Cookbooks, cookbooks. There’s too many of them, even for the wannabe gourmets among us, the aficionados of the knife and fork, and the book collectors who prize them for reasons other than their usefulness. Let’s face it, does the world need another cookbook? Really?

Well, if it’s sharply put together, with clear instructions, dazzling visuals, solid recipes and maybe even has a sense of humour, it may be worth adding to the library. Kitchen Scraps by Pierre Lamielle is certainly one of those books, though calling it a cookbook may be selling it and its creator short.

More than a cookbook, Kitchen Scraps, with its beautifully produced blend of easy-to-follow recipes, wickedly funny illustrations, slapping wit and at times Joycean verbal flights of fancy, is a minor tour de force. Recipes aside (though what he does with them is fun and fabulous) this is a cookbook worth looking at and admiring as a book.

After studying design and illustration at Capilano College in B.C., Lamielle worked for both the Vancouver Sun and the Province as a feature designer. His big break came when he landed a gig penning an illustrated food column at Swerve magazine. The column allowed Pierre to showcase his offbeat writing style, irreverent illustrations and interesting takes on old comfort food classics.

As the ideas began to pile up faster than the magazine could run them, Lamielle decided to approach a publisher about getting them out in a book. He admits it wasn’t easy. When asked about the ordeal he said, “It´s tough to sum it all up. But the fact is, it was a fucking grind. A lot of rejection, trial and error and good old not giving up. Inspiration is one thing, execution is another and publishers need to know that you can produce, so it took a while to convince them this book could come together, but that drive is what makes it a better final product. Just because you´ve got a sword doesn´t mean you can slay a dragon.”

The recipes that form the core of the book might be best described as of the “comfort” variety taken up a notch, everything from buffed up macaroni and cheese to novel root vegetable fantasias. For his part, Lamielle admitted that “there’s no rhyme or reason to where this stuff comes from. Some are classic recipes I riffed on and garnished with some clever writing and a drawing, but sometimes I´ll hear a joke and come up with a recipe to fit it.” And of course it’s these illustrations – bearing the influence of “pencil pushers with a sense of humour” like Peter de Sève, Ralph Steadman and particularly Quentin Blake (Roald Dahl´s right-hand man) – that distinguish this cookbook’s visuals from others.

Lamielle is a brilliant illustrator. His effervescent use of colour, and his charged, sharp lines jump some of his figures off the page. One of my favourite illustrations, accompanying an intriguing "Beet Carpaccio" recipe, is a hallucinogenic take on a “marriage” between a beet and a horseradish. His sequence on the “Roman Orgy Feast” (peppered with tasty little recipes like "Lamb and Celeriac Stew," and "Raisin and Ricotta Stuffed Crêpes") is both hilariously illustrated and oddly informative.

The writing also surprises and delights. Some of the recipe titles give you a good sense of Lamielle’s verbal wit and tone: “Babushka Grannies’ Battle of the Borscht,” “The Little Enchilada Brothers’ Shredded Chicken Enchiladas,” “Putanesca Pastitute,” "Saucy Nibbly Gnudy,” “Dr. Frankensteinmanburg’s Latkes,“ and "The Bastard Child of Mr. Croque.” Though Lamielle modestly pointed to food writers like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and chef/writers like Fergus Henderson and Jamie Oliver as influences (and some pub drawling), his verbal snap crackle and pop, and his love of words and wordplay, certainly distinguishes his work from theirs.

The book is whimsically, though conveniently, divided into four chapters: “Food You Eat With a Spoon,” “Food You Eat With a Fork,” “Food You Eat With a Forkenknife,” and “Food You Eat With a Hand.” Lamielle also offers excellent straight-forward tips on basics like the French technique for dicing an onion (ciseler), complete with handy step-by-step drawings. As for his cooking credentials, although Lamielle has never worked as professional cook, he trained at the French Culinary Institute in New York City, and has taught cooking classes at the Cookbook Co. in Calgary, and of course passionately writes and draws about food for a living. When asked about the sense of fun and joy pervading the book, Lamielle conceded that being able to cook and draw for a living is even better than it sounds. “It´s like combining two already awesome foods like pancakes and burgers. The pancake burger is even better than the sum of its parts.”

For future projects Lamielle has in mind what seems like a natural extension of his talents: a kid´s cookbook. “If Jamie Oliver´s reading, let´s get together and write one.” Or write one yourself, Pierre. You have the gifts.

More info: http://kitchenscraps.ca/

KITCHEN SCRAPS
Pierre Lamielle
Whitecap Books
Illustrated
197 pages
$29.95

Salvatore Difalco is, among many things, senior writer for TORO and the author of Black Rabbit & Other Stories.