70s Dinner Party by Anna Pallai
My rating: 4/5 cats
this is another book making fun of the food of the past.
occasionally, it’s warranted:
pickled mushrooms on a saltine, begrudgingly striped with sauce may not be my kind of meal, but stuffing ducklings?
you got a problem with stuffing ducklings, you got a problem with me, friend.
sure, some of these do not look appetizing
but for sheer staggering food-majesty, it’s hard to top an era so enamored with aspic and its structural capabilities
and the whimsy it enabled – this is so imaginative and just plain FUN!
you say “excessive,” i say “showmanship”
this is like snow white’s glass coffin, designed by damien hirst, and if snow white were a meatloaf
those corners, yo.
the 70s were also big on puréeing things and then molding those puréed things back into their original form; not only the particle physics of cuisine but also a commentary on the circle of life and nature and consumerism and probably other things, too – mad lib it yourself.
i am so happy to be your mousse!
so even though i’m not 100% sold on how some of these would taste; cucumber, grape, lettuce and jello not being a flavor combo i’ve ever considered
you have to respect that, in a pre-foodstagram society, there was so much care taken with preparation and presentation
even if it might not be 100% delectable
but this staging!
this composition!
this is not something to mock, but to celebrate!
EVEN though olives often factor heavily in their creation
and EVEN though i am skeptical about the addition of kiwi to a dish already starring tomato and aubergine
i just think these are endeavors that should be championed, not made fun of. 70s food may be the last unheralded vulnerable population and making fun of it should be considered a hate crime.
although, occasionally, i giggled at a caption
I AM PART OF THE PROBLEM!
i love the photographs in this book (and i wish little blue were better about photographing them to share with y’all here) and 70s food, i will sing your praises and bring you back into the light. unless you have olives. then you are on your own.
