This book is an invitation to explore the details of great paintings by looking more closely at baskets of fruit, vegetables, cooked dishes and leftovers as portrayed in banquet and hunting scenes and still lifes. From the lavish preparations for feasts in luxurious interiors to peasant celebrations, with pauses for Chardin's Jar of Olives and Delacroix's lobsters, the author brings the expert eye of a leading chef to a varied selection of interrelated paintings. This is no mere descriptive list: here form and color take on a flesh and blood dimension in art endowed with all the savor of real life.

The authors

Paul Bocuse (preface) is the world-famous Lyon chef and holder of the Guide Michelin longevity record: three stars since 1965. He is considered one of the major forces behind French cuisine's international distinction.

Yves Pinard (notes on the works) opened the Grand Louvre restaurant beneath the museum's pyramid, and was chef there for twenty years. A member of the French Culinary Academy, he is famed for his passionate interest in historic cuisine. His theme dinners - an exploration of seven centuries of gastronomic history - have a worldwide reputation.