cover image THE SECRET LIFE OF FOOD

THE SECRET LIFE OF FOOD

Clare Crespo, , photos by Eric Staudenmaier. . Hyperion/Melcher Media, $19.99 (108pp) ISBN 978-0-7868-0846-5

"For me, food is an art supply," writes Crespo, who teaches children's cooking classes. In this mixed bag of party gags, all impressively presented in this high-gloss album, she gives directions for 43 edible crafts, which Staudenmaier pictures in appropriate habitats (a "Football Meatloaf" sits on Astroturf; a matching shirt and pants-shaped cake in a laundry room). Some items prove messy and potentially frustrating: "Sushi Cupcakes" require fruit roll-ups and coconut frosting to approximate seaweed and rice; "Jell-O Eggs" are prepared in washed-out eggshells; and "Handwiches" ask artists to "cut the bread into hand shapes." Non-professionals are better off attempting "Anatomical Heart Cookies," decorated with squiggly veins and arteries, or "Pretzel Butterflies" with caramel centers and pretzel-knot wings. Halloweeny gross-outs are in abundance: sliced almonds resemble fingernails on "Finger Cookies"; stuffed olives are inserted in meatballs to make "Spaghetti with Eyeballs"; and non-vegetarians will love "Mutant Chicken," a roast chicken to which extra drumsticks are attached with toothpicks (it "was the fastest one in the barnyard," a caption quips). Tidy chefs may think twice before whipping up "Jell-O Aquarium" in a fishbowl, but Crespo suggests newfangled ways to update ordinary cupcakes and puddings, and Staudenmaier's crisp close-ups are the icing on the cake. All ages. (Apr.)