French Books - Page 4

Le Cordon Bleu's Complete Cooking Techniques: the indispensable reference demonstrates over 700 illustrated techniques with 2,000 photos and 200 recipes

Le Cordon Bleu

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

With this exceptional opus, over 100 years of unparalleled experience and expertise are put at the fingertips of every home cook using the same hands-on approach promoted in practical classes at Le Cordon Bleu's institutes. This indispensable and unique reference work teaches essential preparation and cooking skills and professional tricks-of-the-trade, with over 700 cooking techniques shown in more than 2,000 color images.

Whatever the interest -- providing family-pleasing everyday fare or mastering a top chef's recipe, or even attempting to re-create a dish from a restaurant menu -- Le Cordon Bleu Complete Cooking Techniques will enable people to cook what they want with success. Its hundreds of illustrated techniques are invaluable kitchen aids, as are the many integral recipes.

Cooks interested in ethnic cuisines, readers of chef inspired, ingredient-led, or occasion-oriented cookbooks, as well as devotees of simple home cooking will turn to this book again and again and wonder how they ever cooked without it. Le Cordon Bleu Complete Cooking Techniques is destined to become a classic kitchen reference.

CHARCUTERIE AND FRENCH PORK COOKERY

Jane Grigson

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

"...European civilization...has been founded on the pig." 5 out of 5 stars.
70 of 70 people found this review helpful.

I am on an unholy mission to convert a few Amazonians to the pleasures of do-it-yourself charcuterie. My travels in search of gustatory ecstacy have revealed many a depressing deficiency in American food, one of the most egregious of which is the state of this country's meats. Besides the much-publicized and lamented feed-lot economy that guarantees cheap and flavorless meat for all, we have forfeited the rich, varied, and highly-localized meat traditions of Europe. We have replaced flavor, texture, and local nuance with industrial products that satisfy the huge distributors but leave our tongues and bellies beggared. I am writing a series of reviews that laud a few recent books that do a great job in trying to rectify this impoverishment.

Perhaps the most thorough and comprehensive of the bunch is Jane Grigson's. Over almost 350 dense, detailed pages she covers the hows and whys of charcuterie. Everything from tools and methods to the meat itself is presented in lucid prose, with a fine eye to determining what, exactly, the reader needs to know to make good meat products at home. Sausages of every kind and description, pates, terrines, puddings, saltings, fresh pork preparations, sauces, gallantines... the scope of this book approaches the scope of knowledge a Franch charcutier might possess. Few details escaped Grigson's attention, for her purpose was no humbler than to revive charcuterie in Britain. If she accomplished nothing more than to inspire Fergus Henderson to become the greatest meat-man of his generation, she should rest in peace.

The book has many virtues, readability and enthusiasm not least among them. But its real gift is its comprehensiveness and its almost unique ability to guide the reader through unfamiliar territory. This is a real, fundamental, primary cookbook. Anything more basic would be a farming manual. Which brings me to the point I started to make at the beginning of this screed: our American meat situation is bad because we allow much too much mediation between live meat animals and what we put in our mouths. What Grigson proposes is a hands-on, direct, sensory, real involvement with the raw materials. This, as the great French and Italian food traditions demonstrate so unasailably, is fundamental to great food. When you give up the cheap pleasures of supermarket hamburger and try your hand at basic charcuterie, you will enter a world of memorable pleasures and perhaps rekindle that most basic human value: respect for the sources of what we eat.

You may find my review of Fergus Henderson's The Whole Beast useful in your education as a carnivore.

Enjoy.

Editorial Review:

Every town in France has at least one charcutier, whose windows are dressed with astonishing displays of good food; pates, terrines, galantines, jambon, saucissions sec and boudins. The charcutier will also sell olives, anchovies, condiments as well as various salads of his own creation, making a visit the perfect stop to assemble picnics and impromptu meals. But the real skill of the charcutier lies in his transformation of the pig into an array of delicacies; a trade which goes back at least as far as classical Rome, when Gaul was famed for its hams.

First published in 1969 but unavailable for many years, Jane Grigson's "Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery" is a guidebook and a recipe book. She describes every type of charcuterie available for purchase and how to make them yourself. She describes how to braise, roast, pot-roast and stew all the cuts of pork, how to make terrines, how to cure your own ham and make your own sausages.

The French Don't Diet Plan: 10 Simple Steps to Stay Thin for Life

William Dr Clower

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Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Wouldn’t you rather savor a buttery croissant instead of inhaling an artificially flavored diet shake? Isn’t taking a relaxing stroll preferable to pounding out early morning miles on the treadmill? The French live this way, yet stay thin and healthy. Now, with The French Don’t Diet Plan, you can, too!

In his groundbreaking book, The Fat Fallacy, Dr. Will Clower was the first to present a theory of how the French maintain low obesity and heart disease rates despite their seemingly “unhealthy” lifestyle. Dr. Clower learned that the French don’t worry about dieting but rather are more concerned with how they eat. That means paying attention to the taste, pacing, and enjoyment of meals, instead of counting calories, cutting fat and carbs, or taking guilt trips to the gym.

With The PATH, his revolutionary weight-loss plan, Dr. Clower has helped thousands of people lose weight, lower cholesterol, and increase energy. Now, in The French Don’t Diet Plan, Dr. Clower shows how easy it is to incorporate his remarkably effective techniques and the French lifestyle into a busy American day.

Dr. Clower has found that natural foods have overwhelmingly been pushed out of the American diet by what he calls “faux foods”: processed, additive-filled convenience products, often marketed as healthy with buzzwords like low fat and low carb. In addition, mealtimes should be a slow, sensual break for the body and mind—not a face-stuffing frenzy while standing up in the kitchen or sitting behind the wheel. As a result of such habits, Dr. Clower says, we are not eating what our bodies need, and we’re eating in a way that is not conducive to proper digestion. Science shows this precise combination of factors causes weight gain.

The French approach is about taking the time to enjoy real food without guilt or deprivation. Not only a successful path to becoming thin for life, The French Don’t Diet Plan will help you put joie de vivre back into your relationship with food.


The Most Delicious and Decadent Way to Lose Weight


• Formerly forbidden foods, welcome back! Learn why butter, cheese, bread, and chocolate are health foods that keep hunger at bay. . . . See Step 2.

• Spend more time eating! Discover why you should plan on having seconds and make meals last longer. . . . See Step 5.

• Hate to work out? Find out why you don’t have to exercise to lose pounds—and how relaxation can help keep weight off for good. . . . See Step 10.

• Now you’re cooking. Enjoy dozens of easy recipes for satisfying comfort foods, from Hot Artichoke-Cheese Dip to Creamy Alfredo Sauce, and Double-Almond Biscotti to Practically Flourless Chocolate Cake. . . . See Easy Recipes for Fabulous Foods.


From the Hardcover edition.

Grand Livre de Cuisine: Alain Ducasse's Culinary Encyclopedia

Alain Ducasse

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A true master class in haute cuisine by a true master
Features 700 recipes with ingredients from anchovies to zucchini
An extensive appendix offers a complete description, including the choosing and buying, of the 100 basic ingredients used in the recipes

World-renowned French chef Alain Ducasse has built a reputation on meticulously selecting and preparing ingredients. Grand Livre de Cuisine: Alain Ducasse’s Culinary Encyclopedia brought his 25 years of culinary expertise to kitchens nationwide when it hit bookshelves two years ago. Now, with the release of the first paperback edition, this comprehensive culinary resource has become enticingly affordable for professional chefs and experienced home cooks alike.

Featuring 700 recipes culled from the best of French and Mediterranean cuisine, and more than 1,000 photographs and original drawings, Grand Livre de Cuisine is an invaluable tool for reviewing or perfecting one’s knowledge of culinary fundamentals. The recipes, organized alphabetically by main ingredient—from a thin-crusted anchovy tart to zucchini blossom fritters—are clear and concise, with a special emphasis on finish and presentation. The book also includes a glossary of 100 basic ingredients, as well as a primer on recipes such as stocks and sauces.

As proprietor of four first-rate restaurants and founder of a professional-level cooking school, Ducasse is a natural teacher who can demystify the most complex of recipes. In writing Grand Livre de Cuisine, he has created an impressive guide to appreciating and practicing the art of French cooking. It is sure to teach and inspire cooks of every level.

Essence

David Everitt-Matthias

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

STUNNING 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

If you are chef this is the book for you.recipes like a sunchoke and the roasted almond soup,chessnut soup,eel tortelloni with watercress cream and bitter leaves,and pumpkin gnocchi with crisp pork belly seared squid and peanut milk.only down side not every recipe has a picture,but the photos yhat are in this book are beautiful.A must have and my favorite book

Editorial Review:

Inspirational, original and insightful, Essence is two-star Michelin chef David Everitt-Matthias's stunning contribution to the world of top-flight cookery book writing. A chef at the height of his powers with the rare gift of being able to put eloquently into words what he feels about the food he cooks and how and why he creates the food he does.

Crepes: Sweet & Savory Recipes for the Home Cook

Lou Seibert Pappas

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Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Foodies may declare crêpes "in" or "out," but they are a welcome treat for most of us. Lou Seibert Pappas explains that "crêpe" is the French word for pancake, and that the dish originated in Brittany, in northwestern France. Until about 100 years ago, all crêpes were made from buckwheat flour. Pappas departs from that tradition by providing 15 recipes for different kinds of crêpes. Eleven are savory, including ones made with whole wheat flour, with minced herbs, and with chickpea flour, while four are sweetened to use in making desserts. Photos accompanying Pappas's meticulous directions illustrate how to turn out light, delicate crêpes and how to fold them around fillings in 11 ways. She also explains what to do about problems such as small holes or cracking edges.

Crêpes also offers novel ways of serving the pancakes, such as the Party Stack with Pesto Fillings; Salad Basket Crêpes with Grapes, Blue Cheese, and Hazelnuts; and Chicken, Corn, and Red Pepper Crêpes. In addition, you will find Wild Mushroom Crêpes and other classics. Cannelloni and Cheese Blintzes are reminders that crêpes are more than a French favorite. --Dana Jacobi

French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew

Peter Mayle

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Total reviews: 46 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Peter Mayle, author of the bestselling A Year in Provence has done it again--but differently. Traveling this time beyond his adopted Provence throughout France, the food and travel writer has produced French Lessons, a celebration of many of that country's gastronomic joys. Whether pursuing La Foire de Fromages, the annual cheese fair at Livarot; a Burgundian marathon offering runners Médoc refreshment; or a village truffle mass that concludes with a heady dégustation of the newly blessed tuber, Mayle takes his readers in hand and shows all. Wide-eyed yet knowing, ever affable but with a touch of mischief, he's an ideal companion, the best possible narrator of his lively food adventures.

Mayle's gastronomic baptism occurs when, as a 19-year-old, he dines for the first time in France. "At the first mouthful of French bread and French butter," he writes, "my taste buds, dormant until then, went into spasm." The paroxysm leads to serious food-and-wine perambulations--and, finally, to chapters including "The Thigh-Taster of Vitel" (a frog-eating fete); "Slow Food" (snail love in Martigny les Bains) and "The Guided Stomach" (an investigation of the Michelin Guide restaurant inspection), among others. Readers are also present for a debate on the secret of the perfect omelet; a search for the best possible chicken in Bourg-en-Bresse; and a visit to a St. Tropez restaurant notable for its scantily clad habitués. Those familiar with Mayle's work, and those yet to discover it, are in for a treat. --Arthur Boehm

Terrine

Stéphane Reynaud

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Home cooks are always looking for new ways to wow guests at a dinner party. One of the most elegant and visually stunning dishes to serve is the little known and often misunderstood French creation: the terrine. A terrine takes its name from the glazed, rectangular, earthenware baking dish in which it is cooked. Terrines can be prepared in a variety of surprising ways, layered with an unlimited array of savory or sweet ingredients, and served hot, warm or cold as an appetizer, main course or dessert.

No one knows more about terrines than French chef and restaurateur Stéphane Reynaud, the author of one of 2007 s most talked about cookbooks, Pork & Sons. In this sequel, he brings together his passion for regional French cooking and his enthusiasm for creating modern takes on culinary classics. TERRINE is a gorgeous collection of over 100 rustic recipes of vegetable, meat, fish, cheese and dessert terrines (including variations of rilletes, pâtés and parfaits) that can be easily prepared and shared with appreciative friends and family.

Stéphane Reynaud hails from a family of butchers in the Ardèche region of France, and his recipes reflect a rustic purity and simplicity all too rare in the food world. In TERRINE, he describes why he wanted to write a cookbook dedicated to the subject, ''Classic meat, poultry and game terrines can be rustic or sophisticated, luxurious or thrifty. In my native Ardèche, where the back of my family s butcher shop was my playroom, I was brought up eating homemade terrine everyday. My grandparents kitchen reflected their working life, and meat terrines of all types were always on the menu.'' Reynaud felt that he was uniquely qualified to write a cookbook that would teach today's home cooks how to master this ancient French cooking technique.

TERRINE features an assortment of mouthwatering recipes that take the classic dish to uncharted territory, including Gorgonzola, Mascarpone and Nut Terrine; Terrine of Baby Leeks; Crab and Smoked Salmon Terrine; Oxtail and Red Wine Terrine; Foie Gras and Artichoke Terrine; Wild Boar Terrine with Blackcurrants; Rabbit Rillettes; Milk Chocolate Crêpe Terrine; Chestnut, Meringue and Chantilly Terrine; Strawberry and Fresh Mint Terrine; Coffee Terrine and many other delectable creations. Also provided are recipes for a variety of sauces and garnishes such as Chive and Shallot Cream, Pickled Vegetables and homemade Mango Chutney to accompany the main dishes. A handy glossary of terms is included in the back of the book.

The majority of the recipes in the book call for a classic terrine mold which can be purchased at all major retailers, from brands such as Le Creuset and Emile Henry. You can also use a soufflé dish, loaf pan, sterilized preserving jar or individual ramekins, but a lid is often required. The standard preparation is to layer ingredients in a terrine mold, place it into a roasting pan, pour boiling water so it reaches halfway up the side of the dish and then place it in to the oven to bake. Dessert terrines are often not cooked and are instead chilled in the refrigerator until set.

This accessible cookbook is perfect for both culinary novices and seasoned professionals as each recipe is illustrated with a gorgeous full-page color photograph. From the simple and classic to the modern and experimental, TERRINE offers over one hundred ways to bring an age-old French culinary tradition to your home kitchen.

Chez Jacques: Traditions and Rituals of a Cook

Jacques Pepin

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Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Of the 20-plus cookbooks Jacques Pépin has written, Chez Jacques is his most personal and engaging. Now starring in his tenth PBS series, Pépin ranks among America’s most beloved cooking teachers, and this book shows us why.

The book’s 100 recipes—for soups and appetizers, main courses, side dishes, and desserts—are Pépin’s own favorites among the thousands he has created over a lifetime of cooking. Using readily available ingredients and relying upon familiar techniques, these are the dishes he makes when preparing food at his Connecticut home. But Chez Jacques is more than a collection of well-liked recipes; it’s also a captivating sentimental journey. Each dish is introduced by a recollection—of picking dandelion greens for a spring salad, of buying fresh eggs from the local farmer—that invites readers to share in the traditions and rituals of Pépin’s most intimate circle.

This treasury of great food, lore, and memory is exquisitely illustrated with a sampling of Pépin’s paintings, as well as hundreds of color photographs of the finished dishes and of Pépin in all his “natural habitats”—pitching boules with a group of friends, savoring a glass of chilled rosé in the afternoon sun, painting landscapes, designing menus, and, of course, working in his kitchen.

La Varenne Pratique

Anne Willan

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Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Unprecedented in both scope and clarity, La Varenne Pratique is destined to become the essential culinary reference for both novice cook and expert. Written by the founder and director of Paris's prestigious La Varenne cooking school and compiled using La Varenne's extensive resources, the book brings together a practical understanding of cooking techniques, ingredients, and equipment in an unrivaled guide to classic modern cooking.

Here in one volume is the answer to every cooking question: how to make a hollandaise sauce (and why egg yolks will only absorb so much oil before the sauce self-destructs); the difference between entrecote and porterhouse; what marinades to use for lamb; which herbs will turn bitter if added at the beginning of a recipe; how to bone a chicken; the roasting times for venison, pheasant, and even squirrel; how to fillet a fiat fish; when to use a bain marie; and much more.

La Varenne Pratique is divided into 22 chapters, among them Meat and Charcuterie; Poultry and Game Birds; Milk, Cheese, and Eggs; Pastry and Cookies; Preserving, Stocks, and Soups; and Microwave Cooking. Each chapter offers an overview of the food discussed and then explains how to choose, prepare, store, cook, and present it. Recipes are included wherever an important cooking technique requires a specific example-they are carefully chosen not only to illustrate a particular dish but also to illuminate a way of cooking. In addition, La Varenne Pratique includes a guide to kitchen equipment and a glossary of culinary terms.

The photographic illustrations in La Varenne Pratique are beyond comparison. Throughout the book, techniques are clearly illustrated with specially commissioned step-by-step photo sequences that set new standards for culinary photography. Readers can actually see what texture a sauce should be, exactly where to make the first cut when boning a Chicken, what the "crust" on a clarifying broth will look like, and what larding a roast really entails.

There has never been a book like La Varenne Pratique. Comprehensive, authoritative, and eminently practical, it demands a place in the kitchen of every serious cook.