PrintWhat's your favorite food porn?
Okay, I'll admit it. I own cookbooks that I will never ever use. The recipes are secondary. Its all about the pictures. Gloriously lit and laid out, incredibly detailed, calling my name. I go thru them like men reading Hustler. Right now I am thoroughly in love with Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking, a book filled with such gorgeosity that I can't even pick my favorite centerfold.
Do you have any books like this? What are your favorite cook books based solely on the photography?
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14 Comments:
As soon as I saw "porn" and "food" in the same sentence, I thought my husband had joined SE!! I own many cookbooks and I get an outrageous number of monthly publications relating to all things FOOD. When he brings me my mail, he always says: "You got lots of porn today". I in return, feel like a kid at Christmas! (to be PC, "or whatever your celebration of choice might be") The first thing I do, before even reading about the recipes and techniques, is stare at all the photos! I could not possibly pick only one or even two. I ordered the Morimoto book and now, I can't wait for it to arrive!!
crazyspice at 6:47PM on 03/28/08
The Inn at Little Washington. I've considered making some of the recipes, but it's been 10 years and I haven't made a thing from it.
wookie at 6:59PM on 03/28/08
I'm too broke to afford these beautiful cook books you speak of ... but god bless the internet! For my food porn I visit tastespotting.com, which is updated daily. It's the best, it'll make you salivate and sweat like the best (food) porn.
PumpkinBear at 7:36PM on 03/28/08
The French Laundry Cook Book....the photos are orgasmic ;)
hammondcheese at 7:40PM on 03/28/08
Saveur Magazine for monthly porn; The French Laundry for hard cover porn. Also love The Beautiful Cookbook series for hard cover large format porn. Ever look at any of the CIA books? Those are for How the hell did they do that?? porn.
chiff0nade at 8:23PM on 03/28/08
I find the Les Halles cookbook one of the most porn-like collection of photos I own. I'm sure it was intentional. And the way the food is photographed is the kind of graphic, unforgiving, hardcore sort sort of food porn: the food is attractive, but I feel a bit closer to it than I might otherwise be comfortable with. It doesn't want me back.
My Patrick O'Connell cookbook was lovely, but I never ever cooked from it and finally sold it.
Donnay Hay's books are always beautiful. The food looks so much more attractive and exotic than it tastes. I guess that might make it most like porn.
renzata at 8:46PM on 03/28/08
I'm currently loving Elizabeth Falkner's Demolition Desserts. Amazing photographs of awesome desserts. I'm going to work my way through that book one of these days.... (I actually have made 3 things out of there so far...about 25 more to go!)
charm city cupcake at 10:04PM on 03/28/08
I was looking through my cookbooks earlier tonight and realized I do have ONE cook book that I bought at a thrift store which totally qualifies as food porn; Salt & Pepper: The Cook Book, by Sandra Cook, Sara Slavin and Deborah Jones. It's really beautifully photographed and their black pepper, scallion and Gruyère biscuits are pretty much my go-to biscuit recipe.
PumpkinBear at 3:23AM on 03/29/08
not a book...but oh so pretty
http://www.tastespotting.com/
rebeccakidd at 11:38AM on 03/29/08
Thanks, Chisai! I'll need to pick that book up - looks good! Maybe I'll pick another up as a gift for my father...with Father's Day coming up in a few months.
Hot Sour Salty Sweet has always been my "ooh ahh" book to flip through and read when I had it. It's not so much Hustler as it is Playboy. I cannot think of a bad comment for this book - content-wise and aesthetics. I'll probably pick up another copy some time soon because I miss it so much, as well as another cookbook made by the same folks, Mangoes & Curry Leaves. Some time in the not so distant future, I'll pick up their other books,Seductions of Rice and Home Baking.
Cassaendra at 12:04PM on 03/29/08
@ Pumpkin and Rebecca - Yes! I love tastespotting. That and SE are my two main food sites. @Chiff and Hammond- I'd been amazon eyeing The French Laundry. Looks like another addition to the porn pile.
Jeez, it never ends.
In a recent fit of getting rid of things I do not need, I culled through my cookbooks. I had, like, over 200 of them, many of which I never used, so I ended up getting rid of over a hundred of them. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Great for my friends, but not great for me. I don't know what gets in to me sometimes. So now the burning need to replace said books with 100 new and different ones. I won't do that, at least not immediately, but I figure I'm adding to it at about one a week (save birthdays and holidays - my friends know what I like :-x . )
chisai at 2:56PM on 03/29/08
Wow...Tastespotting! That site goes on and on and on. It would take a month to hit every page!
chiff0nade at 3:12PM on 03/29/08
Oh my goodness, the Morimoto book is fantastic! I have it too and I drool every time I turn the page. He's my idol! Oh and Tastespotting is pretty fantastic too...
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 10:57AM on 04/01/08
Anything pasta is porn to me. If SE posts a pasta recipe without a picture, I feel really let down.
I also love Lidia's Family Table. Lush pics of garden and food, bright natural looking light, and the feel of summertime. And of course plenty of pasta.
Kerosena at 11:14AM on 04/01/08