‘One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well’
Virginia Woolf

Cooking IS an art and this is the main aspect behind my ideas for creating new and innovative, artistic based cookbooks.
Cooking is a passion of mine along with art, so why not incorporate two of my main loves in life…
Therefore I have decided to collaborate with the owner and chefs at LS6 Café Bar in Hyde Park (previously known as The Clock Cafe); this is a trendy little café with great artistic interior and a busy student atmosphere.


Up to now I have been collecting research, ideas and inspiration as to how and in what format/style I will present the cook books, with this body of research, I will put forward to the staff at LS6 Café and get feedback in our next meeting. The final outcome will be a complete incorporation of both of our ideas and collection of recipes. I intend on exhibiting the cookbooks in whatever format they end up being inside LS6 Café towards the end of March.
My ideas are extremely open at the moment as input from LS6 Café is very important and could steer my original ideas in a completely different direction, but I am trying to “think outside the box” and reinvent a new, artistic way in which recipes can be put across, for example printing recipes on napkins, aprons, coasters, salt & pepper pots, sandwich bags etc (so not the traditional format of a “book”)
I may even think about printing recipes around the walls in LS6 Café, the ideas are endless.
Although my main source of inspiration recently has been Vintage style cookbooks, menus, recipes and cookery magazines as I really like the quirky style they use and the imagery is mostly in an illustrated format which again is great in respect to my project and linking cookery with art, I see Vintage cookbooks more as a piece of art than anything else because of the illustrations used, also Hyde Park, Leeds where the Café is situated is well known for its large array of Vintage and second hand shops which could link in with my project and steer us towards using it as a theme for the final outcome.
The actual recipes that I use are also an important part of the final outcome, these could be recipes from people that have dined in the Café and have donated there favourite recipes to the project, or they could just be recipes from the Chef’s at LS6 Café as part of what is included in the menu, “ not only will you get a fantastic meal, you will get the recipe for it also “, this is just an original idea but once I have presented my ideas to the Café, I will have a better idea in which way the project is going.
I am going to focus on the idea that cooking is an art and creating something presenting recipes in an artistic format, something that is different and original and could be classed as a piece of art but has other uses also.
I am extremely excited about this project and am looking forward to learning new skills and processes along the way; also I think it will be a fantastic learning opportunity to work along side a group of professional people that have completely different skills to me.