Currently #13 on Amazon’s cookbook bestseller list – Mario Batali’s Molto Gusto was released last week. With gorgeous photos by Quentin Bacon, styled by Big Leo’s own Pamela Duncan Silver. Nice cover – except for the fake steam. Not fooling anybody.
Notice the photo credit – if only all cookbooks would do this. But the cover is a funny beast. Mario’s name is front and center but he doesn’t cook the food for Otto. I imagine he doesn’t cook much of anything these days – mostly because he probably doesn’t have the time. It is more about the brand, and maintaining the brand, maintaing the personality, running the Batali empire, those things take a lot of time and effort to do as well as he does. Maybe Mark Ladner‘s photo isn’t on the cover because he’s too busy working on being a great chef. Maybe he’s not photogenic. At least his name is actually there – that is a lot more credit than most artists receive.
An old friend of mine used to work in the Dale Chihuly studio and he talked a lot about how the glassblowers there never received credit for their work. Chihuly hasn’t blown glass since ’79 but his work is everywhere, with new pieces coming out all the time. When I first heard that it seemed rather shocking (so much for that youthful idealism). From a commercial perspective, who would want to buy a piece that wasn’t touched by the hand of the master? And what artist, with sublime talent, would work under those conditions, for ZERO credit? Who would pay a premium to eat at a Batali restaurant when the food was not prepared by Batali himself?
But the idea goes back the 16th century, when it was common for artists to have an atelier filled with students who were learning by essentially copying. A lot of the paintings attributed to certain artists really just came out of the atelier. Chihuly and Mario Batali are simply following in this tradition. It comes down to trust – the consumer trusts that they will be getting a certain experience, as promised by the brand. Funny how that concept is itself a very old one – but it goes to show that trust is timeless. As is the inability to decide for yourself what is and isn’t beautiful. If one were very good at perceiving quality, there would be no need for a brand to help inform (or mislead) the decision.
Anyways, here’s another shot from the book. No need to tell you how amazing Pamela is. Because it’s right there in the image… an image that is 3 steps removed from Batali himself, even though it has his name all over it. I have a lot of respect for the man – it takes a lot of talent, ambition, and business sense to get to that level where the brand transcends the artist and takes on a life of its own. Nice photos certainly help… and the recipes speak for themselves.
