Thomas Marks is an associate fellow of the Warburg Institute, London.

still life overlooking a river
La Grande Bouffe film still
Restaurant dining room with views over the City of London
Sarah Lucas
Edward Allington
Auguste Escoffier
A Jewish family home in Baghdad
Natura morta con aragosta e rapanelli (1938), Cagnaccio di San Pietro. Private collection.
food museum exhibition
Meat-shaped stone, China, Qing dynasty. National Palace Museum, Taipei
Vinette Robinson and Stephen Graham in Boiling Point (2021). Image courtesy Vertigo Releasing
Putting the kitsch in kitchen: Paris Hilton is ready to cook.
The ‘Table Talk’ room at the Museum of the Home, London. Photo: Em Fitzgerald
Tableau piège – Sevilla Serie Nr. 16 (1991), Daniel Spoerri. MOCAK the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow.
Supra man: a detail of one of Niko Pirosmani’s feast scenes, included in an exhibition at the Albertina, Vienna in 2018–19.
Steak night: Dario Cecchini grills a rib-eye, inspired by a still life by Jacopo Chimenti
The National Gallery, closed and an empty Trafalgar Square on 24 March 2020. Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images