Besha RodellAh, 2004. It was a quieter time, a more innocent time. A time when celebrity chefs were still mainly rotund, clog-wearing types, when the chef-as–sex symbol wasn't such a widely accepted entity, a time when most chefs were in kitchens instead of on television. But Ludo Lefebvre saw the future. And he released a cookbook that was some of the world's first true food porn.
Crave, Lefebvre's cookbook, which featured a smoldering portrait of the chef eating some sexy fruit on the cover, is 10 years old, and it's being reissued in celebration of that anniversary. However, the cover art feels a little out of date, even if at the time it was on the forefront of the hunky-chef paradigm. So Lefebvre is asking for the public's help in designing a new cover.
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The original cover art for Crave; Credit: amazon.com
Lefebvre is self-publishing the new edition, and has decided to crowd-source the design for the updated cover. He's providing two photos that can be used in the cover design, though he's also inviting folks to create a totally original cover if they choose not to use the photos.
The winner gets $2,000, as well as his or her design on the cover. The public will get a chance to vote as well, and the artist with the most community support will get $500, regardless of whether that design is picked by Lefebvre.
The deadline to enter is Aug. 25. You can see the rules and enter here.
Much of the inside art also is being replaced, but fear not. The photo of a shirtless Ludo, emerging from the waves in jeans, holding two fish it appears that he's just bare-handedly wrestled from the ocean? It stays.
“Of course we needed to keep the fish photo,” Krissy Lefebvre, Ludo's wife and business partner, says. “It is legendary.”
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