Menu Design in Europe

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A series of illustrations by the Belgian artist Charles van Roose for the Compagnie Maritime Belge of figures based on the people of the Belgian Congo are less forgivable and are the nastiest things in the book, until the next page, which features the menu for the Deutsche Arbeitsfront ‘party cruise’ in 1936, adorned with jaunty swastika flags. The Red Cross parcel shares the page with the menu for a feast given the following year at Santa Maria de Montserrat for General Franco to mark the second anniversary of his ‘liberation’ of Spain.

Starting with the 19th century, the book offers up some early examples of menu design, just as the very idea of a restaurant menu was beginning to grow in popularity across the continent. Currently he is cofounder and cochair of the MFA Design program at the School of Visual Arts, New York. Change country: -Select- Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Republic Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Islands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Cook Islands Costa Rica Cyprus Czech Republic Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) Fiji Finland France Gabon Republic Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iraq Ireland Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Republic of Croatia Republic of the Congo Romania Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts-Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City State Vietnam Virgin Islands (U. On the contrary, the small tarts I know under this name are delicious, made from short pastry with almond and raspberry filling.An advantage of the banquet type of menu is that it doesn’t matter whether you understand it or not: the food will come anyway. Skipping forward to the present day, physical menus are competing with soulless lists of food on Deliveroo and the increasing use of QR codes. The occasion was, Heimann says, ‘a quasi-canonisation … complete with prayers, chants and a banquet’. David Hockney’s cheerful and practical design for Salts Diner, Shipley, in his native Yorkshire, has a long, flaring space in the middle to accommodate the changing menu, outlined as a pool of light beneath an overhead lamp. In the case of the tangible menu, the ability to produce a simplified menu sheet that allows immediate pricing of item changes via the computer has eliminated the need of traditional graphics or offset printer.

While Jim admits that this may offer “an economic advantage in a highly competitive business”, the great graphics that often accompany menus are now increasingly lost. The menu for A I’ Escargot, from 1915 speaks to Jim for its ability to craft such a discernible sense of place and atmosphere with its yellow lighting and black fine line detailing of the establishment. After which there apparently ensued what Heimann describes as ‘centuries of gustatory elation’ and which the French renders less excitably as ‘plaisirs gustatifs’. French was the international language of food for centuries and features on menus from Spain to Scandinavia, though nowhere so much or so persistently as in Britain, where it signals a cringing sense of inferiority and the fond hope that anything described as ‘à la’ something else will sound sophisticated.

Since immersing himself within the world of menu design, Jim has unsurprisingly picked up a few favourites along the way. The artistic heyday of the form, as the timespan of Menu Design in Europe suggests, was already over by the millennium, and the interesting menus have for some time been ‘the domain of serious collectors and institutions’, as Jim Heimann puts it. Jahrhundert immer mehr Gaststätten und Restaurants eröffneten, entstand aus dem Bedarf nach einer formelleren Präsentation der angebotenen Speisen eine Reihe von gedruckten Speisekarten, die sowohl extravagant als auch einfach sein konnten. In a time before now, the delicate drawings of food items with bold, sweeping typography and a certain vintage charm often ended up being a tasty visual treat before your meal even began. Unfortunately the state of contemporary menu design has been simplified or eliminated due to QR codes,” he begins.

Setting off from Paris on 31 July 1912, in one of the Compagnie Wagons-Lits’ Grand Express Européens, it must have been thrilling to sit down to Potage Longchamps (pea soup), roast chicken and bombe glacée as the train rolled south.Moreover, Jim adds, “it is interesting to note that after World War II, as dining out became more common, the range of menu design started encompassing all sorts of influences with the exception of photography which is absent for the most part.