‘Fun, quirky and sure to become a cult food and design publication … utterly unique – and beautiful’ – Dezeen.com

‘Playful proof that immense variety and seeming complexity can be reduced to simple mathematical beginnings’ – New Scientist

‘A labour of love’ – Crafts Magazine

'… of all the pasta taxonomies ever conceived, George. L. Legendre’s is certainly one of the most original and poetic'Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator,
Department of Architecture and Design, Museum of Modern Art

You may think you know pasta; but you have never seen pasta like this!

This is not a cookbook; it is a totally fresh and idiosyncratic look at pasta.

The pasta family tree reveals unexpected relationships between pasta shapes, their usage and common DNA. Architect George L. Legendre has profiled 92 different kinds of pasta, classifying them into types using ‘phylogeny’ (the study of relatedness among natural forms).

Each spread is devoted to a single pasta, and explains its geographical origin, its process of manufacture and its etymology – alongside suggestions for minute-perfect preparation.

Next the shape is rendered as an equation and as a diagram that shows every distinctive scrunch, ridge and crimp with loving precision. Superb photographs by Stefano Graziani show all the elegant contours.

Finally, a multi-page foldout features a ‘Pasta Family Reunion’ diagram, reassembling all the pasta types and grouping them by their mathematical and geometric properties!

George L. Legendre is a partner at IJP Architects in London, and was shortlisted for the PSI pavilion in summer of 2011. George is currently guest-editing a special issue of AD Magazine on the Mathematics of Sensible Things.

Customers in the USA, please see the Thames & Hudson USA website

Also of interest
Food: The History of Taste
The Urban Cookbook: Creative Recipes for the Graffiti Generation
StyleCity: Rome
The Flavours of Arabia: Cookery and Food in the Middle East
Formulas For Now ‘Witty, playful reflections on modern life’ – The Independent