Book and food lovers strolled among elaborate food creations Monday, stopping to chat with the artists who made them. Under the harsh fluorescent lights, gummy, cheesy and cake creations lined the library’s tables.
In one dish, five peeps were in a boat, using oars made of pretzels to row through a blue frosting lake. The title of the piece is “Five Little Peepers and How They Crew,” Lori Mooneys’ play on the book “Five Little Peppers and How They Grew.” Such puns and food play characterized this year’s Edible Book Festival at Memorial Library.
The festival has been held worldwide since 2000, but Memorial Library has only been hosting the festival for the last six years. The premise is to take a book title or theme and create a food dish out of it.
Artist Debbie Zeier arranged a bunch of sugary gummies to evoke the theme of the Cosmos based on Carl Sagan’s best-selling science book. To represent the Crab Nebula, she used some gummy octopuses and then ate one of the gummies.
“Book editing has never been so tasty!” she said, laughing.
The smell of sugar was pungent in the air. Many entries were cake-based, with just colored frosting and lettering to tie in the dish to a book. For example, one cake entry featured a pink elephant wearing jewelry. Artist Willow Walker, 9, based it on the book “Ganesha’s Sweet Tooth.”
There were lots of entries from young people like Willow, from an 8-month-old, who had help from her mom, to a 7-year-old to a 10th grader.
Librarian Nola Walker said she appreciated the opportunity the festival presented for her kids. Both of her daughters entered the contest.
“It gets them to think about a book, and have to bring it to life through something edible,” Walker said.
More than 170 people voted for their favorite dish. The winner was a tie between “Moosewoods,” a display with green leaf cookies, a blueberry sky and gingerbread moose, and “The Velveeta Rabbit,” carved out of a block of velveeta cheese. The rabbit also won an award for Best Krafted.
The panel of judges gave the award for the funniest/punniest creation to artist Julie Arensdorf for a pear-ticularly clever creature. She placed a Shakespeare face on a pear, then put the pear in a blender and called it “Shakes-pear.”
Artists Ray and Barb Hamel won an award for the Best Entry Based on a Non-illustrated Book. The standard Pyrex dish was bedazzled with uncooked pasta and cereal. Their creation was based on “Encyclopedia Britannica Crosswords” by Ray Hamel.
The Most Creative Use of Ingredients award went to artist Ian Gaylor’s “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.” He used wonton wraps to make little origami-type cranes and put them on a blue frosting pond with wheatgrass as reeds.
Walker noted how the Edible Book Festival helps facilitate creativity in Madison.
“[The contest builds] community in a different way. … You see a different side of [people] by the things they create,” Walker said.
This article has been updated to reflect the following corrections: “The title of the piece is “Five Little Peepers and How They Crew,” Rebecca Payne’s play on the book “Five Little Peppers and How They Grew.”” has been changed to “The title of the piece is “Five Little Peepers and How They Crew,” Lori Mooneys’ play on the book “Five Little Peppers and How They Grew.””
“Artist Debbie Zeier arranged a bunch of sugary gummies to evoke the theme of the novel “Cosmos,” has been changed to, “Artist Debbie Zeier arranged a bunch of sugary gummies to evoke the theme of the Cosmos based on Carl Sagan’s best-selling science book. ”
