Charlotte Birnbaum’s passion for the often forgotten craftsmanship of culinary art is both inspiring and infectious. During a coffee break with coconut macaroons, I am offered fascinating stories of sugar, intestines, napkin folding and much more. Because for each topic of conversation, there is at least one book in the series “On the Table”, of which Birnbaum is the editor. Books which the artist Christa Näher has designed to become small works of art in themselves.

“Three Banquets for a Queen”, “The Beauty of the Fold”, “Paulas Juwelen” & “Bon!” Bon!”

Charlotte Birnbaum is editor of SternbergPress “On the Table,” a book series that focuses on culinary art, extravagant meals, spectacular table settings and other related areas. One of the titles of the series – the first Charlotte takes out – is “Three Banquets for a Queen”. The book is an historical document that was found 15 years ago and recounts the banquets held in Queen Kristina’s honour during her visit to Rome. All menus are intact, a hundred or so dishes where the food was intended more as sculptures and showbread than to be edible.

“I want to pay tribute to the creativity and imagination of confectioners. They were part of and created the most spectacular dining experiences. Artists such as Bernini and Leonardo also made sugar sculptures. It was a material of the time, transient, but attractive.

How did you come to produce art/cookery books?
“I love eating, munching on a coconut macaroon.It is the foundation of everything to me. I find what happens on the dining table so exciting, there is a new exhibition each day which you sometimes share and sometimes enjoy yourself. I have read both history of art and drama and for me the dining table is “The theatre on the table”. The table is the stage and the food is the set design or sculptures and then the dinner guests play a part in this theatre.

This is where Charlotte mentions “The Beauty of the Fold: A Conversation with Joan Sallas” and describes Joan Sallas as the napkin folder equivalent of Carl von Linné who is without peer.

“He has catalogued all napkins folds and named and documenting them in this book. He began his work in a basement, but it has now arrived in all its glory and was exhibited at the Hallwyl Museum in Stockholm a few years ago.

“Pies, Pâtés and Pastries”

Can you tell me more about your books?I ask and manage to take a sip of coffee and a bite of the pastry, as Charlotte carefully points out that she did not bake them herself, while my host picks up her book “Pies, Pâtés and Pastries: Secrets Old and New of the Art and Cooking”, which is a work on pies.

“Pies are both a poor man’s food and have been an obvious part in fine dining. For this book, I read about all possible types of pies. Once in the 15th century, a man baked an entire orchestra in a pie, along with a banquet table replete with food.

“Do you mean a real orchestra of living people, I must ask?

The pie was opened and out came birds, frogs, eels, and it was not uncommon to find scantily clad women or singing boys in the pies.

“Yes! It was not at all unusual to bake entertainment or speakers in the dish. The pie was opened and out came birds, frogs, eels, and it was not uncommon to find scantily clad women or singing boys in the pies. But the most common thing was to have dwarfs in the pie. They came out and greeted the guests with fans and many royal houses had favourite dwarves which you could hire for special banquets.

– Aristotle wrote about the role of the pie in dramas in Athens, where they were sold at kiosks, a bit like how we have hot dog kiosks outside arenas today. Aristotle describes how it was mainly during the more tedious parts of the play that the pies were bought. And there were all possible types of pies. Today, we may primarily think of meat pies, but there are no limits to what can be baked in this dish. They can be vegetarian, sweet or filled with fish. I read about an English housewife who made a pie for her husband with his initials on and which was divided into three parts; one was a hot meal, another as a starter and a third as a dessert. Charlotte explains that she has made all the recipes in her books herself, unless stated otherwise. And she has made them easy,

“I am only a half-decent cook myself, I prefer siting in a dusty library and doing research.

“The inner journey”

What was your first book?
“It was the book on intestine food. I was sitting in Grythyttan’s library, where Tore Vretman’s large cookbook collection is stored. I couldn’t afford to stay in the beautiful inn in Grythyttan, but instead hired a room in a poultry farm. After a period of time when I had started the book, my family and I moved to Germany and at that time I was determined to continue writing, but in German. That is how I learned the language. I didn’t know German before, and if you read German reviews of “The inner journey”, many people say that I have a particular linguistic style when I write, but it is probably just because I’ve learned the language,” laughs Charlotte.

“Bon! Bon!”

When did you start working with Christa Näher as an illustrator?
“I started working with Christa Näher from the very first book in 2008. I had seen her art before and loved it. We work very closely. She lives in southern Germany, but we send each other things often. And it is a living collaboration; sometimes she sends images to me which I find stories and recipes for, and sometimes it’s the other way round.

Charlotte Birnbaum

Talk about your latest book
“My latest book was published last year in 2013 and is called “Paulas Juwelen : Kulinarische Streifzüge durch das Jahr” (approximate translation: “Paula’s Jewels: a culinary journey over a year”). It follows the season’s ingredients and I have given every day its own story, recipe or something else inspired by an historic event, anniversary, death, birthday or similar. For example, the following quote appears on 3 April “Essen macht Spaß, viel Essen macht viel Spaß. – Unbekannt” (approximate translation: “Eating is fun, eating a lot is lots of fun” – unknown)

“So far, this book is only in German, but I hope to be able to translate it soon.

“Paulas Juwelen” has left a small empty space in its wake,” says Charlotte. I had accumulated many stories over the years which found their place in this book. I had to actively search for others in history books, cookery books, political writings, fashion and more. Right now, when the book has just gone to press, it’s like a separation.

Charlotte takes out a historical cookbook which we browse through together.

“I think experiencing history based on the food people ate is interesting in terms of the history of ideas. Most of the preserved documents are from high society; food was an advertisement for themselves. They arranged sugar banquets to glorify themselves, but also to do politics. If they had a stronghold with a specific architecture in its sugar landscape, it could mean that they would attack Turkey, for instance. “There is also evidence that the Romans would give their children a cake with letters on, and when they had learnt their ABCs, they were allowed to eat the cake as a reward.

“Diners de Gala”

Is there anyone you would like to work with, living or dead?

“Salvador Dali! He wrote the fantastic “Les Diners de Gala” together with the chefs at Maxim. It is filled with fantastic banquets and it would be a dream to be able to make some of these reality.

Who inspires you?
“Christa really inspires me. And I like baroque.

What dish would you like to highlight for a wider audience today?
“The pie! I think leaven and sausages have had their time and now it’s time for the pie. It’s a great way to use up leftovers. If you ask me, I think we need to eat less meat in the west, but when we do eat it, we ought to consume the whole animal, and that’s where pies come into their own.

“Futurist Cookbook”

What are you up to at the moment?
“I will be writing the foreword to a new translation of the Italian futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s book “The futuristic cookbook” which will be published in the “On the Table” series. Marinetti was a madcap who had a difficult relationship with Mussolini and as an Italian futurist, he was very involved with the speed, future and that everything old would be swept away.

In the cookbook, he creates a new vocabulary for dishes – he wanted to replace the French food words with Italian ones.

“And, I would like to make a “Paulas Juwelen”, but with drinks.

When our conversation draws to a close, the large sofa at home with Charlotte Birnbaum is covered by books, her own as well as those of others. Texts about art, food, politics and love, together with this conversation, have changed my view of what food can be forever.

In today’s flood of commercial cookbooks and destructive diets, books such as “Bon Bon: sugar arts” and “The inner trip: a cookbook about cooking with intestines” are creative oases where food is set free from contemporary limitations. An inner journey that I never want to return from.