Pasticceria and the Apulian Baroque

Carême maintained that pâtisserie was a branch of architecture. He illustrated this statement with a marvellous set of apparently edible constructions engraved with a delicate precision in his L’Art de la Cuisine Française au 19^me Siècle. ‘The fine arts are five in number, to wit: painting, sculpture, poetry, music, architecture – whose main branch is confectionery.’

Years ago in the Salentine capital, Lecce, architecture first struck me as a highly elaborate branch of pâtisserie. But I have since come to think of this remote region – now our home – as a kingdom under the moon’s dominion, and its baroque architecture as an adorable instance of lunatic inspiration.