Skip to content Skip to Menu KAL Accessibility Statement

OP: Menus for Chez Panisse: The Art & Letterpress of Patricia Curtan

1 Review
| Ask a question
by Patricia Curtan

Chez Panisse—despite now being a major driver of the sustainable, local, and ingredient-driven food movements of the late 20the century and beyond—began as a very Berkeley, very idealistic, communal project. 

In the early days, Patricia Curtan, who had no restaurant experience whatsoever, found herself pulled into the fray to fill in for a no-show cook, and there she continued to work and learn for the next twelve years. In addition to her kitchen work, Curtain also pursued a passion for letterpress and linocut printing. A decades-long collaboration on the restaurant’s special menus was born.

The menu art’s in-house, grassroots style evolved into something as refined and iconic as the restaurant itself.  In her foreword, Alice Waters says, “Patty’s art has been the perfect visual analog to the food we cook.” In 2011, Princeton Architectural Press produced this book of Curtan’s menu designs along with descriptions of the events for which they were made and the printing style and paper used for each.

This is a Fine first printing, signed by Patricia Curtan. Without dust jacket, as issued.

Shopping Cart