Salvador Dalí's little-known cookbook featured in new Phaidon book

Salvador Dalí is known for his striking Surrealist paintings, forays into film and fashion and masterful moustache maintenance but, until now, not for his gastronomic talents. Few copies of his 1973 cookbook Les Diners de Gala were ever sold; perhaps potential purchasers were worried the book might mess with their minds, or they didn’t fancy eating anything from the most French chapter imaginable – “Les spoutniks astiqués d’asticots statistisques” – dedicated to snails and frogs.

Dalí’s recipes and illustrations are being served up once again in The Cookbook Book, a collection of noteworthy cookery publications from across the ages drawn together, authored and designed by Studio AKFB and published by Phaidon. Nowadays of course we’re surrounded by more cookery books, blogs and TV programmes than salt crystals in a Saxo shaker, so it’s a pleasure to float back into the past and pore over 125 iconic, innovative and influential examples of the genre. We’re particularly intrigued by Singers & Swingers In The Kitchen…