Une Recette du Cassoulet

November, 2012

21 x 15 inches

Broadside letterpress printed in red and black ink from metal type, American Uncial typeface designed by Victor Hammer, on Hahnemühle biblio paper. Edition of ninety.

A broadside of a French poem by Franc-Nohain describing the process for making a dish of cassoulet, created for an annual cassoulet dinner hosted by a good friend and chef, Ouita Michel, in Midway, KY. I first came across this poem referenced in the English Language edition of the Larousse Gastronomique, Prosper Montagné ed., however finding the full poem in French was harder. It was originally published in La Nouvelle Cuisinière Bourgeoise: Plaisirs de la Table et Soucis du Ménage, by Franc-Nohain, Paris, 1900. The full poem was also included in the French edition of the Larousse Gastronomique, but had never been fully translated to English. For this original English translation, I worked with two friends, a poet, and a French teacher, to translate the poem and maintain some sense of the original. I set and printed the broadside at the King Library Press, choosing the American Uncial typeface by Victor Hammer and setting the English text as interlinear rubric as Victor Hammer disliked italics and preferred to always use rubric text.