Menu Design in Europe

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A poor condition book can still make a good reading copy but is generally not collectible unless the item is very scarce. Given the venue the extent of seafood was to be expected but it was followed in ‘seconde service’ by venison, lamb cutlets, quails, ris d’agneau, ham, pullets and Perigord pâté, and concluded with a troisième service involving Pouding à la Windsor, one of a number of items on these menus that may puzzle the modern reader and which the text does not explain. Meanwhile at the Hôtels Splendide, Royal and Excelsior in Aix-les-Bains the same illustrative style creates a mood of icy chic: the impossibly tall, triangular diners, with snake hips and shoulders as wide as Wallis Simpson’s, gesture languidly and give the impression of people much too smart to eat.

David Hockney’s cheerful and practical design for Salts Diner, Shipley, in his native Yorkshire, has a long, flaring space in the middle to accommodate the changing menu, outlined as a pool of light beneath an overhead lamp. The Advertising Standards Authority has received criticism after banning a cancer charity advert and a Calvin Klein poster ad starring FKA twigs.Also showcased are the Michelin awarded restaurants of the celebrity chef–era and rarities such as a German military menu from World War II. As late as 1970 Air France was offering travellers from Heathrow a menu designed in the style of a couture house drawing, evocative scribbles in chic colourways suggesting an elegant woman in the modish trouser suit of the day. While Jim admits that this may offer “an economic advantage in a highly competitive business”, the great graphics that often accompany menus are now increasingly lost.

Moreover, Jim adds, “it is interesting to note that after World War II, as dining out became more common, the range of menu design started encompassing all sorts of influences with the exception of photography which is absent for the most part. The Bear actor’s turn for Calvin Klein has ignited wide debate across the ad industry’s favourite social media channel: LinkedIn.As often happens with restrictions imposed as emergency measures, it was not reversed when the emergency was over, having proved too useful to the people in charge. Featuring an essay by graphic design historian Steven Heller and captions by leading ephemerist and antiquarian book dealer Marc Selvaggio, Menu Design In Europe features menus from leading collectors and institutions, providing a sumptuous visual banquet and historical document of two centuries of culinary traditions. With over 6 million of the world’s best eBooks to choose from, Kobo offers you a whole world of reading.