Until today, I haven never thought menu could be regarded as an art form. I found this surprising information when I was searching for some interesting art news.
According to the post, menu and restaurant were not common until late 1800s. It was very rare to dine at a restaurant and read the menu at that time. Through menu, one could see the trends in design in that era.
Graphic design writer Steven Heller and culinary historian culinary historian John Mariani work together and participate in the production of the book Menu Design in America. Heller worked on the introduction of menu design history, and Mariani gave the extended caption. This book showcases up to 800 examples of menu design.
It’s really a interesting idea to collect and review the history of menu and menu design. Some artist and author can always come out ideas or find out items that are usually overlooked by people. Their creativity is really admirable. People who love food and art definitely can’t miss this great book.This book provides many menus that contain the food that people eat in the past. It will be interesting to compare those food to the food at present. The plenty of pictures of menu design in the book are also enjoyable.
the menus in the past seem more interesting to me. They are colorful and more attractive. The following menu with cartoon characters will certainly draw customers’ attention and give them great dining experience. Will you not choose to dine at the restaurant with such a cute menu? 
This reminds me of a restaurant in Israel at which not only were the menus works of art, but the tables were too! Each table was covered with a paper copy of a famous Israeli artist’s artwork, making the entire restaurant appear to be something out of a museum. It was incredible!
Menus are a particular expression and it is not surprising that some restaurants invest more than others. It is especially interesting to view menus from various eras to see the trends in menu design, graphic design and also in the trends and styles of our dining habits as the evolve over time. For the unredeemably curious, the QC library has a small collection of menus from restaurants from around the world from the 1940’s and 1950’s.
This goes to show that if food can be considered art, then the place in which it is served can also be considered art as well. Have you ever eaten at the restaurant Serendipity’s? Their menus are huge and are filled with plenty of illustrations in every free space. I agree that they are testaments of the design of the era, and they let you know the kind of place that you are dining in. In my opinion, art should surround food as much as possible without disturbing the fact that it is, at the end of the day, food, and nourishment is the goal. Food is food, and food is supposed to not make you hungry anymore. If food isn’t achieving this, this could mean that too much art and ornamentation is surrounding it. Menus don’t corrupt the food, however, just as long as they don’t make the food out to be better than it really is…