Christmas came early this year at Sartle headquarters!Dali’s super rare and super strange surrealist cookbook Les Diners de Gala finally got republished. For once, this makes Christmas shopping for your art-loving friends really easy!
The most famous mustache in art history claimed at the age of 6 that he wanted to be a chef. As you know he became an artist and professional weirdo instead. Yet, he and his wife Gala (hence the name of the book…) threw many outrageous dinner parties.
Look at that peacock!
Gala being her magical unicorn self, Dali on the right clearly under her spell (as he was ever since the two met).
It wasn’t just the food that was crazy, guest were required to dress up in strange outfits. I can totally see Picasso hitting on Gala in one of his sexy sailor outfits, or Duchamp attending the dinner as his alter ego Rrose Sélavy. Maybe Max Ernst attended a dinner party, hoping Gala would be in for another steamy ménage à trois?
Did I mention there were often wild animals roaming around the dining room? There were monkeys, lions, or Dali’s pet ocelot Babou. Yeah, sounds like pretty awesome dinner parties to me!
Also, Dali made the illustrations and photos for the cookbook himself, another reason why it moved to the #1 spot on our Christmas list. I mean… Food + Art = Sartle.
If the words surrealist and cookbook weren’t enough to convince you, we’ve picked our top recipe from the book. Also, very useful if you have to whip up a full Christmas dinner but you’re the most uninspired cook ever (me).
Oasis Leek Pie
1 roll of frozen dough or 10 oz of flour1 egg3 ½ oz of shortening1 tsp of curry8 tbsp of water1 tbsp of oil1 ½ lbs leeks9 oz of lean bacon3 “petite suisses” (cheese)6 tbsp of heavy cream2 eggs2 tsp of curry
I know, that list seems a bit strange, incomplete at least… but hey this is what Mr. Dali himself wrote!
First, slit, wash, rinse and cut the leeks. Keep the nicest one of the bunch whole, and ready for decoration.
Fry the diced bacon in the tablespoon of oil and add the leeks. The mixture has to simmer slowly for a long time, the leeks lose their liquid become smaller and acquire a good taste. About an hour or hour and a half later, remove from the fire.
In order to prepare the dough, melt the shortening in water with curry and salt, and mix the flour and the egg. Let stand. Put the leeks in a salad bowl. Add the swiss-knight cheeses, heavy cream, eggs and curry. Add salt and ground pepper.
In a pie dish, spread the dough, pout the mixture and bake at 457 ° for 30 minutes. When you are about to serve, decorate the pie with the whole leek, the crown of which you have to cut up to resemble a palm tree.
Safe to say writing clear and structured recipes wasn’t really Dali’s thing, but you get the idea right?
Et voila!! If it doesn’t look anything like this, don’t worry. We all know cookbooks are the fashion magazines of food literature. The food is either plastic or photo-shopped to make you feel bad about your cooking skills. Rest assured, your ugly leek-bacon-curry pie probably still tastes as awful as Dali’s one.
Happy holidays!
By: Silke
Contributor
I can't decide if Dali would be a good guest or a bad guest to have at my dining table. Interesting conversation probably, but impossible to follow!