Reissue of the lavish compilation of recipes, Les Diners de Gala, features dishes such as conger eel of the rising sun and frog pasties 
 
 Stuck for ideas for Christmas dinner this year? Worry no more. Thanks to an unlikely new celebrity chef, fashionable dinners this festive season are likely to feature thousand-year-old eggs, conger eel of the rising sun and frog pasties (recipe below), all washed down with a cocktail of brandy, ginger and cayenne pepper. 
 
 If that sounds a bit more surreal than your standard fare, you’re on the right culinary track. A rare and fantastical cookbook by the painter Salvador Dalí is being reissued for the first time in more than 40 years, and already looks set to be an unexpected Christmas bestseller. 
 
 Dalí’s lavish and erotic cookbook Les Diners de Gala was first published in 1973, featuring 136 recipes compiled by the painter and his wife Gala. Divided into 12 chapters with titles such as “Prime Lilliputian malaises” (meat) and “Deoxyribonucleic Atavism” (vegetables), the book also features sumptuous Dalí illustrations and photographs of the painter posing alongside tables loaded with a banquet’s worth of food. Chapter 10, entitled “The ‘I Eat GALA’”, is devoted to aphrodisiacs. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest The book features some sumptuous Dalí illustrations. Photograph: Taschen 
 
 In one illustration, a disembodied head with biscuits for hair and a fringe made of a jar of jam sits on a platter alongside a large cube of blue cheese, the sides of which show a crowd in front of a mountain. Another shows a desert scene in which a telephone receiver is suspended on a twig over a melting plate holding two fried eggs and a razor blade. 
 
 Cooks and art enthusiasts have known about the book for years, said a spokeswoman for publisher Taschen, but with only about 400 copies of the original cookbook thought to survive, it was out of reach to all but a handful of wealthy collectors. By republishing, she said, the publisher hoped to “bring it to today’s kitchens”. 
 
 “You’ll see looking through it how much of a cultural artefact it is,” she said. “Recipes from top chefs at French restaurants that are still pumping and serving today, beautiful artworks that were made explicitly for the book, and recipes that people will enjoy simply by reading or [if they are game!] challenge them in the kitchen.” 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest A recipe for crayfish. Photograph: Taschen 
 
 Waterstones cookery buyer Bea Carvalho predicted a festive hit, saying the illustrations and reproductions alongside the recipes gave the book crossover appeal for both chefs and art lovers. “With its bright, gold jacket it should really stand out from Christmas coffee-table book displays, and the retro feel of the recipes offers a very luxurious slant on the current appetite for nostalgic publishing,” she said. 
 
 Though the hardcover book is not released until 20 November, it is already Amazon UK’s number one bestseller in the “entertaining and holiday cooking” category. 
 
 From his famous Lobster Telephone (1936) to his Self-portrait with Grilled Bacon (1941) and Portrait of Gala with Two Lamb Chops in Equilibrium upon Her Shoulder (1934), food featured prominently in much of Dalí’s art, even if not always in the most palatable forms. 
 
 The ingredients of some of Dalí’s dishes may not be available in every cornershop, but they can all – with enough application and/or bravery – be tried at home, and promise to be edible. 
 
 “We would like to state clearly that [Les Diners de Gala] is uniquely devoted to the pleasures of taste,” he wrote in the book’s introduction. But the painter, who died in 1989, had stern words for anyone watching their waistline, writing: “If you are a disciple of one of those calorie-counters who turn the joys of eating into a form of punishment, close this book at once; it is too lively, too aggressive, and far too impertinent for you.” 
 
 As for his own dietary preferences, he does not mince his words, writing in the book of his hatred for “that detestable, degrading vegetable called spinach” because it was shapeless: “I only like to eat what has a clear and intelligible form.” 
 
 Unsurprisingly, however, lobsters and other shellfish find particular favour. “The opposite of shapeless spinach is armour. I love eating suits of arms, in fact, I love all shellfish ... food that only a battle to peel makes it vulnerable to the conquest of our palate.” 
 
 Frog pasties 
 
 2 tbsp of butter 
 
 1 shallot, finely chopped 
 
 ½ bunch parsley sprigs 
 
 1 clove garlic, crushed 
 
 36 small frogs legs 
 
 4 tbsp of flour 
 
 2 egg yolks 
 
 1 egg white 
 
 255g cream cheese shortening 
 
 255ml yogurt 
 
 1 container heavy cream 
 
 1 bunch chives, chopped 
 
 1 tbsp pepper (unground) 
 
 salt 
 
 In the butter, sauté the finely chopped shallot and parsley for five minutes. Then add the frogs legs as well as the garlic. Add salt and pepper, and cook for 10 minutes, stirring from time to time. Prepare a sauce by whipping the heavy cream and mixing into the yogurt, chopped chives, the pepper and salt. Set aside and chill. 
 
 In a salad bowl, mix flour with egg yolks and cream cheese. Add the boned frogs legs. Since they are now cold, you just have to seize them with your fingers, and pull along the bones to get the flesh sliding down. Mix everything very well, add salt and pepper. 
 
 Beat up the white of an egg into a very firm snow before adding it to the mixture, mixing with a wooden spoon not turning too vigorously. Into the hot shortening, spoon out the mixture. As soon as the pasties get golden, take them out with a skimmer. Serve very hot. Serve at the same time the heavy cream that you have whipped up and mixed with the yogurt, the chopped chives, the pepper and the salt. This sauce must be served chilled. ||||| More than 40 years ago, food enthusiast and artist Salvador Dali published a cookbook called Les Diners de Gala. The book mixes Dali’s surrealist imagery and with dozens of recipes, including some that originated from the top restaurants in Paris at that time. The original book is quite rare and valuable now, but Taschen is reprinting it; it’s available for pre-order here. 
 
 This reprint features all 136 recipes over 12 chapters, specially illustrated by Dal’i, and organized by meal courses, including aphrodisiacs. The illustrations and recipes are accompanied by Dal’i’s extravagant musings on subjects such as dinner conversation: “The jaw is our best tool to grasp philosophical knowledge.” 
 
 See also The Artists’ and Writers’ Cookbook. (via colossal) ||||| My mother had the original First French Edition of this book which was published in 1973. As a teenager it could usually be found in my room. I was already a big Dalí Fan then. I was delighted when Taschen reissued this book, this time translated into English. This lavishly illustrated cookbook presents all 136 recipes of the original in 12 chapters, specially illustrated by Dalí. The sections include: exotic dishes, eggs - seafood, first course, meats, snails - frogs, fish - shellfish, game - poultry, pork, vegetables, aphrodisiacs, sweets - deserts and hors d'oeuvres. The recipes are from top Paris Restaurants such as Lasserre, La Tour d’Argent, Maxim’s, and Le Train Bleu. Dali and Gala were known as extravagant connoisseurs. As far as I can tell these are all real recipes. The only one I ever tried was No.54 "Snails á la Chablisienne". The recipe calls for 100 snails, I reduced this to 12. Many of the other recipes are not really doable because of complexity, difficulty in finding the ingredients and probably also the difficulty in finding willing dinner guests to eat "Frog Cream", "Pig Feet in flaky pie crusts" and "Salsifies with quenelles". 
 
 
 
 Illustrations consist of photographs of the dishes and table settings which are mostly ok and paintings and drawings by Dalí. Some I've seen before others not. There are also some photographs of menus. The book was printed in Italy and is very well illustrated. The reproductions are good, but the quality is not as good as the original, nor is the paper. One word of caution. The cover of the original was kind of metallic golden foil. This new edition is done in a shiny thick paper replicating the original gold cover. Both the new and the old cover are vulnerable to marking, scratching and damage. I would suggest if you're going to read the book, possibly slide it around a table or carry it around, to take the cover off while in use. Underneath the cover is cloth binding which features the painting "Autumnal Cannibalism" from 1936. 
 
 
 
 Last word by Dalí himself on the book: 
 
 
 
 “Les diners de Gala is uniquely devoted to the pleasures of taste … If you are a disciple of one of those calorie-counters who turn the joys of eating into a form of punishment, close this book at once; it is too lively, too aggressive, and far too impertinent for you.”—Salvador Dalí 
 
 
 
 Review by Walter O. Koenig ||||| Spaniard Salvador Dalí is better known for his cubism than his cooking, and his iconic melting clock suggests little reason to believe he was conscientious with a kitchen timer. However, Dalí often used food as symbology in his work, or simply to celebrate his favorite cuisine. 
 
 “At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since,” he once remarked. Dalí never did serve as a diminutive emperor (he had a whopping one inch of height on the 5′ 7″ Napoleon) but he ascended his own throne in the artistic community. 
 
 And, at the age of 69, Dalí fulfilled his earlier ambition when he wrote and illustrated a titillating cookbook. 
 
 © Salvador Dalí. Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Figueres, 2016 
 
 Taschen has reissued Les Diners de Gala for the first time since 1973, with 136 provocative—but fully replicable—recipes. The book won’t be released until next month, but you can pre-order it here. That gives you plenty of time to prepare your kitchen for recipes like “Veal Cutlets Stuffed with Snails” and “Toffee with Pine Cones.” 
 
 It’s certainly more Hieronymus Bosch than Anthony Bourdain. In one illustration, roast birds are seen suggestively mounting each other. In another, a woman spurts blood onto her lobster shell dress. 
 
 As it turns out, Dalí had a soft spot for seafood, the harder to conquer the better. “I love eating suits of arms, in fact I love all shell fish… food that only a battle to peel makes it vulnerable to the conquest of our palate,” Dalí writes in the cookbook. 
 
 © Salvador Dalí. Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Figueres, 2016 
 
 The artist’s "Lobster Telephone," created 37 years prior, became an icon of surrealism and provided inspiration for the Pop Art movement. Dalí also painted sea urchins, based on fond memories of cracking and eating them in his native Catalonia. 
 
 Like a true foodie, Dalí didn’t restrict himself to any one culture. Throughout his life, he dressed in luxurious garb that referenced everyone from the English upper class to his own Moorish ancestors. Lovers of Chinese cuisine will recognize Dalí’s recipe for “Thousand Year Old Eggs,” which he marinated for three weeks. And while you wait for those, have a Casanova Cocktail. 
 
 When Dalí was expelled from his artistic circle by fellow surrealists, he famously fired back "I myself am surrealism!" Bear that in mind if you’re booted from the kitchen for plating Dalí’s edible provocations. ||||| Salvador Dalí wasn’t just a painter. You might not know this but he would also organise prestigious dinners with his wife Gala. Mountains of food would enter the room on golden trays for their guests – sometimes wearing costumes. 
 
 The couple loved to host so much that in 1973, Dalí wrote a book to share his recipes, paintings, collages and other surrealist thoughts on food. The rare book is now being republished by Taschen Editions. 
 
 “We would like to state clearly that, beginning with the very first recipes, Les Diners de Gala, with its precepts and its illustrations, is uniquely devoted to the pleasures of Taste. Don’t look for dietetic formulas here.” 
 
 Salvador Dalí probably wouldn’t be a big fan of today’s healthy diets 
 
 What he offers looks more like gargantuan food porn than Buddha bowls. Beef stews covered with little papers, a mountain of buttered scallops, century eggs… We find all the classic food of the biggest chefs of his time. 
 
 Overall, “Les Dîners de Gala” shares 136 recipes described by the surrealist painter, glorified by collages and paintings, each more absurd than the previous one, blending eroticism, cannibalism and gastronomy. 
 
 Read More ->This ‘Unicorn Cafe’ Is Every Food Lover’s Dream Come True
– One doesn't usually think of a cookbook as "lavish and erotic," but that's how the Guardian is describing a reissue by Taschen of a famous cookbook first published in 1973. Described by Food and Wine as "more Hieronymus Bosch than Anthony Bourdain," Salvador Dali's Les Diners de Gala is a 12-chapter compendium of the artist's surreal imagery, as well as 136 often-unconventional recipes, some culled from Paris' top restaurants at the time, notes Kottke. And by "unconventional," we mean such concoctions as conger eel of the rising sun and frog pasties (the Guardian features a recipe for the latter), in chapters with titles like "Deoxyribonucleic Atavism," aka the veggie section. The art is similarly bizarre, including (and it's easiest to quote the Guardian) a "desert scene in which a telephone receiver is suspended on a twig over a melting plate holding two fried eggs and a razor blade." Dali, who died in 1989, and his wife, Gala, were known for throwing sumptuous dinner parties—Konbini notes food would be brought in on gold platters to costumed guests—and the original edition of the cookbook is a collector's item, with only about 400 copies said to remain. Readers will also get a taste for edibles that were among Dali's favorites and those he found unforgivable, including spinach, which he describes as "that detestable, degrading vegetable." Per the cookbook's description on Amazon, where it's now available for preorder, Dali issues just one warning in the book's intro: "If you are a disciple of one of those calorie-counters who turn the joys of eating into a form of punishment, close this book at once; it is too lively, too aggressive, and far too impertinent for you." (On the other end of the spectrum: a recipe book by IBM's supercomputer chef.)