Passing by French cookbook writer Elise Collet-Soravito on her award-winning book that combines food and art
Photo: R. Shivaji Rao
Getting innovative Elise Collet-Soravito
If fruitcake was a woman, what would she look like? Eccentric, with scarves the colour of bright marzipan icing and hair as dark as a currant, perhaps. “I think, an English queen,” smiles Elise Collet-Soravito, underlining her point by st
icking her nose in the air regally. If you look into a pastry shop with Elise, you’ll see decadent desserts. She’ll picture each one as a vibrant woman.
She was in Chennai to work on illustrations for a book on slokas with Jigyasa Giri and Prathibha Jain, whom she met at The World Gourmand Awards in Beijing. Elise, the wandering artist, is now famous for her French cookbook, Elise Et Ses
Délices, a collection of recipes, all boldly illustrated with bright drawings of women. Some humorous, some endearing and most deliciously audacious. The book recently won the ‘Best Cookbook Illustrations in the World,’ at the Gour
mand World Cookbook Awards, held in Beijing last month. Described as a “very unique piece of accomplished food art,” it has also been drawing a lot of attention in France, where it was released in November 2006 by celebrity Michelin-starred Chef Alain Ducasse’s publishing firm.
Well illustrated
Though this is her first cookbook, you could say she’s been preparing for it all her life. “I used to be a fashion designer working with a company designing swimsuits and accessories. Then, I designed Tarot cards for a while.” Between all that, she jumped on and off planes, seemingly at whim, seeing the world. “I travelled a lot: Polynesia, Africa, the Caribbean, America, Thailand, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, China, India... I like to travel and I like to draw.” All this clearly proved useful when she sat down and started collecting, and illustrating recipes. Every page is different, painstakingly worked on, almost like a well-thought out children’s book, with distinctive text, vivid colours and fascinating characters.
Except this is very clearly adult, since a number of her women seem to have overlooked getting dressed. “I know some of them are nude, but all women like this book. They say it’s not naked in a provocative way… it’s more natural,” she says. The ones that are dressed are in clothes that are between brashly inventive and wonderfully eccentric. Her footloose view of the world also means that the recipes which come from all over – Arabian Baklava to Indian lassi — are illustrated confidently.
There are 57 women in the book, depicting 28 kinds of traditional French and other popular desserts. The caramel custard girl has luscious caramel coloured hair cascading down her shoulders. “All women are so different,” says Elise, explaining why it was never really difficult to come with fiercely individual girls for each page. The crème café and whiskey cake features a world-weary diva at a nightclub. “She hasn’t slept because of the coffee in the cake,” says Elise, pointing at the dark circles under her heavy lidded eyes. The cream turns up in her highlighted hair.
Fresh approach
“When I had to draw Cherry crumble, I wanted something fresh. Then a friend of mine came visiting, I took one look at her and thought ‘perfect’.” Ms Cherry Crumble has a cloud of golden curls, like the pastry, green eyes and mouth like a plum. Elise’s own recipe, an intriguing tumble of edible flowers — violets, magnolias, orange flowers, acacia — and pastry, is written in the form of a love letter. “It’s a rich prince writing to her. He says, “My love. My fried flower dumpling.”
Next comes a book on women as cocktails. “The women here are much dressier. In evening wear,” she says. Next, she’ll be teaming up with a wine writer from leading French newspaper Le Figaro to do the same with wine
s from all over the world.
Though not everything can be translated into a woman. “I could hardly do that with something salted. Like a chicken biriyani. I don’t know what a chicken biriyani woman would look like. I don’t know why,” she says. In spite of the fact that a good looking man is universally known as cheesecake? “Aww. But what would cheesecake look like if he was a man?” She puffs her face and pats an imaginary beer belly. Then collapses into laughter. “Ugh! Men look ridiculous very quickly.”
SHONALI MUTHALALY
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