Past Forward

Activating The Henry Ford Archive of Innovation

Adventurous Dining, Audacious Art

January 22, 2025

In 1963, the artist, activist, and educator Corita Kent worked in partnership with the American seasoning brand Spice Islands Company to create this publication, “International Dining with Spice Islands.” Originally sold as a mail-in incentive, it contains culinary histories, recipes, and suggested menus that are aimed at demystifying global cuisine for American home chefs. The folded paper presentation sleeve contains ten booklets focused on the cuisine of “nine of the world’s most savory kitchens”: France, India, Japan, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Israel, and Sweden. Unfolding the unassuming gold and cream-colored outer sleeve, a kaleidoscope of movement and color emerges. Each of the ten booklets inside is wrapped in a colorful reproduction of a Corita Kent serigraph—overlaid with a handwritten proverb relating to the cuisine featured inside.

Presentation sleeve for the International Dining with Spice Islands recipe portfolio
Presentation sleeve for the “International Dining with Spice Islands” recipe portfolio / THF720260

Spanish recipe booklet with art by Corita Kent from International Dining with Spice Islands with the proverb Reading and eating should both be done slowly.
Spanish recipe booklet with art by Corita Kent from “International Dining with Spice Islands” with the proverb “Reading and eating should both be done slowly.” / THF720271

At age 18, Corita joined the Order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Los Angeles. From 1947-1968 she taught art at Immaculate Heart College, where she eventually became chair of the art department. This liberal arts school had a reputation for its progressive curriculum, which coincided with the shifts and reforms of Vatican II Catholicism in the 1960s. Corita was a vibrant individual whose belief in the importance of community, intentional presence in the world, and social protest through art are reflected in her teaching philosophy and own creative output. She was extremely active as an artist while teaching at IHC, exhibiting widely and receiving international attention for her bold pop art styled serigraphs (or screen prints).

Corita often referenced the visual language of food logos in her prints—famously, pairing Wonder Bread and Sunkist logo designs with fragments of scripture, song lyrics, poems, and quotes from public figures. Regarding her work for the “International Dining” publication, the Corita Art Center states, “These succinct and charming proverbs echo Corita’s use of food advertising language to playfully connote spiritual messages within her artwork.” The publication was popular enough that they were reprinted in 1967, which is the version recently acquired by The Henry Ford.

Introductory booklet with art by Corita Kent from International Dining with Spice Islands with a quote by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Introductory booklet with art by Corita Kent from “International Dining with Spice Islands” with a quote by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin / THF720261

The cover of the introductory booklet references a quote from Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, an 18th-century French lawyer and author: “The joys of the table belong equally to all ages, conditions, countries and times; they mix with all other pleasures, and remain the last to console us for their loss.” As the author of “The Physiology of Taste: Or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy,” Brillat-Savarin is considered one of the first essayists of the gastronomy genre. He also famously wrote “tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are”—the origin point for the common adage, “you are what you eat.”

The first booklet also contains a brief history of fine dining and provides instructions and etiquette for how to form an “international dining club” with adventurous diners. These clubs “…need not be a stuffy aggregation of posturing food snobs” but should be “…a congenial group of acquaintances who need hold nothing more in common that a singular interest in food.”

French recipe booklet with art by Corita Kent from International Dining with Spice Islands with the proverb To invite anyone to dine implies that we charge ourselves with his happiness all the time he is under our roof.
French recipe booklet with art by Corita Kent from “International Dining with Spice Islands” with the proverb “To invite anyone to dine implies that we charge ourselves with his happiness all the time he is under our roof.” / THF720264

Today, Spice Islands branded herbs are commonly sold in American grocery stores. The company was founded in 1941 and currently operates production facilities in Ankeny, Iowa—home to the largest American spice brands in the US. Geographically speaking, the “Spice Islands” themselves refer to the Malaku or the Moluccas—a group of Eastern Indonesian islands that became a powerhouse of spice trade with the arrival of European and Portuguese ships in the 16th century. The main spices exported from the Spice Islands were “warming spices”: nutmeg, cloves, mace, and peppercorns.

Beyond Corita’s contributions to the “International Dining” project, James R. Stitt is credited as the main art director and designer. Following his service in the US Navy and Marines, Stitt worked as a technical illustrator for Boeing before moving into the corporate advertising field in San Francisco. In the early 1960s, while working at the firm Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, he was assigned the Spice Islands account. Stitt recalled meeting Corita Kent at the ArtCenter School in Los Angeles while he was a student, and as a fan of her work, contacted her to commission illustrations for covers of the “International Dining” recipe booklets. Despite working as an illustrator in the years when digital design was on the rise, Stitt was staunchly anti-computer throughout his career. His iconic labels for the Anchor Brewing Company were entirely drawn by hand; they included 44 years of Christmas Ale labels starting in 1975 until his retirement in 2019.

Greek recipe booklet with art by Corita Kent from International Dining with Spice Islands with the proverb He who is too lazy to knead the bread must sift the flour for five days.
Greek recipe booklet with art by Corita Kent from “International Dining with Spice Islands” with the proverb “He who is too lazy to knead the bread must sift the flour for five days.” / THF720266

Country by country, the booklets contained within the “International Dining with Spice Islands” portfolio explain indigenous regional cuisines, shifting foodways, hospitality expectations, seasonal menus, the impacts of religious belief on food preparation and consumption, and cuisine balanced with local agricultural abundance (or scarcity). Also included are sources for seasonings not readily available in typical US retail grocery stores in the 1960s. (Michigan locations include J.L. Hudson Company in Detroit.) Chefs are urged to take seasoning seriously and to broaden their palates: “If you are not familiar with a particular herb, spice, or seasoning called for in a recipe, do not omit it. […] Broadening one’s seasoning scope is an exciting adventure in itself.”

Spanish recipe booklet with art by Corita Kent from International Dining with Spice Islands with the proverb Food must feast the eyes as well as the stomach.
Spanish recipe booklet with art by Corita Kent from “International Dining with Spice Islands” with the proverb “Food must feast the eyes as well as the stomach.” / THF720270

Italian recipe booklet with art by Corita Kent from International Dining with Spice Islands with the proverb Thou shouldst eat to live not live to eat.
Italian recipe booklet with art by Corita Kent from “International Dining with Spice Islands” with the proverb “Thou shouldst eat to live not live to eat.” / THF720269

Indian recipe booklet with art by Corita Kent from International Dining with Spice Islands with the proverb If you would be a king you must eat like a king.
Indian recipe booklet with art by Corita Kent from “International Dining with Spice Islands” with the proverb “If you would be a king you must eat like a king.” / THF720267

German recipe booklet with art by Corita Kent from International Dining with Spice Islands with the proverb He who doesn’t love wine women and song remains a fool his whole life long.
German recipe booklet with art by Corita Kent from “International Dining with Spice Islands” with the proverb “He who doesn’t love wine women and song remains a fool his whole life long.” / THF720265

Israeli recipe booklet with art by Corita Kent from International Dining with Spice Islands with the proverb When you spread the table contentions will cease.
Israeli recipe booklet with art by Corita Kent from “International Dining with Spice Islands” with the proverb “When you spread the table contentions will cease.” / THF720268

Swedish recipe booklet with art by Corita Kent from International Dining with Spice Islands with the proverb You take what you have.
Swedish recipe booklet with art by Corita Kent from “International Dining with Spice Islands” with the proverb “You take what you have.” / THF720272


Kristen Gallerneaux is curator of communications & information technology, editor-in-chief of digital curation. .

by Kristen Gallerneaux