You can play with your food. In fact, you should. All the details are in Joost Elffert's remarkable Play with Your Food, which introduces readers to a new way of seeing the food they eat, then shows them how to transform that food into creatures of extraordinary personality.

Put a navel orange on its side, pip facing you. See anything yet? What do the folds suggest? Carve ovals and insert beans and sliced almonds--voila, two eyes. Cut ears from the sides of the orange and pull them forward. Now you have it--a cat's face of amazing and endearing character. But that's only the beginning. Learn to make artichoke-leaf aphids, bok choy buffalos, okra grasshoppers, green-pepper camels, and pear mice--just a few of the 75 ingenious projects.

Consisting primarily of color photos of the creatures, first in portraiture and then in step-by-step "recipes" for their creation, Play with Your Food teaches readers above all to see. In addition to limning techniques, the minimal text provides a short look at manmade and natural imagery that suggests or embodies the possibilities of metamorphosis. Then it's on to the creatures themselves and the fun of constructing them. Anyone who enjoys play and the magic of transformation will want Joost's book--and having seen it, will never look at eatables in the same way again. --Arthur Boehm

Entertainment Weekly
If you enjoyed Anne Geddes's Down in the Garden ... there's no telling how many delighted squeals this tables-turning book will elicit … with tips for constructing, then eating, your own menagerie.

The New York Times Book Review, Sarah Ferrell
Elffers, an advocate of finding the natural visual puns inherent in his material, is almost reluctant to give how-to instructions, since he wants his readers to invent their own menageries. Nonetheless, there are recipes for each of the creatures, as well as a section on what materials to use for eyes ... ears ... and, especially, noses.

SYNOPSIS

A hilarious and imaginative new way of looking at fruits and vegetables. The 150 clever photographs show how to make the magical transformation from lemon to pig or patty pan squash to turtle. And when you are finished playing, you eat your creation!

FROM THE CRITICS

The New York Times