M E N Ü  2
photography, art direction
and graphic design of our second own cookbook 

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MENÜ 2 is our second cookbook based on the idea of the first volume (MENÜ), which was a collection of tales, stories from our friends who are working on shaping the gastroculture in today’s Budapest. 

ABOUT THE STORY
In the continuation of MENÜ we ran away to far lands. Traveling for half a year we wanted to revive what we searched for during the making of the first volume: the chance to connect through food. While the first part is a collection of recipes and stories from Budapest-centered people, MENÜ 2 is a countryside and foreign look at the lives of our Hungarian friends who move around with a familiarity in the world. We looked for the possibilities of another life during warm visits and all recipes guard the essence of these. We ate beef cheeks cooked in vermouth in Barcelona, we went mushroom-picking in the Pilis woods, or we got to know how the original catfish-paprikas is made in a little Hungarian village called Tordas. This time we voyage on the whole spectrum of food-making so simplicity and the well thought through menus get along well side by side.


ABOUT THE DESIGN
It was printed in limited 1000 copies just like the previous MENÜ cookbook and the numbers of each book were stamped manually on every title page. The hardcover was bound with a smooth natural canvas, just in a slightly darker tone as the first edition. This time we used blind embossing on the front board, the back cover and on the the spine as well. On the front and the back flyleaves there are two detailed hand drawn maps of Hungary and Europe, giving a geographical overview on our whole journey. Three ribbons of different colors were placed in the book again, symbolizing the three authors' unity. 
 
For the section featuring colored imagery we used thick offset stock and for the text-based English translation a natural white-toned paper. Our main goal with the design was to combine the photographs with a pure, minimalistic graphic layout. There are delicate line drawings throughout the book demonstrating the proper way of preparing e.g. stuffed grape leaves or artichoke chips. The same visual indications appear on every recipe page in the form of pictograms such as gluten-free, lactose-free etc.
At the back of the book there is an English translation consisting of the Hungarian text in full.

photo — Balázs Glódi
graphics — Eszter Laki
text — Kamilla Mihály


If you would like to own your copy from the limited 1000 please send us an email to menucookbook@gmail.com

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