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Yours in Food, John Baldessari: with meditations on eating by Paul Auster, David Byrne, Dave Eggers, David Gilbert, Tim Griffin, Andy Grundberg, John Haskell, Michael Kimmelman, Michael More, Glenn O'Brien, Francine Prose, Peter Schjeldahl, Lynne Tillman
In John Baldessari's new book, Yours in Food, the founding member of the conceptual art movement explores America at the table, savoring the nuances of breaking bread in carefully composed vignettes culled appropriated video and film.
Reflections on food and eating specially commissioned from a smorgasbord of contemporary writers on culture and the arts, from novelist David Eggers to musician David Byrne, offer up the perfect accompaniment to Baldessari's work. Paired with his images, these humorous, insightful, and, in some cases, bizarre meditations investigate one of the most fundamental and telling of all human experiences.
A visual and intellectual feast, Yours in Food is sure to entertain and delight readers of fiction, art history, and cultural criticism and all lovers of food.
A Blind Spot Book published by Princeton Architectural Press.
Reflections on food and eating specially commissioned from a smorgasbord of contemporary writers on culture and the arts, from novelist David Eggers to musician David Byrne, offer up the perfect accompaniment to Baldessari's work. Paired with his images, these humorous, insightful, and, in some cases, bizarre meditations investigate one of the most fundamental and telling of all human experiences.
A visual and intellectual feast, Yours in Food is sure to entertain and delight readers of fiction, art history, and cultural criticism and all lovers of food.
A Blind Spot Book published by Princeton Architectural Press.
139 pages, Hardcover
First published September 30, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 30, 2021
The book understood the assignment… if the assignment was “make great writers produce terrible writing.”
I was so excited for Peter Schjedhal’s “Notes on Taste” but ended up learning absolutely nothing new. John Haskell’s “Toast” read like an MFA student’s homework. However, Glenn O’ Brien’s prose in “My Dinner with Andy” was charming—who else would describe having dinner with Divine and Candy Darling as “introducing Catherine the Great to Marie Antoinette”? I yelped in delight at the accuracy. As much as I say that I hate Andy Warhol, I still enjoy the guilty pleasure of reading about his (both envious and pitiful) life as a celebrity whose only talent is being a celebrity.
Overall, not a great book if you admire these writers and want to learn more about their personal lives, but maybe worth a read if you want to explore a different style of food writing.
I was so excited for Peter Schjedhal’s “Notes on Taste” but ended up learning absolutely nothing new. John Haskell’s “Toast” read like an MFA student’s homework. However, Glenn O’ Brien’s prose in “My Dinner with Andy” was charming—who else would describe having dinner with Divine and Candy Darling as “introducing Catherine the Great to Marie Antoinette”? I yelped in delight at the accuracy. As much as I say that I hate Andy Warhol, I still enjoy the guilty pleasure of reading about his (both envious and pitiful) life as a celebrity whose only talent is being a celebrity.
Overall, not a great book if you admire these writers and want to learn more about their personal lives, but maybe worth a read if you want to explore a different style of food writing.
November 9, 2017
I love Baldessari, I love food writing - match made in heaven? This collection of essays fell flat for me, though, disappointingly.
December 18, 2020
I devoured this book and again a second and third time. Such an interesting variety of styles and topics in a short food-themed book.
John Haskell's TOAST was my favorite. By interspersing historical context with the developing relationship story, Haskell gives the reader an almost god-like lens, both detached from and compassionate towards the couple and the world below. Haskell's ability to pass time in so few words with symbols, while still creating a captivating, specific narrative, impressed me. Paul Auster's story of small suffering and satiation with onion pie felt familiar and endearing. Andy Grundberg shared commonality of "the decisive moment" in food photography and an eater's fleeting desire. Peter Schjeldahl's NOTES ON TASTE made me think. David Byrne's broad-scope perspective on "FOOD" in society was filled with details I didn't expect him to care to know. Lynne Tillman's essay AT BREAKFAST was hardest for me to stick with, but beyond the first page and a half, I was moved and delighted. I found both the content and style of Glenn's piece to be kind of arrogant, lazy and unoriginal. Maybe I'm too young to care about the celebrities he dined with or around. Tim Griffin and David Gilbert's holiday vignettes were relatable and lovely. Eggers did sound "crusty," as he put it. His criticism annoyed me almost to the point of not wanting to get his underlying point, but not quite. Francine Prose's whimsical artichoke essay made me smile and nod. I wish this book were twice the size and featured more women's perspectives.
John Haskell's TOAST was my favorite. By interspersing historical context with the developing relationship story, Haskell gives the reader an almost god-like lens, both detached from and compassionate towards the couple and the world below. Haskell's ability to pass time in so few words with symbols, while still creating a captivating, specific narrative, impressed me. Paul Auster's story of small suffering and satiation with onion pie felt familiar and endearing. Andy Grundberg shared commonality of "the decisive moment" in food photography and an eater's fleeting desire. Peter Schjeldahl's NOTES ON TASTE made me think. David Byrne's broad-scope perspective on "FOOD" in society was filled with details I didn't expect him to care to know. Lynne Tillman's essay AT BREAKFAST was hardest for me to stick with, but beyond the first page and a half, I was moved and delighted. I found both the content and style of Glenn's piece to be kind of arrogant, lazy and unoriginal. Maybe I'm too young to care about the celebrities he dined with or around. Tim Griffin and David Gilbert's holiday vignettes were relatable and lovely. Eggers did sound "crusty," as he put it. His criticism annoyed me almost to the point of not wanting to get his underlying point, but not quite. Francine Prose's whimsical artichoke essay made me smile and nod. I wish this book were twice the size and featured more women's perspectives.
April 13, 2022
I love references of books in books. Elizabeth David referred to this one in her book “An omelet and a glass of wine”.
Fascinating food introspections of talented word crafters.
My interpretation of the photography is that the focus is on the table and the fact that people interact with food on many levels hence the removal of the identities. I don’t think we quite yet understand just how much food convey our stories, our culture and our creativity.
Fascinating food introspections of talented word crafters.
My interpretation of the photography is that the focus is on the table and the fact that people interact with food on many levels hence the removal of the identities. I don’t think we quite yet understand just how much food convey our stories, our culture and our creativity.
February 22, 2015
1// Notes on Taste by Peter Schjeldahl: "Call your consumption 'connoisseurship' if you like, but it's really gobbling, after all,...taste is a counter-political value that bolsters our individuality...When 'taste' is disparaged in intellectual debate, you know that someone has decided, on your behalf, what is good and bad for you: shut up and eat you spinach."
2// Hotcakes at the Trail's End Restaurant by Andy Grundberg: "Food photographers have to stare at food all day long, which perhaps accounts for their covert willingness to present it as fundamentally unattractive and unappetizing. Food magazine editors stare at food photographs because they are paid to. And then there are artists who look at food photographs all day long for their own pleasure and wonder. And wonder some more. What could they possibly mean?"
3// Toast by John Haskell: "The toast itself was nothing special, just toasted white bread with pieces of jam and unmelted butter in its indentations, but I thought that by eating it on a regular basis that I would somehow be able to see beneath the mask, and by doing so, that I would fall in love completely. Also, I was hoping she would fall in love with me.
And one day she did. It didn't happen immediately, but one day she sidled up to the counter, set my plate on the counter and stood, leaning against the counter, watching me.
'Which piece are you going to eat?' she said.
'Both,' I told her.
'In what order?' she said.
Apparently there was an order to eating the toast, and when I looked at the toast I tried to discern, by the way she'd placed the plate on the counter, which toast I was meant to pick up first. I was staring at one piece of the toast, the the other, then looking up at her perfect face, trying to decide. Although, I must have made the right decision - because not long after that she moved in with me - at the time, I sat on the Naugahyde stool looking at each piece of toast, wanted to be very, very careful."
2// Hotcakes at the Trail's End Restaurant by Andy Grundberg: "Food photographers have to stare at food all day long, which perhaps accounts for their covert willingness to present it as fundamentally unattractive and unappetizing. Food magazine editors stare at food photographs because they are paid to. And then there are artists who look at food photographs all day long for their own pleasure and wonder. And wonder some more. What could they possibly mean?"
3// Toast by John Haskell: "The toast itself was nothing special, just toasted white bread with pieces of jam and unmelted butter in its indentations, but I thought that by eating it on a regular basis that I would somehow be able to see beneath the mask, and by doing so, that I would fall in love completely. Also, I was hoping she would fall in love with me.
And one day she did. It didn't happen immediately, but one day she sidled up to the counter, set my plate on the counter and stood, leaning against the counter, watching me.
'Which piece are you going to eat?' she said.
'Both,' I told her.
'In what order?' she said.
Apparently there was an order to eating the toast, and when I looked at the toast I tried to discern, by the way she'd placed the plate on the counter, which toast I was meant to pick up first. I was staring at one piece of the toast, the the other, then looking up at her perfect face, trying to decide. Although, I must have made the right decision - because not long after that she moved in with me - at the time, I sat on the Naugahyde stool looking at each piece of toast, wanted to be very, very careful."
November 8, 2007
Little stories about people and food..I like the one about eating toast
December 23, 2007
An odd collection of food essays interspersed with playful images by John Baldessari.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews