Monday, April 4, 2011


Yum, Yum, Books


We went to an edible book festival on Saturday, where some people cooked the books and others ate the books.

The Seattle Edible Book Festival, organized by the Seattle Center for Book Arts, is a festival celebrating books and food and the people who love them. "It combines the creative and culinary talents of NW bibliophiles, foodies, book artists, chefs, bakers, librarians, kids, and punsters."

Competitors must create and bring a piece of edible art related to books: it can be a pun on a title, refer to a scene or character, look like a book (or paper, scroll, etc.), or just have something to do with books. Every type of book—children's classics, detective novels, biographies, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, short stories—should be sculpted from a smörgåsbord of foodstuffs. Whatever the inspiration, the basic rule is: It must be edible.

Judging Categories at this year's festival were:
•Most Pun-derful
•Most Drop-dead Gorgeous
•Most Delectably Appetizing
•Best Young Edible Artist (K-12)
•Best in Show — voted by the audience

The schedule was as follows:
•11:00 to 12:00 Edible Entries accepted, installed, and photographed
•12:00 to 1:30 Public viewing and voting for Best in Show
•1:30 to 2:00 Celebrity Judges award prizes
•2:00 Edible Books eaten by everyone with tea, coffee, and milk.
(Folks were far too busy stuffing their faces and their boxes to bother much with beverages. I was one of them.)

The Book of Kells



The English Muffin Patient



A Citrus Timepiece (Clockwork Orange)



Comfort Me With Apples



Fast Food Nation



Bridge Over the River Chai (Bridge over River Kwai)



Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Original Book



Edible Versions



In Defense of Food

4 comments:

Shannon McKelden said...

What fun! Those are so cool!

Keira Soleore said...

Thanks for commenting, Shannon. They were so much fun to look at and even more fun to eat.

Okie said...

Oh wow! Everyone did such a good job but The Book of Kells is Fantastic looking!

Keira Soleore said...

Okie, I gave the Book of Kells my vote, too. The thin pastry layers look exactly like yellowing vellum pages, the chocolate underneath was a fine tooled leather cover, but the top edible layer of gold and other colors depicting an illuminated manuscript was the crowning glory of the entry. It didn't win unfortunately. The Lord of the Fries won.