It can be powerful. Pause. For a sandwich. Pause long enough and you are loafing. Loafing beyond a snack. Loafing to the tune – no, symphony – of a condiment-laced, triple-deckered, fresh butter-smeared, grilledad to a grisp-crisp, sandwich of rich-wich. An opus of a pause.
“Party Sandwich Loaf”
Betty Crocker’s Absurd, Gorgeous, Atomic-Age Creations
Cattelan and Ferrari photographed dishes from the 1971 Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library, styling the food “with humor and without mercy,” Cattelan said. “These dishes are a triumph of imagination and gelatin. They have been conjured from a time when optimism was a more important ingredient than anxiety.”
Did Cattelan and Ferrari pause? I think yes. Optimism thwarted becomes anxiety. Mercy without humor becomes judgement. And now I must loaf to ponder that. Bring my tiara! And put some mustard on it.
Photographs by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari for The New York Times. Stylist: Francesca Cefis. Set designer: Charlotte Mello Teggia. Food stylist: Emanuela Tediosi, assisted by Lorenzo Comolla. Hair and makeup stylist: Lorenzo Zavatta.
Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari are artists from Italy. Since 2009, they have created photographs for their magazine, Toiletpaper, and other publications.
Tamar Adler is a contributing writer for the magazine and for Vogue.
Yes, it’s easy to make risible anything bold. And also not difficult to feel tenderness for the element of human spirit that takes something so mundane as lunch to the pinnacle of ridiculousness.
The Lunch Encounter 
