The Neo-Decadent Cookbook

by Brendan Connell (Editor), Justin Isis (Editor), Ross Scott-Buccleuch (Contributor)

Have you ever sautéed geometrical sex or eaten fate from the breasts of Minerva? Adjust your palate to the times with the Neo-Decadent Cookbook, the ONLY approved guide to the preparation of metaphysical concepts and other abstractions, alongside recipes likely to cause lasting changes to your internal organs. Editors Brendan Connell and Justin Isis have assembled a diverse list of contributors from around the world, each with their own stylistically novel take on culinary apotheosis. Fragments of fiction, poetry and instructional material will guide you towards a suitably delectable climax. TRUE UNDERSTANDING AND SCIENCE EXPLODE!

CONTENTS

Manifesto of Neo-Decadent Cooking - Brendan Connell and Justin Isis
The Bias of Affinity - Ross Scott-Buccleuch
London in Three Courses: First Course - David Rix
The Mushroom Omelette - Catherine Dousteyssier-Khoze
The Devil’s Alchemist - Jason Rolfe
Koliva - Daniel Corrick
Household Hints - Brendan Connell
Cooking Australia - Colby Smith
Heavenly Victuals - Jessica Sequeira
The Vertical Table - Justin Isis
London in Three Courses: Second Course - David Rix
Some Necessary Words on the Subject of Fruit - Quentin S. Crisp
The Immaculate Scrambled Automat - Damian Murphy
Revolt of the Kitchens - Jessica Sequeira
The Wild Hunt - Douglas Thompson
Machines that Eat Flowers - Justin Isis
Seeds - Ursula Pflug
The Night-Drinkers - Jason Rolfe
Insalata di parole - Brendan Connell
A Food Critic’s Nightmare - Jessica Sequeira
London in Three Courses: Third Course - David Rix
My Dream Vacation - Lawrence Burton
Nettle Tea - Ursula Pflug
The Enteric Universe - Justin Isis

170 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2020

Reviews

[L.S. Popovich · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun companion piece to the other Decadent anthologies from Snuggly Books (though this was published by Eibonvale) featuring returning favorites: Brendan Connell, Quentin S. Crisp, Justin Isis, Damian Murphy, and several others. The short tales center around food, ingredients and people. They are rich in detail and surprising in content, since none of them are simple or straightforward. They will force the reader to consider what constitutes the neo-decadent aesthetic and to contemplate the atmosphere of our modern age steeped in ennui, amid a generation braised in technological isolation, marinated in the omnipresent glow of media, and fascinated by the secret byways of human thought. If you appreciate a well-composed feast of sophisticated syntax and savor the sensorium-enhancing delicacies of modern purveyors of weird imagery, then you will relish this delicious confection.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it!

[Blue · Rating 5 out of 5]

How to describe Neo-Decadent cooking? A thought exercise in esoteric gastronomy? A loose-weave collection of liminal writing exploring the world of food and drink would seem an easy yet simplistic way to describe the Neo-Decadent Cookbook, and if this book is anything it is not simple. The writing is complex, disparate, thematically varied and morally dubious. This collection of arcane cookery texts defies definition, but is wonderfully written and is a short but effective introduction to the world of Neo-Decadence literature.

[Des Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is special, something that radiates an extramurality to its covers, pervading as well as transcending its own cookbook ethos, both playful and serious. And this final work is probably its most difficult one to plumb. I am still working through its coils and tunnel visions. Entire as well as enteric.

The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.

[Michael Doane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Neo-Decadent Cookbook is not a cookbook in any conventional sense it is a manifesto disguised as gastronomy, a literary experiment plated as provocation. Edited by Brendan Connell and Justin Isis, this anthology assembles an international roster of contributors who treat cuisine not as nourishment, but as metaphysical inquiry and aesthetic excess.

From the opening “Manifesto of Neo Decadent Cooking,” the tone is unmistakable: this is a work committed to subversion, theatricality, and intellectual indulgence. Recipes dissolve into philosophical fragments; culinary instructions morph into surrealist fiction; poetic meditations replace measurements and timing. The result is a text that feels closer to fin de siècle decadence filtered through contemporary absurdism than to anything found on a kitchen shelf.

Standout entries oscillate between dark satire and lyrical strangeness. Pieces such as “The Devil’s Alchemist,” “Machines that Eat Flowers,” and “A Food Critic’s Nightmare” revel in excess while simultaneously parodying the seriousness of culinary culture. The recurring “London in Three Courses” segments provide structural continuity, yet even these refuse traditional narrative digestion.

What unites the collection is its commitment to aesthetic extremity. The language luxuriates in abstraction, bodily imagery, and metaphysical appetite. Food becomes symbol, ritual, rebellion sometimes even threat. The anthology channels echoes of decadence, surrealism, and experimental prose, yet it remains defiantly contemporary in its irony and global authorship.

This is a book best suited for readers of avant-garde literature, absurdist fiction, and those drawn to conceptual art in textual form. It will not teach you how to cook but it may alter the way you think about consumption, artifice, and indulgence.