Right before Thanksgiving, I asked Net Galley for permission to review this book. A combination of photography and food, what could be better? And if this book helped me to improve my food photography? I'd call that a win!
Well, as it turns out, I wasn't fully aware of what this book entailed. For one, I requested the chance to review it only a day or two before Thanksgiving. At just over 300 pages, this is not typically a book you review in a day. Except that it is. You see, 90% of The Photography of Modernist Cuisine is pictures. Beautiful, double paged pictures. I was looking at a kindle version of the book and still found myself impressed. Obviously, this book would be much better as a coffee table book, but who am I to judge?
As it turns out, this book is a response to the Modernist Cuisine cookbooks (of which there are a few). Rather than provide recipes, the book explains how the Modernist Cuisine photographers pulled together the stunning photos from the cookbooks. I wouldn't say that they necessarily give you "the recipe" for the photos, but they do tell you what kind of equipment they used and explain the thought process behind the photos. Toothpicks to make carrots stay perfectly still in an organized fashion? Ok then!
I guess what I'm saying is: this is an artist book. Don't buy it to learn to take better pictures of food. You can study their images and use the same equipment, but you may or may not actually learn from that. Also, don't buy this book if you are interested in recipes; you won't find them here. Do buy The Photography of Modernist Cuisine if you love the images in your Modernist Cuisine cookbooks or you want a foodie style picture book/coffee table book to go on your bookshelf (or on your coffee table).
Do you own any of the Modernist Cuisine cookbooks? What do you think about an artist book that features food? Would you display a book like this on your coffee table?
Buy The Photography of the Modernist Cuisine here. :)
* I received this book for free in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.
** I'm participating in Susannah Conway's December Reflections. Are you? Today's post was a response to #4 on the list "Red". :)
