Thursday, January 10, 2008

Tangy, Tart, Hot & Sweet and Full of Ego.

I've heard a lot about the new cookbook by Padma Lakshmi of Top Chef fame. I even heard her interviewed on two of my favorite radio programs, Satellite Sisters and The Splendid Table. She sounded warm and humble, and truly interested in food. Even so, I couldn't part with the 30 bucks to own a copy. Instead I went the old fashioned route and checked it out of the library, and I'm glad I did.

Padma is beautiful. We know it, the Top Chefs know it, the radio hosts now it, and apparently Padma knows it as well. Throughout the book, which did have some interesting and tasty recipes, there are photos of lovely Padma. There's a photo of her biting into fried chicken, and the one above of her thinking really deep thoughts while eating a salad. Yes, there are photos of the food, but only every few pages, and not necessarily of the recipe on the adjacent page.


Don't get me wrong, I did copy a few recipes out of the book, including one for roasted peas and one for smashed potatoes, but I also found it hard to read. I have pretty young eyes, but I'm also a graphic designer, and I would really like to know what the designer was thinking when he/she chose the font. It's a serif, which is a good choice, but their is too much contrast between the horizontal and vertical strokes and the serifs are rather bulky. (For you designers, imagine a paragraph written in Bodoni Bold). After a while, the letters blur together and are truly hard to read. Maybe that's another reason for all the photos of our beautiful Padma.

Anyway, I was disappointed. Next time your in a book store check it out, look at the photos of the food and the rare ingredients and of course, the author, but don't try to read too much.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hmmm... seeing numerous images of a thin, gorgeous padma would probably make me NOT want to eat and add more calories to my day. and the fact that it's hard to read... maybe it's a diet book in disguise?

thanks for doing the review, and i'll stick to my padma viewings to reruns of top chef.