I am not sure if you have ever heard about a “cookbook dilemma”, I have not, at least not officially. I came up with this term to describe a very personal issue I have with cookbooks: either they have no images inside, which makes them useless to me, or they have images inside and I then get totally sick on my stomach by looking through them. And by saying “sick on my stomach” I mean exactly that – right to the ultimative consequences!
My mom tells me that cookbooks or cooking recipe sections in magazines have had this effect on me since I was a kid. She dragged me to all kind of doctors but no cure was found – other than to stay away from cooking books.
I found that the explanation for the cause is quite easy: when I see a picture of food, I actually taste it in my mouth. So if I turn the pages of a cookbook and am confronted with all kind of dishes, this is for me, as if I would be eating them, regardless if they go together or not. Mostly my stomach announces that by the forth recipe something comes up that definitively does NOT go together with something seen previously. And then I turn greenish.
So far I have only found one exception to the rule. My much loved Italian cookbook from Lorenza de’ Medici, with its abundance of original recipes from all over Italy. Somehow everything in this book works together like a good symphony: the introductory texts to the regions, the pictures, the food … simply perfect! Oh yes, and the recipes are really great too.
Good for the eyes and good for the stomach.
The link on Amazon is a little tricky – there seems to be an illustrated version of it, too. Unfortunately, I have to say.
Why this post? One of my personal projects is driving me into the food area. So you will probably hear more about food from me in the months to come.
