Connecting the senses is what The Modern Art Cookbook is all about . . . the larger purpose of this delectable anthology is the association of reading, looking and cooking . . . Mary Ann Caws has a discriminating eye, a catholic taste, a fine feeling for feeding, as A. J. Liebling called it, and a wonderfully well-stocked larder of culture. As a trans-historical truffle-hound she is hard to beat . . . Mary Ann Cawss purpose is triumphantly achieved. The marriage of lookery and cookery is beguiling: the total effect is mouth-watering.
Alex Danchev, TLS
The best thing about this beautifully packaged book is the lavish quantity of coloured plates: still lives and drawings, the odd photograph, some familiar, others not, all of them of food . . . [Caws] has paired pictures and recipes in the most imaginative way . . . A visual feast to salivate over.
Evening Standard
Try Cézannes pears and quinces with honey or Roy Lichtensteins roast fillet of beef. Less a kitchen book than a feast for the eyes.
Country Life
this book provides a rich fund of anecdotes and recipes, mined from the notebooks and journals of writers and artists who also liked to cook. Picassos charlotte au chocolat, Cézannes knockout bitter orange wine, David Hockneys strawberry cake and Roy Lichtensteins grilled bass all figure here, illustrated by their own or other artists pictures
Telegraph Magazine
a magnificent mélange of art, literature, food and history, offering the exciting prospect of being able to enjoy dishes by the world's greatest painters, novelists and poets. Pablo Picassos Spanish omelette, David Hockneys strawberry cake and Ezra Pounds Poetic Eggs are top of our list to try.
Elle Decoration
Its the rare artist who doesnt occasionally make the antics of the kitchen the subject of a work or two. But far from offering a dry review of that phenomenon or a delicious-looking but unfulfilling cocktail book of plates, Surrealism scholar Mary Ann Caws has assembled a collection of artists personal writings, from diary entries to poetry, to examine the connection between art and paintings in The Modern Art Cookbook.
Art and Auction
Beautiful food art, quirky artist recipes, and dinner table gossip make this book an epicurean treat.
ForeWord
a gathering of freely associated artworks, poems, anecdotes, and recipes all related, if loosely, through comestible delights . . . the book is a veritable smorgasbord of strange and often charming details
ArtNews
Mouthwatering . . . Captivating images of works by Mary Cassat and Gustav Klimt are partnered with recipes used by Salvador Dalí and Frida Kahlo, amounting to the perfect gourmet tour through art history. Beyond artworks and recipes, the work also includes diary entries, poems, and bits of correspondence that illuminate arts long love affair with food. Youll not only learn to cook Monets madeleines but youll understand why Cezanne had a penchat for drawing potatoes. If visions of abstract paintings and juicy roasted vegetables are dancing in your head already, we dont blame you.
Huffington Post
[Caws] cookbook is a compilation of recipes culled from various artists repertoires or inspired by their preferences, interspersed with paintings, photographs, snippets of poems, fiction, and essays about food or cooking. For instance, theres a recipe called Cezannes Anchoiade in homage to the daily anchovies he ate rolled between sautéed eggplant slices on the way to his studio. Instead of pictures of the finished product, a painting by Julian Merrow Smith of two silvery anchovies accompanies the recipe . . . What Caws is doing is highlighting the intersection between the act of creating art and cooking.
Bookslut.com
Ever wanted to make Monet's madeleines or Cezanne's baked tomatoes? 2013s The Modern Art Cookbook offers these recipes and more, with each recipe either written or inspired by a modernist artist, writer or poet. In between are art works, letters and excerpts from novels, giving a fascinating historical account of the intersection of food and art.
Viva, New Zealand
a witty and thought-provoking journey through modern art, sprinkled in between are numerous recipes from these artists—including Ezra Pounds poetic eggs and Monets madeleines.
Irmas World
A masterful blend of scholarship,detective work and recipes by modern masters.This is a gem: wonderful to read and exciting in its prospect of cooking delicious meals created and eaten by great artists.
Frederic Tuten, author of Tintin in the New World and Van Goghs Bad Cafe
Who wouldnt want to taste Allen Ginsbergs borscht, Frida Kahlos red snapper, or Cézannes baked tomatoes? Mary Ann Caws a phenomenal writer, critic, translator, and curator of cultivated pleasures has assembled an intoxicating mélange of reminiscences, art works, poems, and recipes. This savory compendium offers imaginative satisfactions of the highest order. I cant wait to bake David Hockneys strawberry cake!
Wayne Koestenbaum
One of our leading connoisseurs of Modernist art and literature in all their manifestations, Mary Ann Caws has here assembled the most delicious set of anecdotes, paintings, photographs, poems, and, of course, recipes that present us with the joys of Modernist cuisine. From Nerudas Ode to an Artichoke to Helen Frankenthalers recipe for Quick, Heavenly Hors D'oeuvres, to Mallarmés tip to remove the sand from chanterelle mushrooms but not to wash them before cooking, you will find your mouth watering! Tomorrow, I plan to try Picassos recipe for Spanish omelette so simple and practical that it must be the creation of an artist!
Marjorie Perloff