The best art-inspired cookbooks

Taste and sight, cooking and creating: it’s not hard to see the sensorial parallels between art and food. Discover the artist’s palette with these art-inspired cookbooks which are packed with alluring illustrations, fantastical recipes and intimate insights into the meals of some of the world’s most famous artists.
From Jackson Pollock’s apple pie to Gala Dalí’s crayfish platters, these art-inspired cookbooks make great gifts for gourmands and gallery-goers alike.

Dalí. Les dîners de Gala

Surreal and scrumptious, Taschen’s reprint of the 1973 cookbook, Dalí. Les dîners de Gala, pays homage to the lavish dinner parties thrown by the Catalan artist and his wife. Packed with bespoke illustrations by Dalí himself depicting towering platters of crayfish alongside bizarrely-titled recipes such as ‘conger eel of the rising sun’, the book’s eccentric aesthetic is sure to whet your appetite and inspire a little imagination in your cooking.

Buy the cookbook here, and if you're looking for some equally weird wine pairings, then the couple's extensive wine list is wonderfully documented in Dalí. The Wines of Gala.

More than our Bellies, by Viviane Sassen and Phillip Lim

More than our Bellies, Viviane Sassen and Phillip Lim

The Dutch photographer Viviane Sassen is known for capturing the beauty of everyday life in non-Western communities. Having worked on a number of campaigns together, Sassen and the fashion designer and foodie Phillip Lim have teamed up to produce a stunning cookbook filled with 12 South-East Asian recipes inspired by Lim’s childhood in Thailand. More than our Bellies features Sassen’s signature style of contrasting vivacious backgrounds with dark shadows alongside Lim’s personal reflections about each delicious bite.

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Symmetry Breakfast, Michael Zee

What started as an Instagram account offering hypnotic breakfast inspo has catapulted Michael Zee into a world renowned food photographer and celebrity chef status. Zee attracted a hefty online following by documenting his beguiling breakfast creations which often showcase different morning meals from around the world. Now in cookbook form, this double-visioned delight is a great gift for foodies, breakfast lovers, and photography enthusiasts.

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Wild Raspberries, by Andy Warhol and Suzie Frankfurt

Epochal pop artist Andy Warhol is remembered for his creative exploration of food products, most notably canonising a Campbell’s soup can in silkscreen form. In 1959, he teamed up with socialite Suzie Frankfurt to create a spoof haute cuisine cookbook with tongue-in-cheek recipes such as ‘Piglet a la Trader Vic’s,’ and ‘Omelet Greta Garbo’ alongside 19 original drawings.

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Dinner with Jackson Pollock

The influence of Pollock’s splattered aesthetic can be seen in many a Michelin-starred plate in today’s avant-garde food scene. But did you know that the abstract expressionist was also an amateur chef? Discover his repertoire of recipes such a his ‘Classic Rye Bread’ and ‘Famous Spaghetti Sauce’ as well as rare, intimate photographs of him at home and in the kitchen with his wife and fellow artist Lee Krasner.

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Studio Olafur Eliasson: The Kitchen

Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson is known for his ambitious, large-scale installations like The Weather Project, which turned Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall into a sun-soaked landscape in 2003. Such projects, of course, require a team of assistants, architects and specialists. Studio Olafur Eliasson: The Kitchen, is a cookbook filled with 100 vegetarian recipes which have fed the innovative minds passing through Eliasson's studio. Get into the mood for his return to the Tate this summer for a massive retrospective by digging into this poetic book filled with contemplations about eating and inspiration.

Buy it here