The Secret Life of Food [Hardcover]

Clare Crespo (Author), Eric Staudenmaier (Illustrator)

Book Description

Release date: April 2, 2002 | Grade Level: Preschool and up

Welcome to The Secret Life of Food, where your food is actually masquerading as ordinary objects found in and around your home. This stunning gift book, overflowing with lush photography, shows us a new side of the kitchen, where what you see is definitely not what you get! Easy-to-follow recipes turn potatoes and string beans into stylish flip flops. Sushi cupcakes are served with chopsticks, but they are really tasty morsels topped with coconut icing wrapped in green fruit roll-ups. And in the gorgeous Jell-O aquarium swims a chewy Swedish fish.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Clare Crespo's delightful debut, The Secret Life of Food will spark children's imaginations in the kitchen and give playful grownups a host of ideas for hip and colorful concoctions to serve at their next dinner party. In the quirky tradition of Play with Your Food and the whimsical work of "Surreal Gourmet" Bob Blumer , The Secret Life of Food presents 46 fun recipes--including Tarantula Cookies, Monkey Pops, and Spaghetti with Eyeballs--destined to be hits on the children's birthday and Halloween party circuit.

Some of the recipes are amazingly simple: Caterpillar Cake calls for 10 Hostess Sno Balls, two google eyes, and a handful of artfully arranged pipe cleaners; the Football Meatloaf is--you guessed it--a football-shaped meatloaf with onion slices for stitching. Standouts include Pond Pie (a plastic frog resting on the surface of a mint-green vanilla pudding pie with assorted fresh herbs peeking over the chocolate-cookie-crust perimeter), Jell-O Aquarium (a small fishbowl with Berry Blue Jell-O "water," Swedish fish, and fruit cocktail "gravel"), Flower Pot Cakes (chocolate cake baked in individual terra cotta pots, each with a single long-stemmed flower poking through the "dirt"), and Sushi Cupcakes (green Fruit Roll-Ups for seaweed, coconut frosting for rice, and dried mangoes for ginger).

Eric Staudenmaier's colorful photography and Lisa Barnett's artful food styling really makes this book sing. But would the Cherry Roses look as tempting sitting on a dessert plate as they do peeking out of a real floral bouquet? Probably not. And, granted, many of the recipes are intended as blueprints for your imagination, but more detailed instructions would have been helpful in some recipes. ("Shape the dough into insect shapes and decorate with small candies or mixed nuts" is miles away from the fanciful finished Candy Bugs flittering in the photograph on the opposite page.) Overall, though, Crespo's collection will provide hours of culinary exploration for kids and grownups alike. --Brad Thomas Parsons

From Publishers Weekly

"For me, food is an art supply," writes Crespo, who teaches children's cooking classes. In this mixed bag of party gags, all impressively presented in this high-gloss album, she gives directions for 43 edible crafts, which Staudenmaier pictures in appropriate habitats (a "Football Meatloaf" sits on Astroturf; a matching shirt and pants-shaped cake in a laundry room). Some items prove messy and potentially frustrating: "Sushi Cupcakes" require fruit roll-ups and coconut frosting to approximate seaweed and rice; "Jell-O Eggs" are prepared in washed-out eggshells; and "Handwiches" ask artists to "cut the bread into hand shapes." Non-professionals are better off attempting "Anatomical Heart Cookies," decorated with squiggly veins and arteries, or "Pretzel Butterflies" with caramel centers and pretzel-knot wings. Halloweeny gross-outs are in abundance: sliced almonds resemble fingernails on "Finger Cookies"; stuffed olives are inserted in meatballs to make "Spaghetti with Eyeballs"; and non-vegetarians will love "Mutant Chicken," a roast chicken to which extra drumsticks are attached with toothpicks (it "was the fastest one in the barnyard," a caption quips). Tidy chefs may think twice before whipping up "Jell-O Aquarium" in a fishbowl, but Crespo suggests newfangled ways to update ordinary cupcakes and puddings, and Staudenmaier's crisp close-ups are the icing on the cake. All ages.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 108 pages
• Publisher: Disney-Hyperion; 1 edition (April 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786808462
• ISBN-13: 978-0786808465
• Product Dimensions: 0.6 x 9.3 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,150,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Fun Factor March 29, 2002

By Lunch Date

Format:Hardcover

So I walk into [a local store] yesterday to find a book to take to my ill friend in the hospital. Something enjoyable, fun, cute, and if possible, hilarious. I thought I'd be searching for hours. However, I found Claire's book in only minutes and was drawn to it. I bought two! This book is everything I was looking for with extra emphasis on the fun factor! I predict it's going to sell a million.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Fun. October 4, 2003

By apoem TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

If you are a creative person you might be able to come up with some of these recipes on your own. Also, some of these are listed on her webpage with the same name.

So, if you are looking for just one cute idea to take to a party, you might skip the book and visit the author's website.

If you teach young children or stay at home with them, you might find that this book is a true winner. My son loves looking at htis book. We have made some of these recipes. They are very easy to make and require mostly on hand ingredients. Some do require things we don't normally have on hand (like pink marshmellow coconut cakes.)

Everything is very easy to make. Some of the items are made from already prepared foods and just arranged to look like something else.

Very creative, very fun.
Enjoy.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic! March 13, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

A fun and creative book. I love making these "out of this world" recipes with my 5 year old. A great gift too!!!!!
The photography is beautifully shot.