Lifestyle / 4 Fun Illustrated Cookbooks For Amateur Art-Lovers

4 Fun Illustrated Cookbooks For Amateur Art-Lovers

Lifestyle Jan 11, 2014

by Anokhi Admin

Cookbooks for the scribbling sensualist and gratified gourmand!

It’s hard not to get discouraged when the hot mess cooling on your counter bears little resemblance to the 'I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-photo-shopped' photograph in your cookbook. It’s almost as bad as airbrushed magazine fitness models demonstrating moves with a seemingly vindictive smile, while you curse and sweat your way through another burpee.

Fortunately, there has been a rise in foodie books that forego traditional mouthwatering photography in exchange for 'easy-to-follow' whimsical illustrations that showcase a finished product. Just remember the aesthetic results of your hours slaving in the kitchen is, like a good book, up to your own imagination. Now you just have to make sure it tastes as good as it’s drawn.

Picture Cook: See. Make. Eat.

by Katie Shelly

This is the perfect cookbook for people who hate reading and/or following long and wordy directions. The blue-print guide of cookbooks, Shelly’s Picture Cook: See. Make. Eat turns cooking into experimental engineering with step-by-step illustrations instead of written directions. She explained her inspiration for the book after copying down a recipe from a friend in pictures, that she found illustrations were “more useable than a text recipe where you have to stop what you’re doing and read and re-read the steps.”

The recipes include vegetable soups, lasagna, tacos and sweet potato fries. The book also includes a visual inventory of basic kitchen staples as well as a knife skills tutorial that every good chef should know. Shelly wanted this book “to encourage people to just let go of rigid kitchen rules and be loose and free about cooking. The charm of the illustrations is great for its own sake, but it’s also performing a real function in helping make cooking feel easy, lighthearted, and doable.” Is this fun in the kitchen? We think so.

An Illustrated Guide to Cocktails: 50 Classic Cocktail Recipes, Tips, and Tales

by Orr Shtuhl (Author) , Elizabeth Graeber (Illustrator)

Liquid lunch anyone? You’re not a professional mixologist but find mixing drinks at house or office parties helps you duck the drama and politics. Even if you’ve given up on a letter from Hogwarts, brush up on your potions-making with this fun cocktail guide full of classic drinks next to anecdotes and illustrated figures from the animal kingdom.

Not only will you become a better bartender, but you’ll also be the most popular person in the room.

Cooking for Crowds: 40th Anniversary Edition

by Merry E. White (Author) , Edward Koren (Illustrator)

When Cooking for Crowds came out in 1974 it swept the United States by storm. With the help of this straightforward and illustrated cookbook, the housewives of Ohio or the hippies of Heights-Ashbury could cook food from all over the world.

Now released in a 40th edition with a foreword by Dara Goldstein, founding editor of 'Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture', the book continues to delight a new generation of chefs with home-style recipes and tips geared towards feeding groups of 6 to 30 with recipes ranging from, Italian pesto, Indian curries, to Julie Child’s French cuisine. Yes, this really is your mother’s cookbook, and it’s delicious.

The Essential Scratch and Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert: Take a Whiff of That

by Richard Betts (Author) , Wendy MacNaughton (Illustrator)

So this isn’t exactly a cookbook, but this scratch ’n’ sniff wine guide for the amateur oenophile. A great aid in helping you from being frowned upon by wine snobs. The book’s catch phrase “wine is a grocery, not a luxury” teaches us, in an easy to read form, what wine pairs best with what foods. It also teaches us that wine isn’t just a rare delicacy to be savoured, nor the habit of a raging alcoholic, but that like coffee with breakfast, a glass with dinner can be an enjoyable tradition.

Additionally, the fact that this book was written by a master sommelier reassures us that underneath the hype, wine snobs are also guilty of a good sense of humour.

Like what you see? Then you might also enjoy the artwork and culinary offerings from contributors all over the world at, 'They Draw & Cook' or get in on the action yourself.

Pick up one of our fav books above and tell us if art has infact inspired your cooking?

_{Illustrations courtesy of the books’ illustrators (see titles.)

Featured Image:} _{http://coolmaterial.com/}
_{Seemakecook.jpeg: http://coolmaterial.com/

Drawncocktails.jpeg: http://greatist.com/health/best-cookbooks

Crowdcook.jpeg:http://gastronomyatbu.com/

Drawnwine.jpeg:http://laughingsquid.com/}
_{Illustration courtesy of Lucille Solomon for Theydrawandcook.com:http://www.theydrawandcook.com/}

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