The contributors to this highly original collection of essays explore the relationship between food and architecture, asking what can be learned by examining the (often metaphorical) intersection of the preparation of meals and the production of space. In a culture that includes the Food Channel and the knife-juggling chefs of Benihana, food has become not only an obsession but an alternative art form. The nineteen essays and andquot;Gallery of Recipesandquot; in Eating Architecture seize this moment to investigate how art and architecture engage issues of identity, ideology, conviviality, memory, and loss that cookery evokes. This is a book for all those who opt for the andquot;combination platterandquot; of cultural inquiry as well as for the readers of M. F. K. Fisher and Ruth Reichl.

The essays are organized into four sections that lead the reader from the landscape to the kitchen, the table, and finally the mouth. The essays in andquot;Place Settingsandquot; examine the relationships between food and location that arise in culinary colonialism and the global economy of tourism. andquot;Philosophy in the Kitchenandquot; traces the routines that create a site for aesthetic experimentation, including an examination of gingerbread houses as art, food, and architectural space. The essays in andquot;Table Rulesandquot; consider the spatial and performative aspects of eating and the ways in which shared meals are among the most perishable and preserved cultural artifacts. Finally, andquot;Embodied Tasteandquot; considers the sensual apprehension of food and what it means to consume a work of art. The andquot;Gallery of Recipesandquot; contains images by contemporary architects on the subject of eating architecture.

andquot;...Serves up a surprisingly palatable experience.andquot;
andmdash; Julia Mandell, Architecture

andquot;Poolside reading for gourmets with upper-echelon IQs.andquot;
andmdash; Metropolitan Home

andquot;Two essential and connective parts of our culture, food and architecture, are brought together in a serious and provocative fashion with Eating Architecture. If it wasn't clear before that the two rule the world, it will be now.andquot;
andmdash;Michael Maltzan, architect

andquot;Eating Architecture is an immensely original and fascinating work. It brings together analyses of food and drink with materialities and design to produce a delightful feast.andquot;
andmdash;John Urry, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University

andquot;Like the chef at a fusion grill, Eating Architecture revels in the eclectic, the diverse, even the idiosyncratic. The editors have wisely resisted the temptation to elicit homogeneity from their contributors, and the result is a collection of essays that truly singsandmdash;a bold polyphony of distinct voices that jostle and flirt as they map, trace, and sculpt the interpenetrations of food and space. From the analytic to the anecdotal, from the incisive to the suggestive, the essays in Eating Architecture will both challenge and reward the curious reader.andquot;
andmdash;Mark Morton, University of Winnipeg, author of Cupboard Love: A Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities

andquot;This book is a stately banquet with four menus containing intellectual dishes of increasing physical and conceptual depth. By contextualizing the production of food, architecture, and language within broader cultural, social, and economic forces, the essays give this book its academic breadth and a capacity to enrich a diverse readership. Eating Architecture can be savored in one long and indulgent session or in little tidbits with equal relish. It is easy to digest, and if indigestion ensues, it is only due to the surfeit of its riches.andquot;
andmdash;Katerina Ruedi Ray, Director, School of Art, Bowling Green State University

andquot;Carandecirc;me threw down the gauntlet when he declared architecture the most noble of the arts and pastry the highest form of architecture. A century and half later, Eating Architecture picks up the gauntlet and runs to imaginative lengths in its exploration of the architectural aspects of food and the gastronomic aspects of architecture. An important and original contribution, full of delightful surprises.andquot;
-- Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, University Professor and Professor of Performance Studies, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, author of Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage

Jamie Horwitz is Associate Professor of Architecture at Iowa State University.Paulette Singley is Associate Professor of Architecture at Woodbury University and in the Department of Arts and Sciences at Art Center College of Design.