Carnegie Treasures Cookbook

“This extraordinarily beautiful cookbook is indeed a collection of treasures, a joyous exploration of the interplay between the culinary arts-the preparation and presentation of fine foods, imaginatively and with skill-and the fine arts.

The Women's Committee of the Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute has selected as inspiration for its featured menus twenty masterworks from the museum's collections,

paintings by Degas, Monet, Bonnard, Sargent, Cézanne, and O'Keeffe, sculptures by George Segal and Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

These have been reproduced in superb full-color photographs, each accompanied by a brief essay that places the work within the context of the artist's career, and the spectacular menu created in celebration of it.

The menus and accompanying recipes are as varied as the museum's collections: the boldly unconventional, elegant breakfast-featuring

Marinated Rock Cornish

Game Hens and Mint

Meringue Mushrooms-inspired by Levi Wells

Prentice's Still Life with Strawberries; the delicate and sunny luncheon-which begins with Scallops and Kiwi Mousseline and ends with Lemon Mousse in Cookie Baskets-created for Monet's Nymphéas; the razzle-dazzle American Fourth of July barbecue occasioned by Stuart Davis's Composition Concrete, which opens with Popcorn Soup.

The connection between the food and the art can be straightforward, as in the traditional Chinese feast that was inspired by a Sung Vynasty vase, but it is more often subtler: a matter of mood and tempo, such as the spicy cocktail-party menu, Carnival, that accompanies George Segal's the lightrope Walker, or of gorgeous whimsy, such as the dessert Apple Snow, which is meant to recall Cézanne's promise to astonish Paris with an apple.

These elegant meals deserve to be presented with imagination and style:

All twenty menus include presentation suggestions and feature color photographs of the feasts in their settings.

The recipes in the second half of this cooks' treasury, also gathered and tested by the Women's Committee, are their personal favorites and those of other friends of the museum. While these reflect the diversity of their donors' cooking styles— traditional and innovative, hearty and delicate, plain and fancy-they are one in their reliance on fresh, top-quality ingredients and good technique to achieve splendid special-occasion dishes. Twelve chapters take you from appetizers through desserts, with the recipes from the menu section cross-indexed at the beginning of each, for convenience.

Here are clear, start-from-scratch instructions for preparing evocative, down-to-earth dishes such as Country Herb Soup and Hunt Chowder; elaborate entrées, including Steamed Leg of Lamb with Pesto Stuffing and Suprêmes of Chicken with Fresh Figs in Gin; surprising salads, such as Dilled Snow Pea or Crispy Chicken (which may be accompanied by Cheddar Raisin Muffins or Rosemary Rolls); and some very special vegetables, including Onion Cups with Artichoke Purée and Zucchini Blossoms with Brazil Nut Stuffing. Finally, who could pass up that jewel of a dessert, White Chocolate Mousse with Raspberry Sauce?

From the modern elegance of the Sarah Scaife Gallery to the imposing turn-of-the-century classicism of the 1907 Carnegie Institute building, the Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute reflects the richness and substance of the new and the old Pittsburgh.

Highlights of the permanent collection include French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works, celebrated American paintings, contemporary masters, and fine European and American furniture, porcelain, and other decorative arts. Among these are works acquired from the famous International exhibitions that have made Pittsburgh a showplace for contemporary art since 1896.”