Penguin’s Great Food books offer four-stars literary fare

The books themselves are classics of the past several centuries, including worthy and hard-to-find titles, from Samuel Pepys’ The Joys of Excess to Calvin Trillin’s Eating With the Pilgrims. Bickford-Smith’s covers will make rereading or experiencing these books for the first time that much more appetizing. In Bookforum magazine (where I learned of the series), writer Melanie Rehak described the designer as “creator of covers I would happily eat if only paper were more easily digestible,” adding the request, “will you please come redecorate my entire life?”

Never mind my entire life; I’d settle for Ms. Bickford-Smith (and that utensil-flourishing penguin) redecorating my cookbook shelf.

See more on the complete U.K. series here.