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Through the

Cooking Glass

A strange cookbook for strange people.

Release Date: October 2022

Would you like to stay in the know about the book and the show and the opening and all the things?!

A surrealistically illustrated cookbook for people who appreciate art and enjoy eating really good food.

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38 Illustrations

I have chosen to illustrate the recipes with depictions of animals, rather than drawings of cooked, processed meats, intentionally.
The richness of pork is expressed in the robust, vibrant, playful piglet. The delicacy of salmon is seen in the glossy, leaping fish. The nourishing richness of vegetable sprouts into less and blooms into flowers.

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60 Recipes

It's all in here: entrees, soups, snacks, breakfasts, desserts, more soups (both the Chef and the Artist like soups a rather lot) , some meat, some meatless. I did not have any specific diet in mind, only a sense of which foods felt “good”. All yummy. All light, nourishing, simple - few ingredients, nothing processed, everything prepared from scratch.

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108 Ingredients

Ingredients include: fruits, vegetables, unprocessed meats, fish, nuts, beans, lentils, quinoa, oils, vegetable juices, vegetable juices with added fruit.
Ingredients exclude: dairy, sugar, wheat, corn, rice, cereal, processed foods of any kind - dried, smoked, otherwise preserved, all condiments, sauces, dressings.

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Selections from the book

A word from the artist

There is a simplicity I look to achieve in my cooking, and there is a clarity I wish to achieve in my art.

The simplicity of food is expressed in choosing whole, unprocessed ingredients, and only few of those such that the recipes focus of bringing out their inherent value and flavor.

The simplicity of drawings lies in the clarity of their meaning: the richness of pork is expressed in the robust, vibrant, playful piglet. The delicacy of salmon is seen in the glossy, leaping fish. The nourishing richness of vegetable sprouts into less and blooms into flowers.

There is no pretense here, there are no layers of comforting subterfuge. A pork chop is a chunk of a pig - a dancing pig with flowers in its mouth that will turn into peas on your plate. Clear, straightforward, simple.

 
 
A word from the cook

I’ve been cooking since I was 5 with my mom as she experimented with new recipes. That was sixty years ago. Since then I’ve built restaurants, run cooking clubs, built a food website, taken and taught cooking classes and experimented with multiple cuisines.

I’m keenly aware that cooking is a culinary art, it’s not a science. As an art, it’s full of opportunities for expression and variety. My favorite cookbook doesn’t have any recipes at all. It’s the menus from one year at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco from 1920. Reading the titles evokes what the dishes would look and taste like.

A word from the artist

There is a simplicity I look to achieve in my cooking, and there is a clarity I wish to achieve in my art.

The simplicity of food is expressed in choosing whole, unprocessed ingredients, and only few of those such that the recipes focus of bringing out their inherent value and flavor.

The simplicity of drawings lies in the clarity of their meaning: the richness of pork is expressed in the robust, vibrant, playful piglet. The delicacy of salmon is seen in the glossy, leaping fish. The nourishing richness of vegetable sprouts into less and blooms into flowers.

There is no pretense here, there are no layers of comforting subterfuge. A pork chop is a chunk of a pig - a dancing pig with flowers in its mouth that will turn into peas on your plate. Clear, straightforward, simple.

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A word from the cook

I’ve been cooking since I was 5 with my mom as she experimented with new recipes. That was sixty years ago. Since then I’ve built restaurants, run cooking clubs, built a food website, taken and taught cooking classes and experimented with multiple cuisines.

I’m keenly aware that cooking is a culinary art, it’s not a science. As an art, it’s full of opportunities for expression and variety. My favorite cookbook doesn’t have any recipes at all. It’s the menus from one year at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco from 1920. Reading the titles evokes what the dishes would look and taste like.

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Working with Mark

Both Mark and I always have food on our minds. It might not be in the forefront, it might not bring itself into awareness at a moment but it’s always there, lurking in the shadows. Thus any time is a good time to talk about food.

I have never decide to invite Mark to join me in the cook book project, I didn’t have to - he’s been involved long before the project was no more than a spark in my mind. With the fluid and ongoing sharing of cooking-related thoughts, ideas, tips we’ve sustained for some years, I can no longer tell where Pausha’s recipes end and Mark’s begin.

Working with Pausha

When I first saw Pausha’s surrealistic drawing of fish and greens, I was transfixed. I said, “I’d need to cook that.”

Then I saw another image and another, leading to this collaboration, where we’ve inspired each other.

COOKING, DRAWING AND WRITING

How it all came about

At first it was going to be an illustrated menu. A Christmas gift for my husband. Having taken over everything meal-related in our life completely, I thought it would be nice to give some power back into Christopher's hands and to present him with a menu of dishes he could order from.

I prepared a list of recipes to illustrate and set my mind lose, allowing it to turn and twist the poor, unsuspecting vegetable, fruit and animals into surreal configuration. What came out were images  far more complex and involved than I’ve originally planned and I despaired of accomplishing my task in time for the Holidays, yet were determined to try and do my best - and then my friend texted me.

She texted me a link to the Salvadore Dali’s cook book, which was being reprinted and available for purchase. Purchase it I did and, as soon as I had it in my hands I knew what I must do: steal the idea, create my own cook book.

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COOKING, DRAWING AND WRITING

How it all came about

At first it was going to be an illustrated menu. A Christmas gift for my husband. Having taken over everything meal-related in our life completely, I thought it would be nice to give some power back into Christopher's hands and to present him with a menu of dishes he could order from.

I prepared a list of recipes to illustrate and set my mind lose, allowing it to turn and twist the poor, unsuspecting vegetable, fruit and animals into surreal configuration. What came out were images  far more complex and involved than I’ve originally planned and I despaired of accomplishing my task in time for the Holidays, yet were determined to try and do my best - and then my friend texted me.

She texted me a link to the Salvadore Dali’s cook book, which was being reprinted and available for purchase. Purchase it I did and, as soon as I had it in my hands I knew what I must do: steal the idea, create my own cook book.

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Through the

Cooking Glass

A strange cookbook for strange people.

Release Date: October 2022

Would you like to stay in the know about the book and the show and the opening and all the things?!

Image

A word from the artist

There is a simplicity I look to achieve in my cooking, and there is a clarity I wish to achieve in my art.

The simplicity of food is expressed in choosing whole, unprocessed ingredients, and only few of those such that the recipes focus of bringing out their inherent value and flavor.

The simplicity of drawings lies in the clarity of their meaning: the richness of pork is expressed in the robust, vibrant, playful piglet. The delicacy of salmon is seen in the glossy, leaping fish. The nourishing richness of vegetable sprouts into less and blooms into flowers.

There is no pretense here, there are no layers of comforting subterfuge. A pork chop is a chunk of a pig - a dancing pig with flowers in its mouth that will turn into peas on your plate. Clear, straightforward, simple.

Working with Mark Sylvester

Both Mark and I always have food on our minds. It might not be in the forefront, it might not bring itself into awareness at a moment but it’s always there, lurking in the shadows. Thus any time is a good time to talk about food.

We’ve had many a food exchange, Mark and I. It is rare that they drive the conversation, more often than not it’s something that happens in passing. It is because, when it comes to food, Mark and I understand each other. We don’t need too many words -- a hint; a suggestion suffices.

A word from the author

There is a simplicity I look to achieve in my cooking, and there is a clarity I wish to achieve in my art.

The simplicity of food is expressed in choosing whole, unprocessed ingredients, and only few of those such that the recipes focus of bringing out their inherent value and flavor.

The simplicity of drawings lies in the clarity of their meaning: the richness of pork is expressed in the robust, vibrant, playful piglet. The delicacy of salmon is seen in the glossy, leaping fish. The nourishing richness of vegetable sprouts into less and blooms into flowers.

There is no pretense here, there are no layers of comforting subterfuge. A pork chop is a chunk of a pig - a dancing pig with flowers in its mouth that will turn into peas on your plate. Clear, straightforward, simple.

Working with Mark Sylvester

Both Mark and I always have food on our minds. It might not be in the forefront, it might not bring itself into awareness at a moment but it’s always there, lurking in the shadows. Thus any time is a good time to talk about food.

We’ve had many a food exchange, Mark and I. It is rare that they drive the conversation, more often than not it’s something that happens in passing. It is because, when it comes to food, Mark and I understand each other. We don’t need too many words -- a hint; a suggestion suffices.

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