Jacques Pepin
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By: William Morrow Cookbooks
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4
Average rating: 5.0 of 5
Easy Access to Good Food 5 out of 5 stars.
101 of 101 people found this review helpful.
I began cooking from this book about 12 years ago, when it was first released in hardcover. I did not know Jaques Pepin's reputation, I simply wanted recipes one can do quickly. My bottom line on this book is that it succeeded in delivering on the promise of the book's title.I confess I was a little cynical about Pepin's book at first. Pierre Franey, a chef whose very very impressive pedigree I did know had published, at that time, at least three volumes of quick cooking recipes based on his well-known New York Times column. I interpreted this as simply 'jumping on the bandwagon' of a popular trend. I got it anyway because the evidence of Pepin's previous books and the blurbs on the back of the dust jacket attested to Pepin's credentials in the kitchen. Little did I realize that Franey and Pepin were close friends and had worked together for many years.
Regarding thie recipes in this book, I am very happy to find the reliance on prepared foods such as the famous Campbell's soups, to be much smaller than one may expect from the introduction. I also believe that unlike Rachael Ray, Jacques does not accomplish his objective by finding short cuts to long techniques, but keeps his dishes short by selecting recipies which are classicly short on preparation. In this way, he succeeds in describing recipies with few or no compromises on results.
Having prepared several dishes from this book, I will warn you that Pepin is wise not to give any expectations about how long these dishes should actually take. While there is not a lot of prep work in most recipes, some of the recipes do require a fair amount A perfect example is the Salade Nicoise. This may be faster than the recipe in Julia Child's books, but you still need to plan for some serious shopping and prep work to get a good result.Another example is one of my favorites, his Asian influenced tangy rice stick salad. It looks simple on page 105, until you realize you need to do an ingredient preparation on page 22 which takes longer than the final recipe.
All grousing aside, this is really good stuff. The price for 200 recipes of this quality is a real bargain. My only other complaint is that the short section in the beginning of the book on stocking one's pantry is probably a waste of time. Whenever I buy anything with the expectation that I will use it in some unknown recipe in the future, I usually find the stuff spoils or expires before I get around to using it. After a fair amount of experience in cooking from cookbooks, I have learned to ignore all such recommendations and simply buy what I need for what I know I will be making in the next week.
Editorial Review:
Jacques PÉpin, America's favorite French chef, makes your cooking easier with 150 timesaving recipes.
- Make crackers by spritzing wonton wrappers with oil and bake until golden.
- Use frozen butternut squash for quick soup.
- Freeze salmon and cream cheese appetizer rollups for easy slicing.
- Prepare cheese straws appetizers with frozen puff pastry.
- Need an elegant entrÉe in record time?
SautÉ pork cutlets with prunes and steak sauce. - Spoon a rich-tasting sauce of wine, ketchup, and mustard over grilled steak
- Mix melted chocolate with whipped cream for quick chocolate mousse.
- Fill a store-bought, hollowed-out pound cake with quick food processor lemon buttercream.
