The Gourmand. Oeuf. Une collection d’histoires et de recettes

The Gourmand. Oeuf. Une collection d’histoires et de recettes Poached, scrambled, soft-boiled, beaten into a cocktail, transformed into material by painters, thrown at an enemy’s house: the embodiment of paradox, the egg exists, happily suspended between humble kitchen ingredient and almighty source of life.

One of the most recurrent symbols of antiquity, eggs were used by the Romans to dispel evil spirits, were sublimated to the point of becoming priceless objets d’art by the Russian nobility, and are omnipresent in Egyptian mythology. In this inaugural tome of the new TASCHEN collection designed with the world-famous Gourmand magazine, we celebrate the relationship between art and food through a visual and literary exploration of this staple food. A selection of original recipes, from the perfect poached egg to the most sophisticated desserts, highlights the diversity of culinary traditions around the world.

The Gourmand’s Egg. A Collection of Stories and Recipes is richly illustrated with the works of great masters, including Salvador Dalí, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Frida Kahlo, David Hockney and Man Ray, as well as exclusive images commissioned for the book from the best photographers of the moment. This iconographic corpus is complemented by essays by chef, author and food critic Ruth Reichl and author and editor Jennifer Higgie, among other contributors. “In cooking, as in almost everything else,” Reichl reminds us, “it all starts with an egg.”