Look Inside Salvador Dali's 'Les Dîners De Gala'

Get ready for some seriously surreal suppers
By Ruth Kinane
Updated November 03, 2016 at 07:45 PM EDT

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Salvador Dali's 'Les Dîners De Gala'

© Salvador DalÌ. FundaciÛ Gala-Salvador DalÌ, Figueres, 2016, courtesy TASCHEN

When you hear the name Salvador Dalí, you think of wild surrealist paintings and waxed mustaches, not roasts, timbales, mousses, and soups. Yet back in 1973 the eccentric artist released as over-the-top cookbook called Les dîners de Gala, which has just been brought back into print in all its gaudy glory. The book is packed with color-saturated photos of Dalí and his wife Gala’s opulent dinner parties, including this shot of Dalí with a plated peacock, as well as Dalí’s original artwork — some of it erotic and some of it, like an illustration of legless dwarves eating eggs, just bizarre.

 

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Salvador Dali's 'Les Dîners De Gala'

© Salvador DalÌ. FundaciÛ Gala-Salvador DalÌ, Figueres, 2016, courtesy TASCHEN

The book contains 136 recipes for peculiar dishes such as eel pâté and frog pasties to the more standard roast beef, pictured above. 

 

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Salvador Dali's 'Les Dîners De Gala'

© Salvador DalÌ. FundaciÛ Gala-Salvador DalÌ, Figueres, 2016, courtesy TASCHEN

With only 400 known copies in circulation, Salvador Dalí’s Les dîners de Gala had become increasingly hard to find over the decades — collectors have shelled out as much as $25,000 for a copy. 

 

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Salvador Dali's 'Les Dîners De Gala'

© Salvador DalÌ. FundaciÛ Gala-Salvador DalÌ, Figueres, 2016, courtesy TASCHEN

All 12 chapters, including one on aphrodisiacs, are sauced with the artist’s wit. “If you are a disciple of one of those calorie counters who turn the joys of eating into a form of punishment, close this book at once,” he writes at the beginning, “It is too lively, too aggressive, and far too impertinent for you.”

 

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Salvador Dali's 'Les Dîners De Gala'

© Salvador DalÌ. FundaciÛ Gala-Salvador DalÌ, Figueres, 2016, courtesy TASCHEN

Taschen senior editor Dian Hanson is “always looking for forgotten books that make great passion projects.” The minute she heard about Les dîners de Gala, which the painter originally compiled in honor of his wife, Gala, she knew she wanted to reissue it.

 

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Salvador Dali's 'Les Dîners De Gala'

© Salvador DalÌ. FundaciÛ Gala-Salvador DalÌ, Figueres, 2016, courtesy TASCHEN

The book also contains a recipe for avocado toast, which involves mashing the avocados with cayenne and boiled lamb brains, and a “red salad” made of finely chopped beets, cabbage, and tongue. “A lot of people think that these are surreal concoctions that Dalí came up with, but they all come from classic French cuisine,” Hanson says.

 

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Salvador Dali's 'Les Dîners De Gala'

© Salvador DalÌ. FundaciÛ Gala-Salvador DalÌ, Figueres, 2016, courtesy TASCHEN

Still, the reissue is most likely destined for coffee tables, not kitchens. Cookbook expert Nach Waxman calls Les dîners de Gala “performance art,” and Hanson admits that the number of people “who are going to get right in there and cook up some pig’s-ear soup” is pretty small.

 

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Salvador Dali's 'Les Dîners De Gala'

© Salvador DalÌ. FundaciÛ Gala-Salvador DalÌ, Figueres, 2016, courtesy TASCHEN

Nonetheless Hanson stresses that the recipes, which came from famous French restaurants like Maxim’s and Tour d’Argent, are genuine. “You can really make these things,” she says. “Though probably not peacock. Leave them in the park, where they belong.”

 

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By Ruth Kinane