British Library recreates Futurist Banquettitle

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Welcome to the weird, sensory world of the Futurist Banquet - an eccentric but strangely influential combination of culinary experiment, political statement and artistic stunt served up at the library recently for an assortment of food-lovers, artists, academics and diplomats.

The menu was based on the 1932 Futurist Cookbook by Italian writer Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, a combination of radical manifesto, practical joke and recipe book whose dishes include chicken with ball bearings, salami cooked in coffee and eau de cologne and the enigmatically titled ``Carrot + Trousers Professor.``

``Futurist food is a revolution,`` said Lesley Chamberlain, editor of the cookbook`s English edition. ``The 20th century is a century of revolutions. This is perhaps the funniest one, the one you have to take least seriously - but one we are still living with.``

Image : The master of ceremonies announces in Italian and English what the next course is at the Futurist Banquet at the British Library in London.