Issue no. 37

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Soura Magazine | Issue 37 | 2014 - Volume 1

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CONTENT | ISSUE 37 12 Carl Warner The Foodscaper 22 Beth Galton Beauty of Dissection 32 Klaus Pichler Documenting Decay 46 Fat & Furious Burger The Men Behind the Sandwich: Thomas Weil & Quentin Weisbuch 52 Luciana Rondolini Bejeweled to Eat 58 Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA) 66 Tjalf Sparnaay Mega-Realism 72 Mary Ellen Johnson Nostaligic Flavors 80 TASCHEN: Modernist Cuisine Book

by Nathan Myhrvold 90 Black Food Book

by Silvia Badalotti 98 Fictional Food Book

by Dinah Fried 104 Man’oushé Book

by Barbara Abdeni Massaad

2014 | Volume 1 11

Photography | Carl Warner

Carl Warner

The Foodscaper

Carl Warner began his career by going to Maidstone College of Art with an ambition to become an illustrator, but he quickly discovered that his ideas and creative eye was better suited to photography, as he saw it as a faster and more exciting medium in which to work. After a year’s foundation course at the college he moved to the London College of Printing in 1982 where he acquired a degree in photography, film and television.

One day while walking around a food market, Warner found some wonderful Portobello mushrooms, which he thought looked like some kind of tree from an alien world. So he took them back to his studio with a few other ingredients such as rice seeds and beans to try to create a miniature scene on a tabletop.

The Mushroom Savanna became his first ‘Foodscape’ and over the next ten years he continued to develop a body of work making landscapes out of food, which began to attract the advertising industry.

In January of 2008 this work was featured in an article the Sunday Times, after which the floodgates opened to a host of media attention from magazines and newspapers all over the world, and this led to television reports, documentaries and interviews, including an appearance on Britain’s famous Richard and Judy Show. The publishing of the images on TV and newspaper websites also led to the creation of many PDF format viral emails, which are still to this day being passed around the globe. These viral emails have led to a recognition of his 12 Soura Issue 37

work throughout the world, which has resulted in a book deal with a major U.S. publisher, the licensing of images for merchandising opportunities, as well as advertising campaigns and commissions from some of the biggest brand names in the food world. Some of these campaigns have helped Warner expand his work into the moving image where he has begun directing television and Internet commercials.

His first book, Carl Warner’s Food Landscapes,

“

The Mushroom Savanna became his first ‘Foodscape’ and over the next ten years he continued to develop a body of work. catalogues many of his early works, where he writes about their inspiration and shows the process of their creation from the initial sketches through to the building and shooting, with behind-the-scenes pictures and ingredient lists.

The book is an informative and an amusing insight into Warner’s work, which reveals many of the secrets, tricks and techniques he uses in the creation of his images.

His second book, A World of Food, is a children’s book featuring scenes made from predominantly one color. Warner has written poems to accompany each image, which describe and annotate the scenes so that children can discover the ingredients for themselves. Warner’s hope is that his work might be used to alter children’s perception of food and to encourage them to develop a greater insight to healthy eating and nutritional education.

Betty Crocker 2014 | Volume 1  13

Photography | Carl Warner

London

Bread Village 14  Soura Issue 37

Tuscan Landscape

Corn Candle 2014 | Volume 1  15

Photography | Carl Warner

Yellow Oasis

Cart & Banana Balloon

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Paris Boulevard with Coffee

2014 | Volume 1  17

Photography | Carl Warner

Cowboy Valley

Garlicshire

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Chocolate Express

Bread Caravan

2014 | Volume 1  19

Photography | Carl Warner

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A Delicious Scene The ‘Foodscapes’ are created in my London studio where they are built on top of a large purpose-built triangular tabletop. The scenes are photographed in layers from foreground to background and sky, as the process is very time consuming and so the food quickly wilts under the lights. Each element is then put together in post-production to achieve the final image.

Although I’m very hands on with my work, I do use model makers and food stylists to help me create the sets. I tend to start with a drawing, which I sketch out in order to get the composition worked out, this acts as a blue print for the team to work to.

“

It is the realization that the scene is in fact made of food that brings a smile to the viewer, and for me that’s the best part.

Once the drawing is agreed upon, I then work out what each part of the scene will be made from, and working with my food stylist we determine the best ingredients to work with in order to achieve my vision.

I tend to draw a very conventional landscape using classic compositional techniques as I need to fool the viewer into thinking it is a real scene at first glance, it is the realization that the scene is in fact made of food that brings a smile to the viewer, and for me that’s the best part.

“

With my ‘Foodscapes’ I can now put together the knowledge of natural light with the control of recreating it in the studio.

I’ve always enjoyed the discipline of working in the studio, and the spontaneity of working outdoors in natural light, as you never know what you’re going to get. With my ‘Foodscapes’ I can now put together the knowledge of natural light with the control of recreating it in the studio in order to bring out the colors and textures as well as the beauty of a scene.

These images can take up to two or three days to build and photograph and then a couple of days of retouching and fine-tuning the images to blend all the welements together.

Candy Cottage

© All images courtesy of Carl Warner www.CarlWarner.com

2014 | Volume 1 21

Photography | Beth Galton

Beth Galton is one of New York's top food and still life photographers who graduated from Hiram College with a degree in studio art. After working as a photo assistant for Phil Koenig and then Michael O’Neill, she was able to put together a portfolio and start her own business.

Galton’s attention to detail and strong sense of composition has allowed her to acquire a noteworthy client list that includes Nabisco, Swanson Broth, Campbell’s Soup, Nestle’s, Kraft Foods, Stouffers, Hellmann’s, Bath and Body Works, St. Ives and Origins among others. Her photographs appear in numerous books such as Martha Stewart's Pies and Tarts cookbook, Beth Allen’s Perfect Pies and Peter Berley’s The New Vegetarian Cookbook. She also wrote and illustrated a book called Say Cheese - How to Take Great Photos of Your Children.

Beth Galton

Beauty of Dissection

“

Galton’s attention to detail and strong sense of composition has allowed her to acquire a noteworthy client list Galton was one of the first prominent table top photographers to utilize motion picture lighting and techniques in her print work. This led her to explore on her own, the process of filmmaking. She was soon directing commercial assignments for advertising clients like Tilex Fresh Shower and Taco Bell. As a self taught Director/ DP, Galton has completed spots for clients such as Pillsbury, Stouffers, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Hellmann’s, HomeGoods, Pfizer, and Eli Lilly.

Galton's work is exhibited periodically. She has received numerous awards from Communication Arts, The Art Director's Club, The One Show, Creativity Show, Graphis, PDN Nikon Award, APANY, APANational and the International Advertising Festival of NY, and Lürzer’s Int’l Archive’s ‘200 Best Advertising Photographers’. Her fine art work is sold through the Marlborough Gallery.

“

Galton was one of the first prominent table top photographers to utilize motion picture lighting and techniques in her print work.

For this series featured here, Galton has workd with Charlotte Omnès who specializes in graphic, modern, natural-looking food styling. She brings to bear her diverse experience in editorial, commercial advertising, packaging and edgy art projects along with a knack for creative problem solving to her work. © All images courtesy of Beth Galton and Charlotte Omnès www.BethGalton.com and CharlotteOmnès.com

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2014 | Volume 1  23

Photography | Beth Galton

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2014 | Volume 1  25

Photography | Beth Galton

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2014 | Volume 1  27

Photography | Beth Galton

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2014 | Volume 1  29

Photography | Beth Galton

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The Interior World of Food The Cut Food series was inspired by an assignment in which we were asked to cut a burrito in half for a client.

Normally for a job, we photograph the surface of food occasionally taking a bite or a piece out, but rarely the cross section of a finished dish. The focus is to make it appetizing and beautiful to make the viewer hungry or inspire them to recreate the dish. There is much focus on how food is styled on a plate, whether it is in a 4 star restaurant, or a commercial photographer photographing a dish, or a blogger snapping photos with their smart phone. But little attention is paid to what the dish actually looks like inside once opened. By cutting these items in half we move past the simple appetite appeal we normally try to achieve and explore the interior worlds of these products.

“

By cutting these items in half we move past the simple appetite appeal we normally try to achieve and explore the interior worlds of these products.

Charlotte Omnès, the food stylist and I thought it would be interesting to explore foods items which are commonplace to our everyday life. We chose foods, which we felt were iconic symbols within our western food culture; classic items that many of us grew up eating. As we chose each subject, it became apparent that some images needed to live in pairs such as the donut and coffee and the pints of ice cream. Shown together they create a stronger statement about their symbolic nature.

Charlotte and I have a very low-tech approach to creating these images. Gelatin, glue, Crisco, scissors and saws were utilized in fabricating each object. When we could not accomplish it all in one photograph we created various images, which were then composited in Photoshop.

“

We chose foods, which we felt were iconic symbols within our western food culture; classic items that many of us grew up eating.

I chose to light them with a harder light, and to place them against black. I wanted the viewer to focus on the hard reality of each interior, the texture and surface quality. With this simplicity of both the lighting and background, each subject revealed it’s own qualities.

Daniel Hurlburt and Ashlee Gray were the digital retouchers on this project. They played an important role in utilizing photographic techniques when needed to composite elements together to create the images we imagined.

2014 | Volume 1 31

Photography | Klaus Pichler

ONE THIRD A Project About Food Waste Think of a random item of food, an orange for example. This orange, cultivated on a plantation in South Africa, harvested and transferred to Europe by plane and truck over a distance of 15.000 km, sold in a supermarket and finally, although still in good condition, discarded by the consumer. Fiction? Fact!

“

In March 2011, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) published a study about food waste, it stated that one third of all food products go to waste worldwide.”

Waste of food around the globe has increased to worrying dimensions: In March 2011, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) published a study about food waste, it stated that one third of all food products go to waste worldwide – the largest part thereof in the industrialized nations of the global north. Equally, 925 million people around the world are threatened by starvation.

Klaus Pichler

Documenting Decay

Klaus Pichler was born 1977 and lives in Vienna, Austria.

After graduating from university in 2005, he decided to follow his heart and quit his profession as a landscape architect to become a full time photographer. He has created free photo projects, which have been widely published, exhibited internationally and partially published as books. The topics of Pichler’s work are the hidden aspects of everyday life in its varying forms, as well as social groups with their own codes and rules.

“

The topics of Pichler’s work are the hidden aspects of everyday life in its varying forms, as well as social groups with their own codes and rules.

His three published books of work are Fürs Leben Gezeichnet, Fotohof edition, Salzburg, 2011; Skeletons in the Closet, self-published, Vienna, 2013; and One Third, Anzenberger Edition, Vienna, 2013 Pilcher’s work has garnered him many awards and accolades over the past decade. Some such awards are 2nd place at the 2012 International Portfolio Review in Vienna, Austria; and 2nd prize for Best in Show Award for the Provocation exhibition at the New York Photo Festival, New York, USA, among many other awards and prizes.

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The series of photographs One Third focuses on this particular percentage. It highlights the issue of food waste through photographs and reports, which are combined to offer an insight into this phenomenon, ranging from its geopolitical background and cultural history to individual consumer behavior.

“

Rotting food, arranged into elaborate still life, portrays an abstract picture of food waste, while the accompanying text takes a more in depth look at the roots of this issue.

The series One Third describes the connection between individual food waste and globalized food production. Rotting food, arranged into elaborate still life, portrays an abstract picture of food waste, while the accompanying text takes a more in depth look at the roots of this issue. One Third goes past the sell by date in order to document the full dimensions of global food waste.

This project is dedicated to the workers of the global food industry.

The UN study revealed that, on average, a third of all products of the food industry goes to waste worldwide, ranging between 25 and 75%, depending on the product. Altogether, 1.3 billion tons of edible goods are discarded each year, while the global south is hit by recurrent periods of severe starvation. This problem has increased dramatically since the hike in food prices on the global market after the 2007 ‘Food Price Crisis’. This state of affairs is not as paradoxical as one may assume; however, it is part of the neoliberal global economic system, which the globalized food industry is a part of.

“

Altogether, 1.3 billion tons of edible goods are discarded each year, while the global south is hit by recurrent periods of severe starvation.

Strawberries

The Photo-Series The pictures of the series One Third show food that is no longer edible at various stages of decay. The products used for this study were once tasty items of food, for sale in supermarkets after being transported there from various parts of the world.

The title of the series – One Third – refers to the particular percentage of food products, which according to a study by the FAO, goes to waste worldwide. Food products come with their own individual history and are produced in different ways in different parts of the world. They only have one thing in common: they are eventually discarded.

The immediate idea behind this series was to picture food products at different stages of decay in order to highlight the issue of food waste. This waste is strongly linked to the culture industry and therefore also to people’s ways of life, especially in industrial nations. In the photographs, this is made obvious through the combination of food with accessories of the culture industry focused around food (e.g. dishes, cutlery). Therefore, the pictured food items are portrayed as part of a European culinary culture and history. This culture is closely intertwined with the history of exploitation of European colonies and, as a result,

the import of cheap food products from other continents.

Because of these historical aspects, an artistic examination of the issue of food waste in industrial nations of the 21st century has no alternative but to give consideration to geopolitical inequalities, which have developed throughout history.

“

The immediate idea behind this series was to picture food products at different stages of decay in order to highlight the issue of food waste.

The Book The book One Third features 32 photos in a photo series by Klaus Pilcher. Published in 2013 by Anzenberger Edition, the book also features extensive text written by Klaus Pilcher and Julia Edthofer on the issue of global food waste. A highly informative and visually stunning book, One Third is available online at www.anzenbergergallery-bookshop.com. © All images courtesy of Klaus Pichler and Anzenberger Gallery Vienna www.kpic.at and www.AnzenbergerGallery.com

2014 | Volume 1 33

Photography | Klaus Pichler

Fruit Cake (Deep Frozen)

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Choux Pastry Buns

2014 | Volume 1  35

Photography | Klaus Pichler

Pineapple

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Dessert Ice Cream

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Photography | Klaus Pichler

Cheese

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Cauliflower

2014 | Volume 1  39

Photography | Klaus Pichler

Lemons

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Cham Cham (Indian Sweets)

2014 | Volume 1  41

Photography | Klaus Pichler

Apple

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Tomatoes

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Photography | Klaus Pichler

Artichokes

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Š Klaus Pichler, from the book: Skeletons in the Closet, 2013, edition 700 + 50 (incl. print)

ANZENBERGERGALLERYbookshop bookshop for rare, selfpublished and signed books

www.anzenbergergallery-bookshop.com bookshop@anzenbergergallery.com +43-1-587 82 51 Absberggasse 27, 1100 Vienna, Austria

Photography | Fat & Furious Burger

Fat & Furious Burger

The Men Behind the Sandwich

© Image courtesy of Richard Banroques for Fricote Magazine

Thomas Weil was born in 1986. He obtained his diploma of Higher Applied Arts (DSAA) in ENSAAMA in 2009. Since 2007, he collaborates regularly with Wood McGrath, O-SB Design.

Between 2009 and 2010, Weil worked as a freelancer in Paris at the studio Frédéric Teschner, and in and London at Graphic Thought Facility. Since 2010, he is responsible for graphic design projects at Atelier Polymago. Weil co-founded Fat & Furious Burger in 2011.

Quentin Weisbuch was born in 1987. From 2005 to 2008, he studied at Strate College Designers. In 2008, he was a student at the Scuola Italiana Design in Padua, Italy, and received a diploma from Strate Collège Designers in 2010. Since March 2010, he is responsible for graphic design projects at Atelier Polymago.

Weisbuch co-founded Fat & Furious Burger in 2011. © All images courtesy of Thomas Weil & Quentin Weisbuch www.FatandFuriousBurger.com

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2014 | Volume 1  47

Photography | Fat & Furious Burger

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2014 | Volume 1  49

Photography | Fat & Furious Burger

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Between Two Buns Fat & Furious Burger is a story about two hungry guys from Paris who were working together at a graphic design studio. We’re both furious and not that fat (yet). As we were so bored of random food at lunch, we started cooking together. It soon became kind of a ritual: improvising and experimenting new ways of cooking a burger during a very short lunch break. The lunch break was about an hour and a half during which we had to find an idea, run to a supermarket to get everything, cook, shoot and eat. We didn’t actually plan to create a website. Only after a few tries we started taking pictures in our kitchen with an iPhone and decided to put it on the Internet.

“

Fat & Furious Burger is a story about two hungry guys from Paris who were working together at a graphic design studio.

We used to cook these burgers for our daily meals.

So it’s all about one shot. But we sometimes work for restaurants to create special burgers, such as the End Burger for BLEND in Paris. We get ideas for our images from headlines in newspapers, everyday life, and anything really could be inspiring. We only take a few minutes to shoot our burger so we can take our time eating it! Sometimes the taste is a great surprise, and sometimes kind of a fail.

Each image we shot was challenging in a way, because it’s all about trying something new each week. We never know how it’s going to taste or even look. One of our favorites is the Neil Armstrong Burger. Though it wasn’t exactly tasty, it was the first of all that looked like something different, something you don’t usually eat.

For now we’re collaborating with magazines and restaurants. We don’t know yet where this project is going to take us… Hopefully not to obesity, ha!

“

Each image we shot was challenging in a way, because it’s all about trying something new each week.

We never know how it’s going to taste or even look.

Weil, when I was a child, I used to go to Mcdonald’s every Friday and sit on Ronald McDonald’s lap.

Weisbuch, I was raised with two older brothers…

I always felt like a piece of meat between two buns.

2014 | Volume 1 51

Photography | Luciana Rondolini

Luciana Rondolini

Bejeweled to Eat

Luciana Rondolini studied Fine Arts at the National Institute of Arts (IUNA) in Buenos Aires. Among Rondolini’s latest solo shows are Tomorrow is just a song away at Ruby Gallery, Buenos Aires, Stoa at Miau Miau Studio and El Tigre Celeste at Y Gallery, New York. In 2012, Rondolini participated in the Petrobras Prize and was recently awarded for her work as the most distinguished young artist by Arteba Foundation, 2013. During November of this year she will exhibit her latest production at The Mission Projects, Houston, USA.

“

Rondolini’s work is linked to the analysis of the value that is given to objects and people, focusing on the habits that determine their use and subsequent disposal.”

Rondolini’s work is linked to the analysis of the value that is given to objects and people, focusing on the habits that determine their use and subsequent disposal, as evidence of the ephemeral nature of relationships in our society. They are sociological cores of human behaviour where it is possible to see a critique of society and the way in which we follow trends.

Graphite drawings of faces covered with jewels, and fruits ornamented with plastic gems, are a reflection of the ambiguity of value of things that we want in the immediacy of the moment or by its quality of novelty, compared to its real value and condition of perishableness.

Vanitas reminds us of the deterioration and neglect to which all things are subjected.

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2014 | Volume 1  53

Photography | Luciana Rondolini

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2014 | Volume 1  55

Photography | Luciana Rondolini

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Perishing in Beauty I am interested in the dynamic generated when you want something and you know, at the same time, you don’t need it or can’t possess it. When that desire becomes a whim.

Advertising works by following this logic. Although we can dispense with most of the products sold in the market, publicity creates the need to have unnecessary objects.

The same happens with people in relation to attraction, some people, as they become impossible, they become more desirable.

Many times we succumb to the charms of publicity and, if we can, we end up acquiring all kinds of objects that with time and good use, become old and worn. But my fruits have not been bitten. Coated with a thick layer of plastic beads, they will rot without being consumed. They suffer from the slow and relentless change of time. They represent everything that was about to materialize once and yet has become impossible for some reason: the need to hold what every day becomes more distant and blurry with the distance, what you can’t own or control. The same transformation that imperceptibly affects everything you want and treasure.

“

Many times we succumb to the charms of publicity and, if we can, we end up acquiring all kinds of objects that with time and good use, become old and worn.

Jewels as a symbol of material wealth, are associated with vanity and social status.

Moreover, in most traditions they also symbolize spiritual truth and wisdom. In the treasures guarded by dragons, the hero must overcome a series of obstacles and works to get to the cave full of gold and riches; this struggle allows him to achieve a wisdom that is related to the amount of experience and knowledge connected to the pragmatic and evolutionary.

My first fruit was an experiment. Or an act of superstition. This amulet was commissioned to accommodate my desire and so its influence, dissociating myself from it. An object owned and observed from a distance. The resignation of my claims in its symbolization.

The slow disintegration of that which was valuable and the acceptance of what is and will be. I took an apple, one of the classic components of still life and began to cover the surface with plastic diamonds purchased at Once, pasted one by one. On the front, for revenge but also as a search, I made a hole up to its core.

“

The decline of everything that one wants is the most dreaded stage. And reversing it is beyond our reach.

The first few weeks my apple started to contract. The hole began to close like the mouth of an old woman, the skin wrinkled and darkened. The flesh began to stink and lose its texture. I took some pictures. I placed it in the sun so that the syrup that came out dried out. At first it was good, but over the days, it filled with dust and began to lose some gems. I glued them back with a new stick. The original plot had been left off centred.

Finally I decided to leave it alone, not to touch it. Meanwhile, other parts fell and the interior remained completely dark. A fat black fly appeared; it flew not on the jewel but on an opaque shell. The same apple, now dull and lacking shine, had lost all its freshness.

The decline of everything that one wants is the most dreaded stage. And reversing it is beyond our reach. Just because it defies all laws of nature. Any indication of exhaustion, fatigue and senility as a result of dissolution and decomposition of the shape, colour and odour, causes a reaction of displeasure followed by anxiety and a certain degree of repulsion. So the new, cute and nice is what sells and what you buy with absolute conviction. © All images courtesy of Luciana Rondolini www.LucianaRondolini.com

2014 | Volume 1 57

HERE WE ARE AGAIN TODAY, STANDING WITH PHOTOGRAPHERS FROM 156 COUNTRIES IN THE LAND THAT GAVE ITSELF TO ART AND INNOVATION AND HAS BECOME A HUB FOR EXCELLENCE, DUBAI. HIS HIGHNESS SHEIKH HAMDAN BIN MOHAMMED BIN RASHID AL MAKTOUM

About The Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA) Since it was established in March 2011 by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai, with the presence and blessings of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, the ‘Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award’ (HIPA) assumed a steady and confident course of development and progress.

Drawing on the inspirations of its founder, the Award set out on a journey to “build man” by developing and honing his skills and pushing his ambitions to new horizons where excellence and distinction in the field of photography have no limits – at a time when a photograph is the most credible witness to an incident or event, making the written or spoken word redundant.

Guided by this global scope, the Award’s Board of Trustees and work team endeavour to achieve good planning, quality execution and continuous development, day-in day-out, to see the Award achieving its goals and realising the vision of its founder in assisting a generation of photography talents turn their ambitions to realty – from this point our higher mission and greater challenge shall commence.

CREATING THE FUTURE

Fuyang Zhou Grand Winner of the Third Season 2013-2014

Beginning his career in 2010, Zhou is not a stranger to winning photography awards, with two prizes acquired in the U.S.A, and two prizes in Greece. Strangely enough however, this talented photo maker is self- taught, “I don’t have any academic background in photography,” he says, “It’s just a hobby…” Zhou is a fan of places that offer a true and personal reflection of its inhabitants like villages, rural areas, and the countryside.

His winning photo, which he entered into the Creating the Future category, speaks of his passion for these locales, which he targets on his photography travels to places like India, Nepal, Singapore, and Malaysia. “My favourite trip was to Dubai,” says Zhou of his travels, “because Dubai is a fantastic and clean city.”

Zhou captured his winning image in the province of Si Chuan in the district of Da Lian San. “I went to that place because it’s very simple and people there are all very poor, I captured that photograph because I think people there must work hard and make great efforts to improve their life and to create the future, and that’s my category of photography,” says Zhou of his photo.

Be Part of the Fourth Season of The Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award 2014 - 2015

Submissions Open: 21st March 2014 Submissions Close: 31st December 2014 (Midnight)

www.hipa.ae

WE ASPIRE TO CROSS WITH YOU THE LIMITS OF CREATIVITY, BREAKING ALONG THE WAY THE BARRIERS THAT MAY MAKE YOU DOUBT YOUR TALENTS OR DETER YOU FROM BRINGING THE BEST IN YOU. SIMPLY, WE ARE HIGHNESS SHEIKH HAMDAN BIN HERE FOR YOU. HISMOHAMMED BIN RASHID AL MAKTOUM

Art | Tjalf Sparnaay

Tjalf Sparnaay

Mega-Realism

Tjalf Sparnaay takes the subjects of his oils from everyday reality.

Over and over again Sparnaay elects a subject taken from life: recognizable, accessible, everyday and simple. Almost banal, and yet so fascinating as an object. Sparnaay is not satisfied with the everyday reality we see repeated endlessly around us. In his paintings he lets reality run through his fingers afresh and gives it something subjective, a soul. He simplifies it and adds to it, enlarges it, thus opening our eyes to the tiniest details. In the early eighties Sparnaay developed a fascination for photography.

“

In his paintings he lets reality run through his fingers afresh and gives it something subjective, a soul.

Walking around Amsterdam like a documentary filmmaker, he recorded the day-to-day life of the bustling city in snapshots.

During the eighties and nineties snapshot photography and the narrative line of his archaic work came together in what Sparnaay calls ‘Mega-Realism’. It was during this period that he also encountered Photo Realism, a movement in American contemporary art where the artist depicts reality faithfully from a photograph, enlarged or otherwise.

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Sparnaay’s Mega-Realism could be described as simplicity multiplied a millionfold.

Sparnaay’s Mega-Realism could be described as simplicity multiplied a millionfold. The details and focal points of his snapshot photography meld, giving what is at first sight a trivial, ephemeral subject an eternal value.

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Art | Tjalf Sparnaay

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2014 | Volume 1  69

Art | Tjalf Sparnaay

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Food Portraits I am a self-taught photographer who has always been a visual minded person: I like to shape and create. I first started my career as a teacher in physical education at a high school, but soon realized I was more interested in putting the energy into myself rather than into students. As a young boy I wanted to become a painter because I visited many museums with my parents and I read a lot of books with images of paintings in them. I am creatively inspired by the works of Rembrandt, Monet, and American photo-realists from Meisel’s first book Photorealism. I am also inspired by the works of Richard Estes, Ralph Goings, Charles Bell, Tom Blackwell, Don Eddy, and Ben Schonzeit.

“

There is no light without shadow, this rather poetic statement is very important for me, the stronger the shadow the stronger the light.

There is no light without shadow, this rather poetic statement is very important for me, the stronger the shadow the stronger the light. I like contrasts. To express maximum light power I use the so-called clair obscur. It helps to focus. In looking for the painted story you are guided by the dark to the direction of the light.

My technique is about a very strong longing to represent reality as accurately as possible. I only use oil paint in the traditional way, with many different brushes, using turpentine, glazing and so on. This took years and years to perfect.

“

Time stands still when I place these objects in a classical art arrangement, removed from the context of their day-to-day surroundings.

The vision behind my works is to utilize trivial or mundane items, letting reality run through my fingers afresh. My intention is to give these objects a soul, and a presence. Time stands still when I place these objects in a classical art arrangement, removed from the context of their day-to-day surroundings. This sense of timelessness is the way in which my technique is close to the 17th century Dutch tradition. I hope my paintings will allow the viewer to re-experience reality, to re-discover the essence of the thing that has become so ordinary from its DNA to the level of universal structure, in all its beauty. I call it the beauty of the contemporary commonplace.

“

There is no beauty without a beast, so irregularity is important to me too.

The funny thing is I am by no means a foody! But this ordinary subject plays perfectly to my desire to show people their own common world.

I love to show light and dark, a metaphor that can be seen in all my paintings. And I like to show beauty in its purity. There is no beauty without a beast, so irregularity is important to me too. All those aspects can be found in (fast)food from which temptation is actually the most important quality. To induce people to buy my images needs temptational work. © All images courtesy of Tjalf Sparnaay www.Tjalf Sparnaay.nl

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Art | Mary Ellen Johnson

Not many artists include their local bakery as an influence, but food in any form has always provided artists with the most loaded of visual metaphors. Johnson uses hers to excellent effect: The ephemerality of youth and beauty, the impossibility of perfection, decadence, excess, and death. By deliberately re-appropriating the sorts of images popularized by social diseases and the contradictory comfort the subject matter offers in reality, Johnson serves us pop art by way of the food channel.

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By deliberately re-appropriating the sorts of images popularized by social diseases and the contradictory comfort the subject matter offers in reality, Johnson serves us pop art by way of the food channel.

Mary Ellen Johnson

Nostaligic Flavors

Born in 1967 in West Long Branch, New Jersey, Mary Ellen Johnson is an American oil painter specializing in the subject of food. Since attending Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida in 1988, she has resided in Hartsville, South Carolina with her husband and two sons.

One can see influences of Wayne Thiebaud and Pop Artists Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg in Johnson’s work.

From a philosophical aspect, she is most closely linked to hyperrealism, and the French social theorist Jean Baudrillard.

Johnson is also inspired by the way food is portrayed in modern society, such as in food blogs, magazines, and TV. The South Carolina-based painter immortalizes those food stuffs found only in the slice of the edible pie chart labeled treats and sweets.

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Presented with imagery both familiar and alien in its hyper-realistic and unattainable deliciousness, the public is welcome to experience this vision of food for all its iconic, comforting, sensual, desirable and nostalgic flavors.

Presented with imagery both familiar and alien in its hyper-realistic and unattainable deliciousness, the public is welcome to experience this vision of food for all its iconic, comforting, sensual, desirable and nostalgic flavors. Triggered by our highly personal relationships with it and the powerful dominion it has over our thoughts, Johnson is striving to “push its instinctual command into visual space.”

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The attention to detail required in a single piece might see the artist take up to eight weeks to complete it. However this one painting, a portrait of our emotional attachment to food, will provoke both mental and physical reactions from its viewer. Meanwhile some people, after listening to their growling stomachs, might feel compelled to find a local confectioner and sate the solipsistic squeeze brought on by the sight of a perfect cream éclair.

From a press release written by Bryonny Quinn, commissioned by Mary Ellen Johnson © All images courtesy of Mary Ellen Johnson, www.MaryEllenJohnson.net

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Art | Mary Ellen Johnson

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Art | Mary Ellen Johnson

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Indulging in Excess The subject of food is charged with numerous connotations and meanings, and embodies much more than sustenance. Food is deeply embedded within our culture, society, and families, and has powerful dominion over our very thoughts.

I find this control that food has fascinating, and I strive to push its instinctual command into visual space. Size, color, and texture are amplified to enrich feelings of indulgence and excess. An important dimension to the beginning stages of my working process is whenever it is feasible, I make the food myself.

I feel the hands on creation of the subject strengthens my connection to the work in a very empirical manner. These vibrant and sensual portraits reflect on impulse and desire – yet offer elements of comfort and familiarity.

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Book | Modernist Cuisine

Modernist Cuisine:

The Art and Science of Cooking In Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young, and Maxime Bilet — scientists, inventors, and accomplished cooks in their own right — have created a six-volume 2,400-page set that reveals science-inspired techniques for preparing food that ranges from the otherworldly to the sublime. The authors — and their 20-person team at The Cooking Lab — have achieved astounding new flavors and textures by using tools such as water baths, homogenizers, centrifuges, and ingredients such as hydrocolloids, emulsifiers, and enzymes. It is a work destined to reinvent cooking.

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Nathan Myhrvold

The Mathematical Genius of Cuisine Dr. Nathan Myhrvold is chief executive officer and a founder of Intellectual Ventures, a firm dedicated to creating and investing in inventions. In addition to stimulating the invention of others, Myhrvold is himself an active inventor, with nearly 250 patents issued or pending including several related to food technology.

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After working for two years as a stagier at Seattle’s top French restaurant, Rover’s, Myhrvold completed culinary training with renowned chef Anne Willan at the Ecole De La Varenne.

Before founding his invention company, Myhrvold was the first chief technology officer at Microsoft. He established Microsoft Research, and during his tenure he oversaw many advanced technology projects. He left Microsoft in 1999 to pursue several interests, including a lifelong interest in cooking and food science. Myhrvold competed on a team that won first place in several categories at the 1991 World Championship of Barbecue, including first prize in the special pasta category for a recipe that Myhrvold developed on the day of the contest. After working for two years as a stagier at Seattle’s top French restaurant, Rover’s, Myhrvold completed culinary training with renowned chef Anne Willan at the Ecole De La Varenne.

In addition, he has worked as Chief Gastronomic Officer for Zagat Survey, publisher of the popular Zagat restaurant guide­books. Through his many visits to the world’s top restaurants, Myhrvold has become personally acquainted with many of the leading Modernist chefs and the scienceinspired cooking techniques they have pioneered.

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Myhrvold’s formal education includes degrees in mathematics, geophysics, and space physics from UCLA, and a PhD in mathematical economics and theoretical physics from Princeton University.”

Myhrvold is himself an accomplished practitioner of Modernist cuisine. He has contributed original research on cooking sous vide to online culinary forums, and his sous vide techniques have been covered in the New York Times Magazine, Wired, and PBS’s Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie television series. Myhrvold’s formal education includes degrees in mathematics, geophysics, and space physics from UCLA, and a PhD in mathematical economics and theoretical physics from Princeton University. In his postdoctoral work at Cambridge University, Myhrvold worked on quan­tum theories of gravity with the renowned cosmologist Stephen Hawking.

Cooking with Science In 2006, I embarked on an ambitious venture to explain the scientific principles that govern how cooking actually works and to cover all of the latest and most modern culinary techniques practiced by the best and most advanced chefs in the world. The resulting five-volume set, Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, was published in 2011 and celebrated by both the culinary and publishing industries.

Ferran Adrià said of this book, “This book will change the way we understand the kitchen.” While Tim Zagat proclaimed, “The most important book in the culinary arts since Escoffier.”

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I embarked on an ambitious venture to explain the scientific principles that govern how cooking actually works © All images courtesy of 2011 Modernist Cuisine, LLC www.ModernistCuisine.com Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking book is available at Taschen www.Taschen.com

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Book | Modernist Cuisine

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Book | Modernist Cuisine

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Book | Black Food Book

Silvia Badalotti

Food as Fashion Items

The work of Silvia Badalotti is characterized by a personal study in the creation of images that she has been able to transform into a real production of artistic value. For this reason the more commercial works are often paired with artistic collaborations with foundations and publishers. Badalotti is a gifted photographer, with a remarkable ability for composition, and with a significant orientation for cultural research.

Since 1992, Badalotti has collaborated with leading Italian and international magazines. Her work has been featured in Vanity Fair, Wired, Riders, Class, Elle, Vogue Japan, Russian Vogue and CartierArt of the Cartier Foundation in Paris. She has worked with major advertising agencies such as JWT, McCann Erickson Worldwide, Ogilvy, Publicis and some designer brands such as: Prada, Tod’s, Gucci, Roberto Cavalli, S. Pellegrino, and Bulgari.

“

Badalotti is a gifted photographer, with a remarkable ability for composition, and with a significant orientation for cultural research.

The collaboration with the Fondation Cartier in 2006 featured her with other international photographers including Douglas Kirkland, Jean Larivère, Peter Lippmann, Maurizio Galimberti and Stephen Roach for a special issue of CartierArt for the anniversary of Maison Cartier, Paris. She held a solo exhibition for the Cologni Foundation, and published a book with journalist Patricia Sanvitales entitled The Chocolatier in 2005, for which she received the Eurochocolate Publishing Award for Best Publication.

Badalotti’s work is internationally acclaimed. The cities of Milan, Paris, New York and London are the privileged places of study and inspiration for her. In 2011 she won the Cool Book Prize awarded by the National Association of Professional Photographers during Milan Fashion Week.

Black Food Book The kitchen is not only a place where you make something good to eat. Even taste is not just the ability to taste food.

Obviously. The quality and beauty of food is the beginning of the photographic research for this book. For once, what takes place in the kitchen is not only seen as a recipe book but has a strong artistic value.

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The quality and beauty of food is the beginning of the photographic research for this book.

Black Food Book is a book of still life photos that come from the heart of the kitchen to find a place in the living room. The stylistic research that I have undertaken relates the design of the forms and the tones of food by treating them as fashion items.

Eighty photographs make up this work in progress that has lasted for 2 years and was born from a meeting between myself and food stylist Daniela Quagliotti. The goal was to give shape to this research, which interprets food the same way as design objects.

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The stylistic research that I have undertaken relates the design of the forms and the tones of food by treating them as fashion items.

A work of great charm and appeal. Organic matter, its dry flavors evoked in a manner so lucid, bind to the cold rigor of natural elements: ice, marble, steel, stone, glass. The result is surprising. © All images courtesy of Silvia Badalotti www.SilviaBadalotti.it

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Book | Fictitious Dishes

The Photo-Series & The Book My photographic series, Fictitious Dishes, began a couple of years ago as a small project while I was at the Rhode Island School of Design studying graphic design. The idea came to me easily: cook, style, and photograph memorable meals I’d read about in novels. I could see the meals very clearly in my mind’s eye, and the biggest challenge lay in realizing those visions so that I could share them with other readers. After taking the first photos— Oliver Twist (gruel), The Catcher in the Rye (a cheese sandwich and a malted), Moby-Dick (clam chowder), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (tea), and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (an openfaced sandwich and coffee)—I was convinced I could do it, and was completely hooked on the whole process.

“

After more than fifty photographs and a book to boot, this series is still going.

Dinah Fried

Fictional Food

Dinah Fried is a designer, creative director, and partner at Small Stuff Studio. She holds an MFA in Graphic Design from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and a BA in English from Tufts University. Fried has worked as a project manager at Pentagram Design, an editor at HarperCollins Publishers, and a designer at Chronicle Books.

“

Fried is the author of Fictitious Dishes: An Album of Literature’s Most Memorable Meals.

Her clients and collaborators include RISD, Chronicle Books, Persea Books, Oxford University Press, and the School of Visual Arts. She was featured in Graphic Design USA as a “Person to watch” in 2012. Her work has been recognized by the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and the Type Directors Club (TDC), and featured in The Guardian, the Huffington Post, New York magazine, The New Yorker, Bon Appétit, Saveur, Cosmo China, Marie Claire Italia, on National Public Radio, Andrew Sullivan’s blog The Dish, and Print, among others. Fried has taught classes and lectured at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she co-founded and led the AIGA RISD chapter. Fried is the author of Fictitious Dishes: An Album of Literature’s Most Memorable Meals (HarperCollins, 2014).

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There were so many more books to read, so many more meals to make, and so many more tables to set. After more than fifty photographs and a book to boot, this series is still going. Each step of the process of making these tabletop scenes—digesting the author’s words, imagining the setting and the food served, doing research, shopping, cooking, styling, and shooting—has been an extension of my own reading experience and has deepened my relationship with the characters and stories in each of the books.

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I believe that we’re all connected through the shared stories we read, and these photographs are one way of activating that silent connection.

I believe that we’re all connected through the shared stories we read, and these photographs are one way of activating that silent connection. For fellow readers who are familiar with the great works (and meals), I hope my photographs will spark a memory and transport you back into fictional worlds created by wonderful authors; to those of you who are unfamiliar with them, I simply offer a little taste of the stories. And who knows, maybe you’ll be inspired to go and read the books.

SWANN’S WAY MARCEL PROUST, 1913 One day in winter, as I came home, my mother, seeing that I was cold, suggested that, contrary to my habit, I have a little tea. I refused at first and then, I do not know why, changed my mind. She sent for one of those squat, plump cakes called petites madeleines that look as though they have been molded in the grooved valve of a scallop-shell. and soon, mechanically, oppressed by the gloomy day and the prospect of a sad future, I carried to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had let soften a piece of madeleine. But at the very instant when the mouthful of tea mixed with cake-crumbs touched my palate, I quivered, attentive to the extraordinary thing that was happening in me. A delicious pleasure had invaded me, isolated me, without my having any notion as to its cause. It had immediately made the vicissitudes of life unimportant to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory, acting in the same way that love acts, by filling me with a precious essence: or rather this essence was not in me, it was me.

THE GREAT GATSBY F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, 1925 At least once a fortnight a corps of caterers came down with several hundred feet of canvas and enough colored lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby’s enormous garden.

On buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors-d’oeuvre, spiced baked hams crowded against salads of harlequin designs and pastry pigs and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold. In the main hall a bar with a real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins and liquors and with cordials so long forgotten that most of his female guests were too young to know one from another.

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND LEWIS CARROLL, 1865 The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it: “No room! No room!” they cried out when they saw Alice coming.

“There’s plenty of room!” said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table.

“Have some wine,” the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.

Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea. “I don’t see any wine,” she remarked.

“There isn’t any,” said the March Hare.

“Then it wasn’t very civil of you to offer it,” said Alice angrily.

“It wasn’t very civil of you to sit down without being invited,” said the March Hare.

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Book | Fictitious Dishes

MOBY-DICK; OR THE WHALE HERMAN MELVILLE, 1851 Oh, sweet friends! hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuit, and salted pork cut up into little flakes; the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt. Our appetites being sharpened by the frosty voyage, and in particular, Queequeg seeing his favorite fishing food before him, and the chowder being surpassingly excellent, we despatched it with great expedition... while plying our spoons in the bowl, thinks I to myself, I wonder now if this here has any effect on the head? What’s that stultifying saying about chowder-headed people?

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD HARPER LEE, 1960 “We’re not through yet. There’ll be an appeal, you can count on that. Gracious alive, Cal, what’s all this?” [Atticus] was staring at his breakfast plate.

Calpurnia said, “Tom Robinson’s daddy sent you along this chicken this morning. I fixed it.” “You tell him I’m proud to get it—bet they don’t have chicken for breakfast at the White House. What are these?”

“Rolls,” said Calpurnia. “Estelle down at the hotel sent ’em.”

Atticus looked up at her, puzzled, and she said, “You better step out here and see what’s in the kitchen, Mr. Finch.”

We followed him. The kitchen table was loaded with enough food to bury the family: hunks of salt pork, tomatoes, beans, even scuppernongs.

Atticus grinned when he found a jar of pickled pigs’ knuckles. “Reckon Aunty’ll let me eat these in the diningroom?”

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THE BELL JAR SYLVIA PLATH, 1963 Then I tackled the avocado and crabmeat salad.

Avocados are my favorite fruit. Every Sunday my grandfather used to bring me an avocado pear hidden at the bottom of his briefcase under six soiled shirts and the Sunday comics. He taught me how to eat avocados by melting grape jelly and french dressing together in a saucepan and filling the cup of the pear with the garnet sauce. I felt homesick for that sauce. The crabmeat tasted bland in comparison.

OLIVER TWIST CHARLES DICKENS, 1837 Child as he was, he was desperate with hunger, and reckless with misery. He rose from the table; and advancing to the master, basin and spoon in hand, said: somewhat alarmed at his own temerity: “Please, sir, I want some more.”

The master was a fat, healthy man; but he turned very pale. he gazed in stupefied astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds, and then clung for support to the copper. The assistants were paralysed with wonder; the boys with fear.

“What!” said the master at length, in a faint voice.

“Please, sir,” replied Oliver, “I want some more.”

The master aimed a blow at Oliver’s head with the ladle; pinioned him in his arm; and shrieked aloud for the beadle.

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Book | Fictitious Dishes

ON THE ROAD JACK KEROUAC, 1957 But I had to get going and stop moaning, so I picked up my bag, said so long to the old hotelkeeper sitting by his spittoon, and went to eat. I ate apple pie and ice cream — It was getting better as I got deeper into Iowa, the pie bigger, the ice cream richer.

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO STIEG LARSSON, 2005 She improvised bandages and covered the wound with a makeshift compress.

Then she poured the coffee and handed him a sandwich.

“I’m really not hungry,” he said.

“I don’t give a damn if you’re hungry. Just eat,” Salander commanded, taking a big bite of her own cheese sandwich.

Blomkvist closed his eyes for a moment, then he sat up and took a bite. His throat hurt so much that he could scarcely swallow.

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Feeding the Soul Much of my work explores the design of literature.

At once celebrating historic literary traditions and developing technology, I work to interpret and visualize novels and other stories, and unveil fresh ways of understanding and appreciating the things we love to read.

“

I work to interpret and visualize novels and other stories, and unveil fresh ways of understanding and appreciating the things we love to read.

HEIDI JOHANNA SPYRI, 1880 The kettle soon began to boil, and meanwhile the old man held a large piece of cheese on a long iron fork over the fire, turning it round and round till it was toasted a nice golden yellow color on each side. Heidi watched all that was going on with eager curiosity.

So where does the food come in? I think reading and eating are natural companions, and they’ve got a lot in common. Both forms of consumption, reading and eating can be comforting, nourishing, restorative, relaxing, and (mostly) enjoyable.

They can energize you or put you to sleep. Heavy books and heavy meals both require a period of intense digestion. Just as reading great novels can transport you to another time and place in your mind, meals—good and bad ones alike— can conjure scenes very far away from your kitchen table.

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Just as reading great novels can transport you to another time and place in your mind, meals—good and bad ones alike—can conjure scenes very far away from your kitchen table.

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Some of my favorite meals convey stories of origin and tradition; as a voracious reader, I devour my favorite books. Moreover, many of my most vivid memories from books are of the meals the characters eat. I tend to read mouth-watering food descriptions over and over, from the golden, cheesy toast in Johanna Spyri’s children’s novel, Heidi, to the steaming, creamy clam chowder in Herman Melville’s American classic, Moby-Dick.

J. D. SALINGER, 1951 I’m a very light eater. I really am. That’s why I’m so damn skinny. I was supposed to be on this diet where you eat a lot of starches and crap, to gain weight and all, but I didn’t ever do it. When I’m out somewhere, I generally just eat a Swiss cheese sandwich and a malted milk. It isn’t much, but you get quite a lot of vitamins in the malted milk.

H. V. Caulfield. Holden Vitamin Caulfield.

© All images courtesy of Dinah Fried www.DinahFried.com

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Book | Man’oushé

Barbara Abdeni Massaad

A Culinary Snap Shot

Barbara Abdeni Massaad was born in Beirut, Lebanon. She moved to the U.S.A as a child and gained valuable culinary experience while helping at her family-owned Lebanese restaurant Kebabs & Things. She moved back to Lebanon in 1988, and earned a degree in Advertising and Marketing. After working for an array of respected institutions, Massaad decided to pursue her passion for cooking. Determined to gain proper experience within the culinary world, she trained with several renowned chefs at Lebanese, Italian, and French restaurants.

Massaad’s father was a professional photographer famous in the 1970’s for his artistic portraiture. Having inherited his passion, she combined both culinary interests and photography to create her first book Man’oushé: Inside the Street Corner Lebanese Bakery, winner of the Gourmand Cookbook Award 2009 and The Lebanese Academy of Gastronomy 2009.

“

Determined to gain proper experience within the culinary world, she trained with several renowned chefs at Lebanese, Italian, and French restaurants.

Mouneh: Preserving Foods for the Lebanese Pantry, winner of the Gourmand Cookbook Award 2010 and Prix de la literature Gastronomique 2010, continues Massaad’s quest to discover and preserve Lebanese culinary heritage. Mezze: A Labor of Love, winner of the Gourmand Cookbook Award 2013, extends her exploration of our local food traditions.

Massaad is a founding member of Slow Food Beirut and a delegate of the International Terra Madre Community. She hosts a television program every week introducing viewers to regional food and village folk. She has worked as a food consultant developing menus for local and international clients who seek knowledge of Lebanese cooking techniques.

She lives in Beirut with her husband, three children and four pets, all of whom are very much involved in her culinary journey.

Food for the Soul The book Man’oushé started with a romantic dream.

I always wanted to go to Italy to visit bakeries all over the country that made pizza, especially in Napoli. I wanted to research the actual pizza, its history and the Italian people themselves. You know the saying, “The grass is always greener on the other side!”

One day I woke up with the idea that my romantic dream can become a reality and that I don’t need to travel to Italy to find it. I decided to do a thorough study on the man’oushé, an important aspect of our food culture here in Lebanon. Man’oushé is poor man’s food and is very much appreciated by the high society. In other words, man’oushé is a common denominator in our culture.

“

I learned a lot about food, about Lebanon and about the Lebanese people. I became whole.

Family and friends questioned my project. No one understood my intentions except for my husband who always believed in my wild whims. Once during a dinner party, I made an official announcement that I would one day publish a book on our man’oushé. Everyone stared at me for a second and no one spoke. A minute later, everyone laughed mockingly. I was disappointed but that did not stop me. It gave me more fuel to pursue my passion.

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I have always had a fascination with baking bread, pizza, man’oushé and other similar pies. For two years, with the help of my friend Raymond Yazbeck, I set out to find the best recipes available from street corner Lebanese bakeries. I learned a lot about food, about Lebanon and about the Lebanese people.

I became whole. All recipes were tested at home using a conventional oven with amazing results. My husband and three children were delighted to eat all my food experiments.

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Many adventurers have built their own bakeries in cities all over the world with the book Man’oushé as a base.

Sometimes I believe that there is an alternate force that guides you to certain circumstances in your life.

Many people that I met throughout my journey, while documenting and photographing Man’oushé, became an essential building block to the success of the book.

The people were from different communities, regions, and demographics. Everyone, without any exceptions, welcomed me with open arms. Recipes were shared unconditionally. Friendships of a lifetime were built simultaneously. This is very special.

The book Man’oushé, today is in its third edition.

With the new publication at Interlink Publishing in the USA, the book has gained worldwide acclaim. Many adventurers have built their own bakeries in cities all over the world with the book Man’oushé as a base.

It is an honor and a dream come true. Eventually, I would like the word man’oushé and zaatar to become as famous as pizza. And it will, if I have anything to do with that.

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I am currently working on a fourth book to help Syrian refugees in my country, called Soup for Syria.

Writing a book is like giving birth. Man’oushé is my first baby! I am currently working on a fourth book to help Syrian refugees in my country, called Soup for Syria. This book will be a photographic account of the refugees with recipes of soups. Testimonials and stories will be included. All publisher’s proceeds will go to help Syrian refugees.

It is important for me to leave a trace in this world.

Through the documentation of food and people, I found a way to express myself in an artistic way, while staying true to my beliefs. © All images courtesy of Barbara Abdeni Massaad www.BarbaraMassaad.com

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