br />In a few hundred years I think people who want to get a visual impression of dining in the 20th century will be as interested in these images as we are in Chardin's or Steen's depictions of their day. Yes, there were other styles of art than Hopper and Rockwell, styles that were in many ways more dominant -- and didn't depict any dining events or kitchen interiors, or in many cases didn't depict any recognizable objects.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9eYlW6ssvqp7g8lBHOBzo7diJnDq2AfpJMvm5X0qv17cgxPqIxFkNzJcrlA5nmMacP18ZhNMxdHQdDrUFApHD9ROHKi2AnVj8Q7RToLO0X2BU_bK1wlFwVCXkxpAKPtaBd8O-imZ0unmo/s1600/okeefee-1961.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9eYlW6ssvqp7g8lBHOBzo7diJnDq2AfpJMvm5X0qv17cgxPqIxFkNzJcrlA5nmMacP18ZhNMxdHQdDrUFApHD9ROHKi2AnVj8Q7RToLO0X2BU_bK1wlFwVCXkxpAKPtaBd8O-imZ0unmo/s320/okeefee-1961.jpg" width="252" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Georgia O'Keeffee's Kitchen, 1961</td></tr></tbody></table>Here's something that fascinates me: a photo of Georgia O'Keeffee (1887-1986) in her kitchen at the Ghost Ranch in New Mexico. Evidently she loved to cook the foods of the New Mexico locals.<br /><br />Did she ever paint anything about the food? I can't find anything except a few still-life studies, which I never consider to be real food paintings. She concentrated on amazing abstractions of the scenery outside her windows, as well as the close-ups of flowers and other items that were her trademark. Upon seeing the actual landscapes around her homes when I visited there, I was overwhelmed by how similar to the actual views were her representations of the barren but colorful mountains with scrubby plants and unfamiliar rocky outcroppings.<br /><br />O'Keeffee was very original in her work, and exacting in her choices of subject matter. If she didn't paint scenes inside the kitchen (a lack that I can't actually prove) there were no doubt very good reasons why not. I'm glad she was an accomplished cook, along with being an artist!<br /><br />As the 20th century progressed, art movements developed thick and fast. I've always found the swift progression of ideas to be fascinating. Pop art is one of my favorites, and its inclusion of kitchen and dining images is one of its most famous features. Normally, you'd think of Andy Warhol and Tomato Soup Cans. I also want to think about how it's reflected in the work of Duane Hanson (1925-1996) and George Segal (1924-2000). Hanson worked in resin and mixed media, so his works look so real that they are startling, while Segal made casts of actual people but left the gauze and other casting materials in place, resulting in ghostly statues. Both are hard to grasp in little photos, but here are a few:<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-D4Vz4EvlcKErQdMBf2fGw5Z3EAhd_U4zp97njMr43zymtO51aXUTd12En7r8xmYMYKbLpYRld5Ske3YEjSe_O1bwZkZ-axVzzHCy0PDNpKYpQCzNYJEfLeKJKyDvqGklGgao0If8Nfi0/s1600/hansen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-D4Vz4EvlcKErQdMBf2fGw5Z3EAhd_U4zp97njMr43zymtO51aXUTd12En7r8xmYMYKbLpYRld5Ske3YEjSe_O1bwZkZ-axVzzHCy0PDNpKYpQCzNYJEfLeKJKyDvqGklGgao0If8Nfi0/s320/hansen.jpg" width="254" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Duane Hanson, "Woman Eating," 1971</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOU_jIuPkJY2cupJoo-9L8_5PwMzc41tndLzMxuWjOHy-ohfWVtAWOPVvStAtiGScnzkRgk2lu_KmW57sHCuz_J10W4lBaoInUuCzKxBIKHxl9DuTEhm-RGtGxTdl5Mwc5clBSawfQ-VCy/s1600/supermarket-shopper-hanson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOU_jIuPkJY2cupJoo-9L8_5PwMzc41tndLzMxuWjOHy-ohfWVtAWOPVvStAtiGScnzkRgk2lu_KmW57sHCuz_J10W4lBaoInUuCzKxBIKHxl9DuTEhm-RGtGxTdl5Mwc5clBSawfQ-VCy/s320/supermarket-shopper-hanson.jpg" width="246" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Duane Hanson, "Supermarket Shopper," 1970</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY9S6X5_urc8yNN-gWR3iEQn5fT79l7T1wm_sWDsRaQ8CNggcr1nvbJsyJfD3jWC0mYXiUE44ZSvXPspHlIB-2Dw1d6WuVk6bkLHVYJ2IRlhiv6qN5cvsQYZFyqIeTvtOgzhF2Avgk4jUO/s1600/segal-restaurant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY9S6X5_urc8yNN-gWR3iEQn5fT79l7T1wm_sWDsRaQ8CNggcr1nvbJsyJfD3jWC0mYXiUE44ZSvXPspHlIB-2Dw1d6WuVk6bkLHVYJ2IRlhiv6qN5cvsQYZFyqIeTvtOgzhF2Avgk4jUO/s320/segal-restaurant.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">George Segal, "Restaurant" -- one of many on this theme,<br />often compared to works by Hopper</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIfsJBnvj4U51ElB78DNFSDa1QvyDb6e8MNtQb3Z0EbCxxoRf0RAn2Q2eLxyJOK6C9-Gk2TI9C2uID3qERSkIAOOE9dLsfMAWsRZn69JY1smj-4cL8-XV0nJKIYjg3LgkPV5UdjSuLLQCQ/s1600/segal-diner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIfsJBnvj4U51ElB78DNFSDa1QvyDb6e8MNtQb3Z0EbCxxoRf0RAn2Q2eLxyJOK6C9-Gk2TI9C2uID3qERSkIAOOE9dLsfMAWsRZn69JY1smj-4cL8-XV0nJKIYjg3LgkPV5UdjSuLLQCQ/s320/segal-diner.jpg" width="246" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Segal, "Diner"</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I have barely begun exploring this topic, which is obviously enormous and full of additional opportunities to see what artists have made of our everyday lives.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />

Twentieth Century Kitchens

When we want to know what a kitchen was like in the 17th or 18th century, we take a look at the paintings and other art works of the artists...

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10.44

Wordless Wednesday: Duchamp's Chocolate Grinder

Wordless Wednesday: Duchamp's Chocolate Grinder

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08.44

At the Mall

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Some things at the mall are a bit surrealistic. Well, not really. Just a little over-the-top. From our trip to Tyson's Corner last Saturday ......</div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwEooWhSbI8eUPlzx95FYci-9_g25HiuDueMLi2h0hMlHO9DxlXIuArHcyaQ2lcy-KLpT3jAwvVFW1GpiT-q3c_UR_7KaNl-EIro1Y7J2RQdTvRM94pqDqw_1YS0Cr6Y6maEL1_rHoz7Ef/s1600/cake-pops4672.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwEooWhSbI8eUPlzx95FYci-9_g25HiuDueMLi2h0hMlHO9DxlXIuArHcyaQ2lcy-KLpT3jAwvVFW1GpiT-q3c_UR_7KaNl-EIro1Y7J2RQdTvRM94pqDqw_1YS0Cr6Y6maEL1_rHoz7Ef/s400/cake-pops4672.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cake pops from Crumbs Bakery; flavors -- peanut butter and candy corn.<br />Other successes: skinny jeans from Hollister;<br />a sweater from American Eagle.</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYbilm4zDL2K1ZzHPOSiNttkpj4_dKOKEqBO3b01O8dxH5vvkobMw1vuHBF08A3Y7y8Wb7axZ52Xg8RyONEKzyqrTuHE_MX3sLDX-pGuBlTom-0_iDN-N9NFqjOTTnXWBf1usqQzFvV7rL/s1600/miss-piggy4664.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYbilm4zDL2K1ZzHPOSiNttkpj4_dKOKEqBO3b01O8dxH5vvkobMw1vuHBF08A3Y7y8Wb7axZ52Xg8RyONEKzyqrTuHE_MX3sLDX-pGuBlTom-0_iDN-N9NFqjOTTnXWBf1usqQzFvV7rL/s400/miss-piggy4664.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Miss Piggy says you should never eat anything bigger than your head.<br />Note: the multi-color cupcakes are already oversized.<br />The Miss Piggy special costs $35.</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYrSu2WHGNPWj6np9vbQfQ4hPXD97kFWggj-yQ_Qc5OJo9J2KLJrFcnYbrdVDQ1smu6Ym_pjxMJwn_gLRnfTerUVZsLfYLCpXrEZN8V4iCU3QXBL6bhFG512xsvdw-6qv0zmKXo1ljXswP/s1600/rock-soup4668.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYrSu2WHGNPWj6np9vbQfQ4hPXD97kFWggj-yQ_Qc5OJo9J2KLJrFcnYbrdVDQ1smu6Ym_pjxMJwn_gLRnfTerUVZsLfYLCpXrEZN8V4iCU3QXBL6bhFG512xsvdw-6qv0zmKXo1ljXswP/s640/rock-soup4668.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stone soup on an artfully set table at one of many furniture stores. </td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir-gir-9nBrX7l6aB1f9XWoGqt2tDQ9sLrgxC3PPFd67i8GqvVn5NN1H89PLG3OJJq806AWJ1Oqk2mwgTQGkVbTE5blyU_XJNT-5Uq-eu4-te-F_Vxtc7IMFGzAuaKBu-KClCNwYwRVxxh/s1600/wasabi4667.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir-gir-9nBrX7l6aB1f9XWoGqt2tDQ9sLrgxC3PPFd67i8GqvVn5NN1H89PLG3OJJq806AWJ1Oqk2mwgTQGkVbTE5blyU_XJNT-5Uq-eu4-te-F_Vxtc7IMFGzAuaKBu-KClCNwYwRVxxh/s400/wasabi4667.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wasabi Sushi Bar where the conveyor belt moves the sushi<br />right past your table. As at most malls: Cinnabon is never far away.</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgROPqiaqQr7mdR1xkscA7pKSRoSuMCtJVC1HBiSMu6ypD6XsuittU_UsBDDwrLcU-_mMWtcPwa4ea9dbV9Hbu-XDvY0lJFlTs6yAs9CzOM_jtxBRij00hXX9E43XHyC1KfqlbCrncf0Di/s1600/ArtForYourFace4675.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgROPqiaqQr7mdR1xkscA7pKSRoSuMCtJVC1HBiSMu6ypD6XsuittU_UsBDDwrLcU-_mMWtcPwa4ea9dbV9Hbu-XDvY0lJFlTs6yAs9CzOM_jtxBRij00hXX9E43XHyC1KfqlbCrncf0Di/s320/ArtForYourFace4675.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As we ate the cake pops, we contemplated Van Gogh repurposed --<br />right into my art parody collection.</td></tr></tbody></table>

At the Mall

Some things at the mall are a bit surrealistic. Well, not really. Just a little over-the-top. From our trip to Tyson's Corner last Satur...

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16.40

Agriculture and cuisine: different subjects or the same?

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHfpocGA9xHFNyjaPqTZ8oWlC6URcsIBzBHin_8z3hocEHYaecJjANkLKvir4qwQUkiJldi3XMJSmdUZ9HU5q8Cvki3FAybOtq4zyjDe-R-An1e0plZW_obsG2HY2Rkl-CqwC3dVaLA957/s1600/Royal_Gardener_John_Rose_and_King_Charles_II_-_Hendrick_Danckerts_1675.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHfpocGA9xHFNyjaPqTZ8oWlC6URcsIBzBHin_8z3hocEHYaecJjANkLKvir4qwQUkiJldi3XMJSmdUZ9HU5q8Cvki3FAybOtq4zyjDe-R-An1e0plZW_obsG2HY2Rkl-CqwC3dVaLA957/s640/Royal_Gardener_John_Rose_and_King_Charles_II_-_Hendrick_Danckerts_1675.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hendrick Danckerts: "Royal Gardener John Rose Presenting a Pineapple to King Charles II," 1675 (Wikimedia)</td></tr></tbody></table>I've been reading about the introduction of European and Asian food plants and many domestic animal species to the Spanish colonies of the new world, and about the introduction of new world plants and a few animals to old world diners and farmers. I've read quite a bit on this subject in the past as well. In general, there are two approaches: either authors concentrate on agriculture, and with it sometimes on nutrition, or on cuisine.<br /><br />Agriculturally focused histories treat the development and spread of agriculture in the new world and eventually beyond it. Some authors describe the initial process of domestication of certain plant species (like corn or vanilla). Some study the biochemistry of ancient species and compare them to archaeological finds or to wild native plants. Others focus on the current state of food production, use, and availability, viewing the origin and spread of plants or animals as at most background material. The timing of the spread of each food plant into new areas, its nutritional value to the population that consumed it, commodity or market issues, and the plant's adaptability to growing in new areas are critical factors.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE4UMKiw3pbLu5LkkVzA_npsHlQnX5fSSVmQvLx_Db9QoqObyL7r56vA2KWCo-gleoNtOGZmt5UU0yBfS8Q3_p0KxQ6XsAwcyj_Z4kpcHRuZsIh7UWSKFpPhFdikCtlW2s414aW5XJ5g9-/s1600/gardens-dunmire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE4UMKiw3pbLu5LkkVzA_npsHlQnX5fSSVmQvLx_Db9QoqObyL7r56vA2KWCo-gleoNtOGZmt5UU0yBfS8Q3_p0KxQ6XsAwcyj_Z4kpcHRuZsIh7UWSKFpPhFdikCtlW2s414aW5XJ5g9-/s320/gardens-dunmire.jpg" width="211" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What I've been reading</td></tr></tbody></table>Books that cover the topics of agriculture and its effect on food ways include these:<i> Chilies to Chocolate: Food the Americas Gave the World,</i> a collection of essays edited by Foster and Cordell; <i>The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492 </i>by Alfred Crosby; and <i>Gardens of New Spain: How Mediterranean Plants and foods changed America</i> by William Dunmire.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx4M91gjlnl5F1rA2DKtLCri-JsBlGZinvjhslJmp0_n-qkohBrF6dbyRqlxpyMod2cMWmleUVLB41qPwnMntDjr6Syu6gp1lEFhj57INKzdTeRov57sHPqyPLmFwXO_4P1NolxBTA5af8/s1600/chilies-to-chocolate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx4M91gjlnl5F1rA2DKtLCri-JsBlGZinvjhslJmp0_n-qkohBrF6dbyRqlxpyMod2cMWmleUVLB41qPwnMntDjr6Syu6gp1lEFhj57INKzdTeRov57sHPqyPLmFwXO_4P1NolxBTA5af8/s320/chilies-to-chocolate.jpg" width="188" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">More of what I've been reading</td></tr></tbody></table>In the epilogue to <i>Chilies to Chocolate</i> Gary Paul Nabhan acknowledge the division that I'm exploring here. He wrote: "Perhaps the complexity of crop evolution makes us lose sight of the concurrent cultural evolution of culinary traditions: changes in grinding, roasting brewing, baking,  and curing techniques, not to mention customs of spicing and serving prepared foods."<br /><br />Nabhan cites a number of recipes and culinary techniques known to have characterized pre-Columbian cuisine. However, most books seem to focus on one area at a time -- how crops are grown, how foods are used in recipes, how they are adopted for nutritional value, how they spread from culture to culture, and how new flavors were added to familiar ones.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6sLhM4z5bkW6qMSC1QCDCKBHW2YvI2lZUdDH_CCN7aZj_K_OIgpxwwEzX4cwegTFzAUiIz1Bt8COaEZAkA9i-vVD8K9TVP4-TEp-_49GJfrLo_08kF_UyNMNsyh4FX8aW0UPEZgXawwOR/s1600/coe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6sLhM4z5bkW6qMSC1QCDCKBHW2YvI2lZUdDH_CCN7aZj_K_OIgpxwwEzX4cwegTFzAUiIz1Bt8COaEZAkA9i-vVD8K9TVP4-TEp-_49GJfrLo_08kF_UyNMNsyh4FX8aW0UPEZgXawwOR/s200/coe.jpg" width="131" /></a>Nabhan has written many books on food, cuisine, agriculture, and ethnobotany of the American Southwest. His point of view is political as well as scientific -- he's very concerned about the loss of biodiversity among native American plants, about climate change, and about mistreatment of native peoples worldwide. An author with a complementary point of view is Sophie Coe, who wrote two books about the sources, uses, and transmission of new world foods: <i>America's First Cuisines </i>and<i> The True History of Chocolate</i>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgINq58rRcnvtrP4nve77otMarWOpJunk7EMWn_tstP4rDUEYVMepADu5-r80H06V3QoIBNHQHrBY4H8UnE05qgdmciiP8UihmGEjUoqyGLym_MA45QNa5KmRtMtON5Mp9xFjzacZBTQQ/s1600-h/somelikehot.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5053668798495652146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgINq58rRcnvtrP4nve77otMarWOpJunk7EMWn_tstP4rDUEYVMepADu5-r80H06V3QoIBNHQHrBY4H8UnE05qgdmciiP8UihmGEjUoqyGLym_MA45QNa5KmRtMtON5Mp9xFjzacZBTQQ/s200/somelikehot.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px;" width="131" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I reviewed this book <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2007/04/book-review-why-some-like-it-hot.html">here</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="line-height: 1.5;">As do Coe and Nabhan, authors interested in cuisine trace influences on food preparations such as the use of spice blends in East Asian, Middle Eastern, North African, Spanish, and later Mexican cooking (which I mentioned in an earlier post). They explore how taste and familiarity of species determined which plants or animals were readily integrated into regional concepts of food, such as the rapid acceptance of corn or the reluctant acceptance of tomatoes. </span><br /><span style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 1.5;">An important element of several essays in <i>Chilies to Chocolate</i> is to show how diners and cooks at various points in history believed that foods should be cooked, presented, and eaten and thus what new foods could fit into their view. For example, n</span><span style="line-height: 1.5;">ew world chile peppers satisfied the original explorers' quest for spicy flavor, so they spread very readily as an addition to familiar cuisines in the old world. The nutritional value of the potato was obvious to some Europeans, but its unfamiliarity and ugly appearance made its spread difficult at first -- then of course it became too common in some places, notoriously in Ireland. Tomatoes and to some extent avocados now appear in virtually all produce markets worldwide, but required still longer to be accepted as part of European/American cuisine.</span><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-BOJtOvqj3BAzcjVjsSrr9m3w1Ta5eBhxFHCLXPAqPkTXeVs159Yntj6FCyZAGcjohnQ60qSW4P3xGPknF_tfk24VLbhhMoTN6KWc1ak8tFLfGhPOIhs5giOHSC4SO7h9JjziK0yyKnLh/s1600/potato+eaters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-BOJtOvqj3BAzcjVjsSrr9m3w1Ta5eBhxFHCLXPAqPkTXeVs159Yntj6FCyZAGcjohnQ60qSW4P3xGPknF_tfk24VLbhhMoTN6KWc1ak8tFLfGhPOIhs5giOHSC4SO7h9JjziK0yyKnLh/s320/potato+eaters.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Van Gogh "The Potato Eaters" <br />Native American food that became a European staple</td></tr></tbody></table>Staple new world foods, such as the potato and corn, rapidly made major changes in the diets of Europe, Africa, and Asia; by the sixteenth to eighteenth century these became standard in cuisines of Europe or the totally Europeanized American settlements. New world beans evidently spread readily but silently, joining the few bean species that existed in Europe so effectively that their origin had to be rediscovered in the 19th century.<br /><br /><span style="line-height: 1.5;">Some exotic foods from the new world actually changed European tastes rather than moving into a niche in what was already being cooked. Vanilla, chocolate, and pineapple were like nothing in existing old world cuisine. The latter was very slowly accepted in Europe, first grown in royal hothouses as illustrated above; eventually becoming a curiosity and then a luxury food, but never a staple and never integrated the way that corn, chiles, or potatoes were.</span><br /><br />Agriculturally oriented writers ask, how could new world species be cultivated in the old world? As with acceptance into European or Asian diets, adaptability of plants for old world agriculture varied. Potatoes, native to the high Andes, turned out to be extremely flexible; the potato, with its many varieties, adapted to many climates. Chiles and corn could adapt to a range of temperature, day-length, and rainfall and now grow in places as diverse as India and Michigan. Chocolate now grows in many tropical climates while vanilla is extremely picky about the latitude where it grows and needs special insect pollinators. Finding new places to cultivate vanilla was difficult, though most of the world's supply of vanilla today grows in the old world, not in Mexico. Early horticultural interest in the pineapple, which I perversely think of as Hawaiian, was to see who could get it to grow fruit in a greenhouse: not a sign that it would go native in England! (<i>Chilies to Chocolate</i> p. 35 and p. 4)<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixY4CFJ-IkhBgTeQ0LeUxfTSUhMYuvQ_Kj64Jw3lqVsj8HIZt3_h4SMQFynTLIoCU_wWsegifh-FKep7TyDDxmHkZoPlm_dkboxYQh1THw13JSdiQUGs1XXRSGjhLl0USYfZ6af_BtqvtQ/s1600/sugar-factory-West-Indies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixY4CFJ-IkhBgTeQ0LeUxfTSUhMYuvQ_Kj64Jw3lqVsj8HIZt3_h4SMQFynTLIoCU_wWsegifh-FKep7TyDDxmHkZoPlm_dkboxYQh1THw13JSdiQUGs1XXRSGjhLl0USYfZ6af_BtqvtQ/s640/sugar-factory-West-Indies.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Early West-Indian sugar mill -- old-world crop, new world resources, African slave labor (<a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Sugar-Masters-in-a-New-World.html#">Smithsonian</a>, no artist named)</td></tr></tbody></table>The same questions of cuisine and agriculture concern writers who look at the introduction of old world foods into Mexico and other parts of the Spanish new world. Dunmire's <i>Gardens of New Spain </i> provides detailed documentation of each conquest, exploration, or colonizing move, and the plants that were introduced. He includes complete lists and descriptions of the transported plants, and mentions imported livestock and how the Spaniards introduced them to New Spain.</div><br />Rather than representing an interest in the new or the exotic, plants and animals that were brought to the Americas often represented European colonists' effort to preserve their former food ways; for example, the introduction of pigs, fruit trees, or wheat. Some introductions were motivated by desire to produce exports for the European market, like sugarcane.<br /><br />A few old world plants like bananas and watermelons were immediately popular with the native population. Their cultivation resembled already existing species (watermelons can be cultivated in the same way as new world squashes). So they spread seamlessly, eventually seeming to be native to the Americas, Dunmire points out. Other writers, Nabhan, especially, stress how the remarkable variety of plant species in the Americas, and biodiversity at all levels down to individual farms and fields, was negatively disrupted by the introduction of European plants and growing methods.<br /><br />European colonists actually spread some of the foods of Mexico and South America into North America, Dunmire shows. For example, Spanish settlers (along with many Indian and mestizo family members or employees) pushed quickly into New Mexico, later to California and Texas. These colonists not only brought with them European animals and plants but also such Mexican foods as chiles. Potato cultivation on the east coast of North America was introduced by Europeans as well.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJsHBqwNe-AOTf6gfx8UqFCY6WwYk3S_pzG8Kl4vch2iG7RIh-sqOm6Ull9YrmAukkkfN1CjhYhfKSwsfhdVpNs9dUBmijGwPGbav6H2_svmPOcsvdG6h5zWopLZKuNcTDFxLAGFO0Ah9n/s1600/rivera-maize-festival-1924.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJsHBqwNe-AOTf6gfx8UqFCY6WwYk3S_pzG8Kl4vch2iG7RIh-sqOm6Ull9YrmAukkkfN1CjhYhfKSwsfhdVpNs9dUBmijGwPGbav6H2_svmPOcsvdG6h5zWopLZKuNcTDFxLAGFO0Ah9n/s640/rivera-maize-festival-1924.jpg" width="364" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Diego Rivera, "The Maize Festival" (Wiki Paintings)</td></tr></tbody></table>Books books books! An important work on the relationship of new and old world food is Crosby's <i>The Columbian Exchange</i>, first published in 1973, which I mentioned above. Many very specific books cover parts of the topic: just on the potato, for example, one can read <i>The History and Social Influence of the Potato</i> by Redcliffe N. Salaman; <i>Potato: A History of the Propitious Esculent</i> by John Reader;  <i>Potato: A Global History </i>by Andrew F Smith; and <i>The Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World</i> by Larry Zuckerman. PLUS books about the Irish potato famine and other potato topics. Not to mention incidental information in huge numbers of cookbooks, many of which are dedicated to just potato recipes and lore. Similarly for chile peppers, chocolate, and tomatoes -- you can read about, say, the tomato's history in America or in Italy or else Barry Estabrook's political story of just our time,<i> Tomatoland.</i> I could go on and on.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipK2buADilOLoFOwwUJTfuebh4I9HdG6ZYvkdf3wTzPnNfFq_7k0wYzMOcROpMfJgvS7oVAfP37MKedufS-DuO8XShgPCv6uFaxEyXzRyQBNJwGGgzANoZ-evx7r3a94Mrj8XYsmkIYIfO/s1600/Chocolate_girl-liotard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipK2buADilOLoFOwwUJTfuebh4I9HdG6ZYvkdf3wTzPnNfFq_7k0wYzMOcROpMfJgvS7oVAfP37MKedufS-DuO8XShgPCv6uFaxEyXzRyQBNJwGGgzANoZ-evx7r3a94Mrj8XYsmkIYIfO/s640/Chocolate_girl-liotard.jpg" width="379" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jean-Étienne Liotard, "The Chocolate Girl," 1745<br />One more artist's illustration of new-world food's success in Europe.</td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZn1aLnB0XT5I2VkvrAD4L7h69cb1ujLSRtEe7QQUkWc-JRQSGGEEYbpnk5FGzuz_VLxq9WD9g3ZLwyg4VheERVSRhrjYJ8plGpIdq60i2dyVlJRor1ac7F8L_fAEbC2tOCizYEJTMw2my/s1600/herbal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZn1aLnB0XT5I2VkvrAD4L7h69cb1ujLSRtEe7QQUkWc-JRQSGGEEYbpnk5FGzuz_VLxq9WD9g3ZLwyg4VheERVSRhrjYJ8plGpIdq60i2dyVlJRor1ac7F8L_fAEbC2tOCizYEJTMw2my/s320/herbal.jpg" width="198" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">17th Century Herbal<br /><div><br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Finally, an early group of interesting sources of information on food plants, which I often hear about in secondary sources, is Renaissance herbals, early cookbooks, and early books on medicinal plants. These were written before the current distinction between foods and drugs became firm, so the food and medicine could be handled as a single topic, but their combined interest in botany, agriculture, and cooking vastly predates the books I'm discussing.<br /><br />

Agriculture and cuisine: different subjects or the same?

Hendrick Danckerts: "Royal Gardener John Rose Presenting a Pineapple to King Charles II," 1675 (Wikimedia) I've been reading a...

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17.05

A Food Artist

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfjRg6BiyOthhyY4c26x5PIFICHytGbyNAUv-6EBO3bu2LPBqPzZMH5299PU1tj6N-tP3UcJX5pIieGQx3_ksZpiB92v4wMly_Y-xs-hjMtxEZiHkjVoglD_lZnrPcbwlwVDCQLKwZ5hJK/s1600/rivera.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfjRg6BiyOthhyY4c26x5PIFICHytGbyNAUv-6EBO3bu2LPBqPzZMH5299PU1tj6N-tP3UcJX5pIieGQx3_ksZpiB92v4wMly_Y-xs-hjMtxEZiHkjVoglD_lZnrPcbwlwVDCQLKwZ5hJK/s320/rivera.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrPQ1pvMLY5e9ofjtzkhg_BPZDiKki2F4DxR9uZSinpjFBRPnertHeD2xRs-590Sd42xfKBQ9AM7z0Wklo3-5geWDp3iHGsiiZp3nRgZJr6hJViXoaJJjm09mj7cKctdAhJnIMtI-g1rlA/s1600/rivera2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrPQ1pvMLY5e9ofjtzkhg_BPZDiKki2F4DxR9uZSinpjFBRPnertHeD2xRs-590Sd42xfKBQ9AM7z0Wklo3-5geWDp3iHGsiiZp3nRgZJr6hJViXoaJJjm09mj7cKctdAhJnIMtI-g1rlA/s320/rivera2.jpg" width="318" /></a></div><br />In today's <a href="http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/28/front-burner-19/?ref=dining">Diner's Journal</a> in the <i>New York Times</i>: a reference to the work of Pedro Diego Alvarado-Rivera, a nephew of the famous Diego Rivera. Alvarado-Rivera was born in 1956, and studied in France and his native Mexico.<br /><br /> "Alvarado-Rivera has devoted most of his pictorial work to the representation of fruits, flowers, and vegetables blooming and ripening," says his brief biography on the <a href="http://ruizhealyart.com/index.php/artists/item/pedro-diego-alvarado-rivera.html?category_id=2">webpage of a gallery</a> where his works are on display (and where I found these images). While still-life works aren't always exactly food works, I think these images are appetizing.

A Food Artist

In today's Diner's Journal in the New York Times : a reference to the work of Pedro Diego Alvarado-Rivera, a nephew of the famous D...

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10.40

Art/Food Food/Art

I love painters who make images of food, and often write about their works here. The <a href="http://www.latimes.com/features/food/dailydish/la-dd-caitlin-freemans-modern-art-desserts-20130402,0,7214239.story">L.A.Times food section</a> just reviewed a book about making cakes and desserts with themes taken from many modern artists -- WOW!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzMeEf2809Pttx8es2qZv2l1Hf8sKsyToxLd8_96gUHDT9qEDH8wTBOLktp-NtqJiDMhIGoYOSE8dUOjoSwMcFgs9icB9oq8pcRI6dXKNnId6B8LdD528V9KD_ihxcPlH0DPSdO7hlgO-H/s1600/caitlin-freemans-modern-art-desserts-201304-001.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzMeEf2809Pttx8es2qZv2l1Hf8sKsyToxLd8_96gUHDT9qEDH8wTBOLktp-NtqJiDMhIGoYOSE8dUOjoSwMcFgs9icB9oq8pcRI6dXKNnId6B8LdD528V9KD_ihxcPlH0DPSdO7hlgO-H/s400/caitlin-freemans-modern-art-desserts-201304-001.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />The author, Caitlin Freeman, must be incredibly patient -- just looking at the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Art-Desserts-Recipes-Confections/dp/1607743906/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364989862&sr=1-1&keywords=caitlin+freeman">amazon.com</a> "inside the book" page makes me think I'd never try one. The great thing is that the table of contents shown by amazon gives a little picture of each of her creations.

Art/Food Food/Art

I love painters who make images of food, and often write about their works here. The L.A.Times food section just reviewed a book about maki...

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05.02

Not just crab cakes

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNUKZnolGdvnvRjmA_t7ml1hmyCtideGwmc6vOJvMz5BqSPE4DTJ5tjcsMnfQEPwQpgZccgqY0Sv1R3PyCh5_VZIu5g73V2TCq_ohAMGFjRotwtCqMDQd-KIczAbVQ9OD5KmChzrAE-JGQ/s1600/baltimore3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="345" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNUKZnolGdvnvRjmA_t7ml1hmyCtideGwmc6vOJvMz5BqSPE4DTJ5tjcsMnfQEPwQpgZccgqY0Sv1R3PyCh5_VZIu5g73V2TCq_ohAMGFjRotwtCqMDQd-KIczAbVQ9OD5KmChzrAE-JGQ/s400/baltimore3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Baltimore's inner harbor is impressive, and home to a variety of dining places. So yes, I did eat crab cakes for dinner last night at an old-time restaurant called Phillips Seafood, which has been in that neighborhood for over 30 years, though mostly in another location. Now it's next to the really cool Barnes and Noble that occupies a former power plant, and incorporates all sorts of chimneys and other mechanical leftovers.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMeXUPODSQ1GEoGcltpTiGC0B3PBXuBIGAMHmbKKmz_ohKboh6LAXC5mEipTP8a09FqmiLVhUzmlKIBQE7HTE9O0DA2v-rOvvb2fjuZ32pgOYhzYwlOnxGyr8naX-A0rd0WWKNSBDqaUAC/s1600/baltimore6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMeXUPODSQ1GEoGcltpTiGC0B3PBXuBIGAMHmbKKmz_ohKboh6LAXC5mEipTP8a09FqmiLVhUzmlKIBQE7HTE9O0DA2v-rOvvb2fjuZ32pgOYhzYwlOnxGyr8naX-A0rd0WWKNSBDqaUAC/s320/baltimore6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The inner harbor used to be unsightly and industrial, before becoming a tourist attraction full of shopping malls with not only seafood but also lots of chain restaurants. Once upon a time, the McCormick's spice factory was right on the harbor: just where our hotel now stands. I found the photo at right on the McCormick website, to try to picture how much the harbor has changed. I had always heard that the aromas of spices sometimes flooded the harbor area, though the aromas of many other industrial processes competed in a not so nice way.<br /><br />In the shopping mall that now stands in front of the hotel (where the shipping buildings stood in the old photo) there's now a McCormick spice store with a selection of spices from their various divisions in the US and internationally. This includes Zatarains New Orleans spices, Old Bay spices, and a number of others. They even have smell-o-vision; that is, a game where the aroma of various spices is presented as a multiple-choice challenge. Since they also fill the air of the shop with cinnamon (as sort of a memorial to the old factory) it's hard to pick out the challenging smells. I got 3 out of 4.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCQTLqSOKlR0oiD6m_PSX3g44kQM1_dQGgUL-3sw9rkvIIwTWrxmOEHsXdzk_OQsSmAtq9uD9ASnFrgoQozDeb5aBmeNDQFTTZ5QqwfgLCI4uTE1sPiylSlmeo4Tf0rwcQSnqeYxxlyPhA/s1600/baltimore1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCQTLqSOKlR0oiD6m_PSX3g44kQM1_dQGgUL-3sw9rkvIIwTWrxmOEHsXdzk_OQsSmAtq9uD9ASnFrgoQozDeb5aBmeNDQFTTZ5QqwfgLCI4uTE1sPiylSlmeo4Tf0rwcQSnqeYxxlyPhA/s400/baltimore1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgga9cDVJEmiUN42Rhu4hyphenhyphen0pypvV_f78fp1OAKRBbEla5z-resUlgXYsxKwk39aw8IB0Xbv-YH-LRQylgclQR_if1RyQ6Jw6lA62VaA9yqWDsxgJ_r9cV0zsZ1v0tEKZuUArnP1NRdat3b/s1600/baltimore2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgga9cDVJEmiUN42Rhu4hyphenhyphen0pypvV_f78fp1OAKRBbEla5z-resUlgXYsxKwk39aw8IB0Xbv-YH-LRQylgclQR_if1RyQ6Jw6lA62VaA9yqWDsxgJ_r9cV0zsZ1v0tEKZuUArnP1NRdat3b/s400/baltimore2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">During the afternoon, I spent some time at the Baltimore museum, where there were a couple of recent works depicting food, or at least using images of food to make some sort of statement. I also ate fried clams in their restaurant. Full Baltimore experience.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXhOhjTM44gQBz2GdVX8rn0vksP90IkV1c6xcaHaPH8ZbFIw2pY6jqFQuvfxrDyR7FCdYFkjLuvpjKx61yMZQ6AYPPU1TdcIP47iLI0YHv-YKpOfKNgotKTvHdHdWh5K1or22YYWssG1XZ/s1600/baltimore4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXhOhjTM44gQBz2GdVX8rn0vksP90IkV1c6xcaHaPH8ZbFIw2pY6jqFQuvfxrDyR7FCdYFkjLuvpjKx61yMZQ6AYPPU1TdcIP47iLI0YHv-YKpOfKNgotKTvHdHdWh5K1or22YYWssG1XZ/s400/baltimore4.jpg" width="233" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wade Guyton and Kelley Walker Inkjet Print on Drywall, untitled, 2011</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAhPY57RBX9VMkmD750BZZczUzKlchA0m65FWuDRLggw95VgEAmNRXkDycBGnarx_-zJxrJyQwNr8-tDIG91gdnW0iL5QQ5DTo93X322LudoMwRuKFAzEDcJgZahbIq6ATtEPxD-vwaxxh/s1600/baltimore5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAhPY57RBX9VMkmD750BZZczUzKlchA0m65FWuDRLggw95VgEAmNRXkDycBGnarx_-zJxrJyQwNr8-tDIG91gdnW0iL5QQ5DTo93X322LudoMwRuKFAzEDcJgZahbIq6ATtEPxD-vwaxxh/s640/baltimore5.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rachel Harrison Inkjet Prints, also untitled, 2008</td></tr></tbody></table><br />

Not just crab cakes

Baltimore's inner harbor is impressive, and home to a variety of dining places. So yes, I did eat crab cakes for dinner last night at an...

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11.10

Food city area

Food in Art and Art in Food

Thanksgiving Pictures from "Art and Appetite"

Wordless Wednesday: New Book, Old Book

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Wordless Wednesday: Hopper's Nighthawks

Ideal 20th Century Kitchens

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Wordless Wednesday: Duchamp's Chocolate Grinder

At the Mall

Agriculture and cuisine: different subjects or the same?

A Food Artist

Art/Food Food/Art

Not just crab cakes

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