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Last Christmas, my parents gave me a subscription to Cook's Illustrated, which is possibly the most well-known, professional, beautifully-done cooking magazine around. I love the approach they take--testing and testing until they have found the most perfect way to make a fried egg, or until they have discovered the absolute best balance between flavor and texture in a wild mushroom soup. They take the scientific approach to cooking which is great, because I don't have the knowledge or the patience to do that in my own kitchen! I've learned so much from these magazines and I can wholeheartedly say that reading these has made me a better and more informed cook.
I recently noticed that on the back of every issue there's a lovely, vintage-style drawing of different foods or herbs or spices. Aren't these terrific? Luckily I was able to dig up a few old issues that I had saved. I can't believe I hadn't seen these before. I did a tiny bit of research and discovered that these are all hand-drawn by an artist named John Burgoyne. What a neat job he has, and how wonderful to know these illustrations started out as pencil drawings!
I don't have room to do this in our current kitchen but I'm imagining these in white mats and frames all together in a gallery style wall. Wouldn't that be neat? And I could add to the collection each time I got a new issue or two. I don't always love the look of a gallery wall but I think keeping the frames all white and sticking to a tight grid pattern (versus a random, spread-out pattern) would make for a pretty sophisticated, vintage-style kitchen wall.
What do you think? Should I keep this project in the back of my mind as potential DIY kitchen art?
