A gloriously specific manual devoted to cucumber peaks, leek bows, radish fans, carrot bundles, noodle brushes, fruit flowers and various small miracles produced with a sharp knife and stupid amounts of patience.

There is no final parsley-related apology but garnishes treated as a craft in its own right, with clear photographic sequences showing how ordinary ingredients can be cut, folded, blanched, curled and persuaded into decorative forms. The aesthetic is unmistakably 1980s restaurant culture—highly arranged, proudly ornamental and wholly untroubled by minimalism. Its hundred-plus designs range from simple vegetable preparations to elaborate sculptural constructions, with instructions precise enough to reproduce rather than merely admire them. Squid and kiwifruit presented as a flower may constitute a threat, but at least it is an elegantly documented one.

Both cookbook and visual artefact, this is particularly good for cooks, food stylists, hospitality obsessives and anyone interested in the lost decorative languages of dining. First published in 1986, it collects more than one hundred garnishing techniques across 128 heavily illustrated pages.

Golden Press hardcover, c. 1986–87. Very good condition with light rubbing and minor marks to the boards; clean, bright interior.