I just love it when food and art overlap. Food artist Prudence Emma Staite has created a collection of works that recreate famous paintings out of chocolate Smarties. There's a wide range, from Pop Art to some more classical works.
The collection is showing at the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood in east London on Friday. It's all part of the Smartie Art Exhibit, which is celebrating the return of the blue Smartie.
Do you think Nestle would sponsor an exhibition if they brought anything else back? I'd have to do some research about what to reintroduce, but I bet I could think of something. What do you think would make a good food art project?
The Museum of Modern Art Store might not immediately pop into your mind as the perfect place to fulfill all your kitchen needs.
Makes sense - much of its items are pricey and elegant, and not appropriate for everyday use. But if nothing else, it's certainly fun to peruse the products and place them on your mental kitchen wish list.
From inside-out martini glasses to panda-shaped pink lunch bags, MOMA's got funky kitchenware covered. Check out some of the fanciful finds below.
We hear a lot about road food, traveling the country in search of good eats, but since we can't eat all the time, foodies might have to get a fix at a different sort of roadside stop. These food-related stops along the highway don't have the same pull as, perhaps, a diner that serves fantastic pancakes or perfect falling-off-the-bone ribs in special sauce, but they often have a lot of history - interesting and just plain weird - attached to them. CNN's picks for roadside food stops include the Mustard Museum, a collection of nearly 5,000 types and bottles of mustard in Wisconsin, Lenny the Chocolate Moose, a life-sized 1,700-lb moose, and the Corn Palace in South Dakota. Travelers can also visit the Salt Museum in upstate New York to view the remains of a salt processing plant and hamburger lovers can pay tribute to their favorite food with a pilgrimage to the Home of the Hamburger the birthplace of the food, also in Wisconsin.
As we've seen, there are museums for all sorts of food-related items: sake, Pez, mustard and moist towlettes, just to name a few. So, it should come as no surprise that there's also a banana museum. Yep, the Washington Banana Museum is in Auburn, WA. Their "virtual museum" features tons of banana ephemera from the collection, including lots of vintage ads, clothing, photographs and assorted tchatckes. According to the website, the museum features around 4,000 banana-related items, all of which are overseen by curator Ann Mitchell Lovell. Everyone needs a hobby...
Sometimes, food is art, but in this case, art is food. This giant toaster mosaic measures 16.5x15-feet and is made of 2,500 pieces of toast. Each piece of bread was toasted to a precise color of doneness to create the depth and shading in the picture. It took the Swedish artists, as well as some friends who assisted with the toasting, several days to put together the image. The piece is not on permanent display at the Modern Art Museum of Buenos Aires, where it was one of the museum's most popular pieces when it made its debut.
Butter and jam are probably prohibited in the room with the exhibition.
The San Francisco Chronicle recently ran a short profile of The Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia. According to the Chronicle,
the Burlingame museum is the only one of its kind. Apparently curator and shop owner Gary Doss has a specimen of each
of the 627 official Pez dispensers ever made. The museum's site has several photographs of the collection, annotated
with names and years of production. Also, a comment to a Pez-related post on Candy Addict suggests
that there may also be some unofficial releases in the museum's back room.
Why would Fiat cover one of their Cinquecentos in white chocolate? Beats me. What I do know is that it will be
on display in Seto, Japan at the Seto-Gura Museum in mid-March. The chocolate-covered Italian ride was a hit at the
Aichi Expo last year as well, according to a recent story in the Mianichi Daily
News. Apparently the car lives at a museum in Aichi Prefecture for the rest of the year. If anyone knows the story
behind this choco-mobile, please share with the group.
A new exhibit at the Civic Museum of Monsummano
Terme, just north of Florence, explores the history of chocolate in Europe. The show pays particular attention to the
ways in which the patronage of the Medici dynasty furthered the art of chocolate making in much the same ways it
advanced the areas of art and architecture. Cosimo III de Medici commissioned new chocolate recipes in order to compete
with those of the Spaniards and to impress other aristocrats. One of the results was a jasmine-infused chocolate drink,
often presented to visiting dignitaries as an example of the Medici splendor. The exhibit, "Chocolate: from
Spanish perfection to the exquisite courtesy of the Tuscan court" continues through April 30.
We hear a lot about road food, traveling the country in search of good eats, but since we can't eat all the time, foodies might have to get a fix at a different sort of roadside stop. These food-related stops along the highway don't have the same pull as, perhaps, a diner that serves fantastic pancakes or perfect falling-off-the-bone ribs in special sauce, but they often have a lot of history - interesting and just plain weird - attached to them. 
As we've seen, there are museums for all sorts of food-related items: 
The San Francisco Chronicle recently ran a short 
Why would Fiat cover one of their Cinquecentos in white chocolate? Beats me. What I do know is that it will be
on display in Seto, Japan at the Seto-Gura Museum in mid-March. The chocolate-covered Italian ride was a hit at the
Aichi Expo last year as well, according to a 
A new exhibit at the Civic Museum of Monsummano
Terme, just north of Florence, explores the history of chocolate in Europe. The show pays particular attention to the
ways in which the patronage of the Medici dynasty furthered the art of chocolate making in much the same ways it
advanced the areas of art and architecture. Cosimo III de Medici commissioned new chocolate recipes in order to compete
with those of the Spaniards and to impress other aristocrats. One of the results was a jasmine-infused chocolate drink,
often presented to visiting dignitaries as an example of the Medici splendor. The exhibit, "Chocolate: from
Spanish perfection to the exquisite courtesy of the Tuscan court" continues through April 30.
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