European Books - Page 4

Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas (P.S.)

John Baxter

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A witty cultural and culinary education, Immoveable Feast is the charming, funny, and improbable tale of how a man who was raised on white bread—and didn't speak a word of French—unexpectedly ended up with the sacred duty of preparing the annual Christmas dinner for a venerable Parisian family.

Ernest Hemingway called Paris "a moveable feast"—a city ready to embrace you at any time in life. For Los Angeles–based film critic John Baxter, that moment came when he fell in love with a French woman and impulsively moved to Paris to marry her. As a test of his love, his skeptical in-laws charged him with cooking the next Christmas banquet—for eighteen people in their ancestral country home. Baxter's memoir of his yearlong quest takes readers along his misadventures and delicious triumphs as he visits the farthest corners of France in search of the country's best recipes and ingredients. Irresistible and fascinating, Immoveable Feast is a warmhearted tale of good food, romance, family, and the Christmas spirit, Parisian style.

Fast Food My Way

Jacques Pepin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 52 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In Jacques Pépin Fast Food My Way, the man who taught millions of Americans how to cook shares the techniques he honed in the most famous kitchens of the world to show you how to create simple, special meals in minutes. In this companion volume to his new series on public television, Jacques shows you how to create great-tasting dishes ranging from stunning salads such as Tomato and Mozzarella Fans to Suprême of Chicken with Balsamic Vinegar and Shallot Sauce to his breathtaking Almond Cake with Berries, all special enough for company, yet easy enough for those weekday evenings when you have no time. Fast food Jacques’s way involves no compromises in taste but saves you hours in the kitchen. His Instant Beef Tenderloin Stew, for instance, not only is far faster to make than traditional versions, but tastes brighter and fresher. With concise, clear directions, Jacques shares the secrets of his kitchen. He teaches you how to season a salmon fillet perfectly and cook it in a low oven, right on the serving platter. You'll learn how to make a satisfying homemade vegetable soup in seconds, a baked potato in half the usual time, and a succulent roast that takes minutes, not hours, to prepare. He also shows you how to create elegant meals from convenience foods: a bean dip that will keep guests coming back for more, silky soups, and caramelized peaches made from canned peaches. With Jacques Pépin Fast Food My Way at your side, the best food is always the simplest.

French Milk

Lucy Knisley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Charming Paris Mother/Daughter Travelogue 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

The Glass Castle author Jeannette Walls once told me that memoir should be universal, and I've kept that in mind ever since when I read them. What I think she meant is that while a memoir is specific to the storyteller in the details, anyone should be able to relate to it, somehow. As I read Lucy Knisley's French Milk, I was struck by her storytelling, but also her age, use of photography, and that I could never write such a book, though I too have traveled to Paris with my mother.

The fact that her divorced parents are on good terms, a fact she casually drops in, resonated with me, especially when her father comes to join them for a brief visit during their six-week trip. This would never happen in my divorced family, and it made me, briefly, jealous--again, this goes back to Walls's maxim; my life circumstances may not be the same as Knisley's, but hers caused me to reflect on my own. She also exhibits a particular pride and faith in her work (with the occasional doubts), one that I still struggle with in my early thirties. Her dedication to her art and the creation of this book are apparent. Other moments are brief but powerful, such as going up the Eiffel Tower on a particularly windy day, where Knisley writes, "You could feel the tower move in the wind and see the birds blown off course."

I was torn as to the value of the photographs she included; at first, I thought there was something unfair about it, but then I came upon one of her kissing a wall and realized there was no other way to capture that moment, at least, not so thoroughly. The photos are used sparingly, without comment, filling in gaps in her story, fleshing them out and creating what feels more like an intimate scrapbook than a memoir, albeit an accessible one.

French Milk is a travelogue, and as such, sometimes the details of each meal become less interesting toward the end. But it's Knisley's personality, and little details that make this book so charming, whether it's the odd characters she meets or her feeling low on a particular day or railing against a piece of bad art, going so far as to name the artist, who's made a rendition of Paris Hilton, by name.

I finished the book a bit jealous of Knisley's closeness with her mother, and impressed that she managed to finesse both the details and the bigger picture, a portrait of a young woman just starting out in "the real world," but taking a detour to a city full of pastries, lush dinners, cemeteries, art and adventure before she does so. French Milk will appeal to Americans who've, like Knisley, fallen for Paris, and those looking to recapture their college traveling days. As for me, I'm giving a copy to my mom, and hope that our travels are as fruitful.

Editorial Review:

Through delightful drawings, photographs, and musings, twenty-three-year-old Lucy Knisley documents a six-week trip she and her mother took to Paris when each was facing a milestone birthday. With a quirky flat in the fifth arrondissement as their home base, they set out to explore all the city has to offer, watching fireworks over the Eiffel Tower on New Year's Eve, visiting Oscar Wilde's grave, loafing at cafés, and, of course, drinking delicious French milk. What results is not only a sweet and savory journey through the City of Light but a moving, personal look at a mother-daughter relationship.

Panini

Jo McAuley

Amazon Price: $12.69 List Price: $12.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Jo McAuley - Model: 1-55285-687-9 Amazon Marketplace: 24 new & used starting at $7.52

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Features:

• The panini is a grilled Italian sandwich, a popular menu item in bistros, cafés and delis. This...
• Sold individually
• See Product Description below for a complete description of this item.

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

The perfect sandwich! 5 out of 5 stars.
68 of 72 people found this review helpful.

Jo McAuley's PANINI surveys the grilled Italian sandwich which is becoming so popular in bistros and delis in North America. You'd think panini sounds too exotic to produce at home, but quite the opposite: McAuley demonstrates it's the perfect sanwich for producing in a home kitchen and packs her cookbook with recipes for vegetarian, meat, and even dessert sandwiches to prove it. Color photos face nearly every page and encourage cooks to sample.

Editorial Review:

A taste of Italy for casual eating.

The panini is a grilled Italian sandwich, a popular menu item in bistros, cafés and delis. Panini is filled with easy-to-use recipes for vegetarian, seafood, meat and dessert sandwiches. Also included are instructions on how to make the best panini, what tools are needed and what ingredients to use.

The recipes put a modern twist on celebrated classics such as the Grilled New York Reuben or the BLT Bagini, and create classics-to-be like the Raisin Panini with Maple Syrup and Ice Cream. There are more than 50 recipes for almost every occasion.

Michael Jackson's Complete Guide To Single Malt Scotch 4th Ed

Michael Jackson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Interesting and useful; ratings are of course subjective 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book is a great read and contains a huge amount of useful information. I have really enjoyed reading all the history of Scotch whisky, the details of how it's been made and matured, and the nuances of they many aspects of Scotch.

I find that some of my very favorite single malts are not among those that Jackson rates most highly, but that doesn't make the book less useful to me for anything except for using the ratings as a guide when browsing the Scotch sections of my local stores. I can garner enough from his descriptions of the characteristics of the many rated Scotch whiskies to make good decisions in terms of trying bottlings that are new to me.

Great book--I can see that I will need to keep up with new editions going forward, so I can read about Jackson's take on the latest bottlings along my Scotch journey.

Editorial Review:

Now a classic reference, the fully revised and updated fourth edition of Michael Jackson's critically acclaimed connoisseur's guide provides tasting notes and scores for more than 800 single malt whiskies (500 of them new bottlings since the last edition). Anyone serious about his or her malts will find a storehouse of useful information in Michael Jackson's Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch. In addition to providing a succinct introduction to the world of single malts, Jackson, always passionate about his subject, gives detailed information on the malt whiskies produced by more than 100 distilleries. Color reproductions of the labels are accompanied with tasting notes and numerical ratings. For those headed to Scotland, he lists distilleries (with addresses and telephone numbers) that welcome visitors. -Food and Wine

Lidia's Family Table: More Than 200 Fabulous Recipes to Enjoy Every Day-With Wonderful Ideas for Variations and Improvisations

Lidia Matticchio Bastianich

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 42 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The best-loved and most-admired of all America’s television cooks today, Lidia Bastianich, now gives us her most generous, instructive, and creative cookbook. The emphasis here is on cooking for the family, and her book is filled with unusually delicious basic recipes for everyday eating Italian-style, as well as imaginative ideas for variations and improvisations.

Here are more than 200 fabulous new dishes that will appeal both to Lidia’s loyal following, who have come to rely on her wonderfully detailed recipes, and to the more adventurous cook ready to experiment.

• She welcomes us to the table with tasty bites from the sea (including home-cured tuna and mackerel), seasonal salads, and vegetable surprises (Egg-Battered Zucchini Roll-Ups, Sweet Onion Gratinate).

• She reveals the secret of simple make-ahead soup bases, delicious on their own and easy to embellish for a scrumptious soup that can make a meal.

• She opens up the wonderful world of pasta, playing with different shapes, mixing and matching, and creating sauces while the pasta boils; she teaches us to make fresh egg pastas, experimenting with healthful ingredients–whole wheat, chestnut, buckwheat, and barley. And she makes us understand the subtle arts of polenta- and risotto-making as never before.

• She shares her love of vegetables, skillet-cooking some to intensify their flavor, layering some with yesterday’s bread for a lasagna-like gratin, blanketing a scallop of meat with sautéed vegetables, and finishing seasonal greens with the perfect little sauce.

• She introduces us to some lesser-known cuts of meats for main courses (shoulders, butts, and tongue) and underused, delicious fish (skate and monkfish), as well as to her family’s favorite recipes for chicken and a beautiful balsamic-glazed roast turkey.

• And she explores with us the many ways fruits and crusts (pie, strudel, cake, and toasted bread) marry and produce delectable homey desserts to end the meal.

Lidia’s warm presence is felt on every page of this book, explaining the whys and wherefores of what she is doing, and the brilliant photographs take us right into her home, showing her rolling out pasta with her grandchildren, bringing in the summer harvest, and sitting around the food-laden family table. As she makes every meal a celebration, she invites us to do the same, giving us confidence and joy in the act of cooking.

Jamie's Italy

Jamie Oliver

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Bestselling author Jamie Oliver finally devotes an entire book to America's favorite cuisine -- Italian!

Italy and its wonderful flavors have always had a major influence on Jamie Oliver’s food and cooking. In Jamie’s Italy, he travels this famously gastronomic country paying homage to the classic dishes of each region and searching for new ideas to bring home. The result is a sensational collection of Italian recipes, old and new, that will ensure that Italy’s influence reaches us all.

Italy has inspired Jamie Oliver throughout his career. His ambition has always been to travel across the country on a quest to capture the very essence of Italian cooking -- and to produce the best and simplest Italian cookbook for everybody anywhere to enjoy.

Jamie’s Italy is the result of that journey -- and it’s a land of plenty. As well as providing more than 120 brand-new recipes for everything from risotto to roasts and spaghetti to stews, structured as traditional trattoria menus, Jamie takes you all over Italy to cook with and learn from the real masters of Italian cuisine: the locals. Far from the standard "lemons and olives" version of Italian cooking, Jamie’s Italy is a cookbook by the people for the people. From Sicily to Tuscany, it’s about the local fishermen, family bakers, and, of course, the "Mamas," sharing their recipes and the tips that have gone into their cooking for generations. But it’s not only mouthwatering food that Jamie brings back home: it’s also the spirit that makes cooking and eating absolutely central to family life, whichever part of Italy you’re in.

Bursting with the warmth and hospitality of real family life, this is both a superbly accessible cookbook and a unique travelogue and diary, in which you’ll find the authentic flavor of Italy and the people who live there. If you love quality food prepared with genuine passion -- you’ll never want to leave Jamie’s Italy.

Ma Gastronomie

Fernand Point

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Since its first publication in France in 1969, Ma Gastronomie has taken its place among the classics of French gastronomy. This essential volume is as celebrated for Fernand Point's wise, witty, and provocative views on food as for his remarkable, inventive recipes--over 200 of them--carefully compiled from his handwritten notes.

An undisputed creative genius of French gastronomy and founder of the legendary La Pyramide restaurant, halfway between Paris and the Riviera, Point revolutionized French cuisine, building on its traditions and creating his own versions of the great classical dishes. His peers called him Le Roi, and during his reign there were few celebrities and no serious gourmet who didn't make the journey to dine at La Pyramide. His disciples, Paul Bocuse, Alain Chapel, and Jean and Pierre Troisgros, are among the world's greatest French chefs. As one of his three-star students, François Bise, said, "Point was an artist. It's difficult to say enough about him." In that spirit, it is not unfounded to assert that no cookbook collection is truly complete without a copy of Ma Gastronomie.

Bouchon

Thomas Keller

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 38 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Thomas Keller, chef/proprieter of Napa Valley's French Laundry, is passionate about bistro cooking. He believes fervently that the real art of cooking lies in elevating to excellence the simplest ingredients; that bistro cooking embodies at once a culinary ethos of generosity, economy, and simplicity; that the techniques at its foundation are profound, and the recipes at its heart have a powerful ability to nourish and please.

So enamored is he of this older, more casual type of cooking that he opened the restaurant Bouchon, right next door to the French Laundry, so he could satisfy a craving for a perfectly made quiche, or a gratinéed onion soup, or a simple but irresistible roasted chicken. Now Bouchon, the cookbook, embodies this cuisine in all its sublime simplicity.

But let's begin at the real beginning. For Keller, great cooking is all about the virtue of process and attention to detail. Even in the humblest dish, the extra thought is evident, which is why this food tastes so amazing: The onions for the onion soup are caramelized for five hours; lamb cheeks are used for the navarin; basic but essential refinements every step of the way make for the cleanest flavors, the brightest vegetables, the perfect balance—whether of fat to acid for a vinaigrette, of egg to liquid for a custard, of salt to meat for a duck confit.

Because versatility as a cook is achieved through learning foundations, Keller and Bouchon executive chef Jeff Cerciello illuminate all the key points of technique along the way: how a two-inch ring makes for a perfect quiche; how to recognize the right hazelnut brown for a brown butter sauce; how far to caramelize sugar for different uses.

But learning and refinement aside—oh those recipes! Steamed mussels with saffron, bourride, trout grenobloise with its parsley, lemon, and croutons; steak frites, beef bourguignon, chicken in the pot—all exquisitely crafted. And those immortal desserts: the tarte Tatin, the chocolate mousse, the lemon tart, the profiteroles with chocolate sauce. In Bouchon, you get to experience them in impeccably realized form.

This is a book to cherish, with its alluring mix of recipes and the author's knowledge, warmth, and wit: "I find this a hopeful time for the pig," says Keller about our yearning for the flavor that has been bred out of pork. So let your imagination transport you back to the burnished warmth of an old-fashioned French bistro, pull up a stool to the zinc bar or slide into a banquette, and treat yourself to truly great preparations that have not just withstood the vagaries of fashion, but have improved with time. Welcome to Bouchon.

Everything but the Squeal: Eating the Whole Hog in Northern Spain

John Barlow

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Editorial Review:

John Barlow, self-confessed glutton, found himself in a tricky situation: living in one of the most meat-loving places on earth, married to a vegetarian.  The Barlows live in Galicia, the misty-green northwest corner of Spain, and home to a population that reveres and consumes every part of the pig. This gets Barlow thinking about the nature of our relationship with food—what’s delicious, what’s nasty, and what sort of obligation we have to the animals we eat. Over the course of one glorious, bilious year, Barlow vows to eat everything but the squeal.  In his travels, Barlow takes part in the thousand-year-old antthrowing festival of Laza. He makes pig-bladder puddings for carnival. He washes down lots of pork with lots of wine.

In the tradition of Calvin Trillin and Anthony Bourdain, Everything but the Squeal is an adventure in extreme eating, a hilariously quirky travel book, and a perceptive look at how what we eat makes us who we are.