Eating Architecture

Carême threw down the gauntlet when he declared architecture the most noble of the arts and pastry the highest form of architecture. A century and half later, Eating Architecture picks up the gauntlet and runs to imaginative lengths in its exploration of the architectural aspects of food and the gastronomic aspects of architecture. An important and original contribution, full of delightful surprises.

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, author of Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage

This book is a stately banquet with four menus containing intellectual dishes of increasing physical and conceptual depth. By contextualizing the production of food, architecture, and language within broader cultural, social, and economic forces, the essays give this book its academic breadth and a capacity to enrich a diverse readership. Eating Architecture can be savored in one long and indulgent session or in little tidbits with equal relish. It is easy to digest, and if indigestion ensues, it is only due to the surfeit of its riches.

Katerina Ruedi Ray, Director, School of Art, Bowling Green State University

Cooking, like architecture, manifests itself in building. The cook, like the architect, draws on an infinite array of creative resources which make it possible to create wonders from basic construction materials. But even using the finest marble or the best caviar, success is not guaranteed. Architecture, like cooking, evolves and lasts in the form of memories, tastes, and temperatures.

Ferran Adrià, head chef, El Bulli restaurant, Barcelona

Eating Architecture is an immensely original and fascinating work. It brings together analyses of food and drink with materialities and design to produce a delightful feast.

John Urry, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University

Two essential and connective parts of our culture, food and architecture, are brought together in a serious and provocative fashion with Eating Architecture. If it wasn't clear before that the two rule the world, it will be now.

Michael Maltzan, architect

Poolside reading for gourmets with upper-echelon IQs.

Metropolitan Home

...Serves up a surprisingly palatable experience.

Julia Mandell

Architecture

Like the chef at a fusion grill, Eating Architecture revels in the eclectic, the diverse, even the idiosyncratic. The editors have wisely resisted the temptation to elicit homogeneity from their contributors, and the result is a collection of essays that truly sings—a bold polyphony of distinct voices that jostle and flirt as they map, trace, and sculpt the interpenetrations of food and space. From the analytic to the anecdotal, from the incisive to the suggestive, the essays in Eating Architecture will both challenge and reward the curious reader.

Mark Morton, University of Winnipeg, author of Cupboard Love: A Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities