Should they publish "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" with photographs?

[OliverB]

and I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

I'm sitting there reading Saveur cooks authentic French. Each page is full of wonderful recipes, decorated with great photos of the dishes, the people, the regions of France. That made my mouth water and made me wonder, why I never cooked anything from MTAOFC, which is sitting on my shelf. It does have pictures, but no photos. I think, a special edition with photos of the dishes and instructions would be a great seller. I'm sure Julia Child would have the pages filled with food porn, where she to write the book today. Back then it was impossible to print hundreds of color pictures and still sell the book for less than a new car. Not so today.

I'd really love a copy of her book, a bit larger, and in full color. It might loose some of the oldfashioned charm, but it would gain so much.

wouldn't it?

[heidih]

I really love photos in cookbooks, but, in this instance I have to say that I do not think it would help the way the book was written. The illustrations in the books are really well done and give you a good indication of what her words intend to convey. Also, lots of that food is not "colorful"- think coq au vin or even the souffles and gratins. Maybe this is an historical bias as I used the book as my bible when big color photo books were not so available. I can relate that I handed my young teen volume 2 and told him to make a baguette (a responsibility thing was going on) and the hand drawn black and whites plus the text served him well. I feel the same about Barbara Tropp's "The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking". In thinking a bit more about this, perhaps I pay more attention to the recipes and text when I am not lured to salivation by the photos. I am easily distracted....

[Moopheus]

You could just get "The Way to Cook" and stick them on the shelf together.

[John Rosevear]

I love the Saveur book. I also love MtAoFC as-is, which in my case is a worn tattered loosened-binding copy that's 30 years old if it's a day, and I can't imagine buying an overpriced coffee-table reissue of it. To my mind, it's exactly right as-is. Not every cookbook needs photos -- in fact, very few of the cookbooks I use regularly have any.

[OliverB]

Well, price for full color publishing is way down, you can get some really nice full color books for very little money nowadays. I don't really know most of the French dishes, and I agree that some are not all that "colorful", which is why I like to see pictures of finished dishes. I'm a very visual person, and the idea of working on a dish for a while that then doesn't look all that appealing is not that great.

Anyway, was just an idea. I'm sure if the book would come out today it would be full of photos. As it is, I love having it, but I've never cooked anything from it so far. That might change, but there are a couple recipes in the Saveur book that I'm gonna tackle before that, as I can see what the finished dish is supposed to look like.

I just love my food porn and would think that such an edition would sell well. Well, I'd buy it :-)

[Moopheus]

Anyway, was just an idea. I'm sure if the book would come out today it would be full of photos.

But probably also less text. The book as it is 700 pages just for vol. 1. It has a $40 list price. To do the same book, with photos, you'd be looking at a massive, expensive book. 65, 70 bucks, easy. If that book were getting done today, it would be cut.

[John Rosevear]

I'm sure if the book would come out today it would be full of photos.

I'm not so sure it would... Joel Robuchon's book, which covers similar ground, doesn't have any photos.

The point about size is well-taken as well... count the recipes in the Saveur book, then compare to MtAoFC. Huge difference.

[mrsadm]

Nope. No way.

[OliverB]

ok, fine, was just an idea I thought would be interesting to toss around here

I'll still buy it though, $70 list will be something around 30-40 on Amazon, doable