Strudel, Noodles and Dumplings by Anja Dunk

Strudel, Noodles and Dumplings: The New Taste of German Cooking is “a celebration of modern German home cooking”, authored by Anja Dunk and published by 4th Estate.

Atelier Dyakova provided the book design. The star of the typographic cover – a cookbook without an image on the cover! – is Mortar by the Pyte Foundry. It was devised by Ellmer Stefan for his 2016 avalanche of display typefaces. Mortar combines monolinear base letters with heavy slabs serifs. These “blades” at the top and bottom of each letter are rounded towards the middle. The resulting shapes look a little like the kitchen utensil that may have provided the inspiration for the typeface’s name. They also resemble the book’s titular dumplings, cut into halves.

On the cover as well as on the title pages and chapter openings, these full- and semi-knödeln take on a life of their own, and gather in suprematic compositions. Supported by a triangle and other shapes derived from the serifs drawn by Ellmer (himself hailing from the land of Germknödeln), they represent the ingredients from which one can assemble a delicious meal. Beat the craving with the black wedge!