The Gallery of Regrettable Food
by James Lileks
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Book Reviews of The Gallery of Regrettable Food
Book Review: LOVED IT, but for unintended reasons...
Summary: 5 Stars
So the author decides to get a bunch of pictures together from the 1950's of different foods. And of course, as is 'trendy', he has to make fun of all of them. NOTHING is good, everything has a joke attached. I would bet that this author waxes poetically about today's fare-such as a 2 oz piece of salmon on a white plate with a piece of parsley on one side, a lemon wedge on the other side, and something drizzled across it in the shape of an s. Our 'zen-like' foods of today are pretty funny too. Or maybe not.
It isn't AT ALL funny when your food server with spiked lime green and red hair, and enough metal piercings to make a good start building a 747 walks up to you with a piece of burned, oops, blackened fish, and some tasteless rice with some nuts in it, and a salad with lemon juice and olive oil on it, puts it down on the table and collects $12.95. That's not funny....Is it? Sorry, I should quit laughing.
So why five stars? I LOVED the book even though the text was horrible. But I loved it for all the reasons that this author would never understand.
Book Review: Gastronomic Horrors from the Good Ol' Days
Summary: 5 Stars
This is what first drew me to the author's work; an irreverent examination of the full, stomach-churning, vitamin-deficient terror of recipes from the 1930s-70s... Many readers will still have repressed memories of being confronted with a large, chunky, odd-smelling and disconcertingly ALIVE-looking gelatin mold that we've been EXPECTED to eat at some stage in our past. Those of us who have indeed suffered through this can use this book as a form of 'laughter therapy', and for those of you who haven't had to endure such an experience... well... you can look at the relevant pages and thank your lucky stars. And the gelatin molds ain't the half of it... Mysterious lumpy brown casseroles... Weird things with wieners in them... The list goes on and on...
I use this book to frighten my friends whenever they suggest that I cook for them.
Seriously, for any connoisseur of the ghastly, or, yes... dare I say it, anybody interested in mid-20th century cuisine, this book is an absolute scream! It makes a great gift for anybody who loves food and a good laugh in equal measures.
Book Review: The Hideous Treats of Yesteryear
Summary: 5 Stars
James Lileks, a Minneapolis journalist, started the "Gallery of Regrettable Food" on his web site. The gallery carried pictures and copy from recipie books of the 1930s through 1970s. Not the practical sort of recipie books with advice and instructions on putting together wholesome solid food. Horrific _corporate_ cookbooks. Cookbooks from 7-Up, and Swanson, and the National Rice Council. Cookbooks full of pictures of dishes that defy belief. _Things_ made from aspic, the colorless jelly so blissfully absent from modern cuisine. _Things_ with textures and colors out of a Lovecraft novel. _Things_ made with lard and Cream of Mushroom Soup and corn starch.
Lileks's snarky commentary is utterly hilarious. The best bits: Stories that flesh out the background of characters in ad campaigns and cookbooks, like the saga of Aunt Jenny, the Spry shortening spokeswoman.
This book is the result of years of polishing and picking material from that site. The pictures are crisper than the web version, and it's a lot easier to show folks. Which you'll find yourself doing a lot.
Book Review: Delicious wackiness
Summary: 5 Stars
Okay, I can understand how some people wouldn't like this book as the descriptions can be rather... hm... icky (but then again, the dishes pictured are pretty unpleasant as well). So, if you're not a fan of philistinian, gross-out humor, I definitely wouldn't recommend this book (and the gross-out quotient is pretty tame at best, I might add).
However, I don't understand the critique of this book being "mean-spirited". To whom? The food? I don't think the food cares... except maybe the sentient veggie mold presented mid-read. Am I to deduce that we need political correctness towards culinary dishes now? This isn't a book about gross food, it's a book about "the appetizingly challenged". So, nyerr.
As for myself, I like humor that's wacky, off-color, sardonic, and a bit derisive... and most of all, NOT THE LEAST BIT SERIOUS. I giggled throughout this book... except for the parts that made me guffaw. I would recommend this book only if (like me) you don't view humor as an "art", and tend to enjoy a little low-brow fare from time-to-time. Bon appetite!
Book Review: This book is responsible for making me laugh so hard it hurt.
Summary: 5 Stars
I work at a bookstore and picked this up and browsed it at lunch. This book had me laughing so hard customers started wondering about me. I think I ended up selling all the copies we had. You know how you attend a solemn occasion and you just get the giggles that you can't control? The description of a casserole looking the thing that stuck on Mr. Spock's back and made him go wild just had me laughing uncontrollably at funeral and a graduation. I had people looking at me to see what was wrong and I had to get up and excuse myself. Out in the hall I nearly dissolved into laughter and someone came out to check on me, thinking I had been emotionally overcome. If he only knew! I can't wait to get his other books. I love this author's sense of humor. It's cleverly done and giggly on every page. Facing grim news everywhere we turn, this book is a wonderful, benign respite and really funny stuff!
Lighten up, everybody, it's just harmless fun. No Shakespeare here. Just the funny pages...