1 comments about French Gastronomy.

1. Plenty of books have been written on French cuisine and history; but JeanRobert Pitte's French Gastronomy is different. It is about the study of French cuisine: the history and geography of a passion for French cooking. Individual chapters link the mystique of food and eating in France to a sense of place and microregions that allow for different agricultural results. French Gastronomy is an intriguing history and very highly recommended for avid French popular culture and culinary enthusiasts.

No comments about American Brasserie.

4 comments about Mes Tartes: The Sweet and Savory Tarts of Christine Ferber.

1. The focus of Christine Ferber's Mes Tartes: The Sweet And Savory Tarts Of Christine Ferber is on sweet and savory tart creations and is translated from the French by Virginia Phillips and offers a delightful selection of tart recipes by a renowed French pastry chef. From a Red Currant Meringue and an Apricot Tart to savory creations (though, admittedly, the tart recipes are skewed toward sweets), Mes Tartes is packed with beautiful photos and accomplished finished dishes.



2. `Mes Tartes' by Christine Ferber, subtitled `The Sweet and Savory Tarts of Christine Ferber' is a highly polished gem of a book and a rare find if you are fond of classic MittelEuropean pastries. While the book was originally written in French and finely translated into English by Virginia R. Phillips, the book's contents show a broad influence of France, Germany, Italy, and Austria, the powerhouses of western pastry traditions. This is only appropriate, as Ms. Ferber is headquartered in Alsace, near the borders with southern Germany and Switzerland.
   
   To my knowledge, this is the second of Mme. Ferber's works available to us in English. The first, fittingly, was on preserves and confits, the classic ingredient in sweet tarts. While this earlier book is a leader in its class, its audience is a bit limited. The audience for fine pastries, at least the audience of those willing to make fine pastries is a lot larger than the readers willing to make preserves.
   
   Aside from the quality of this book, the most important thing to know about it is that it covers a range of pastries much broader than what you commonly describe as tarts. While it covers both sweet and savory flat pies with pastry crust and cooked fillings, it also covers galettes, quiches, Tatins, and clafoutis (custard or flan based cherry filled pastry), although almost all recipes produce something which has a fairly strong family resemblance to a tart or pie.
   
   I have read many fine books on pastry making lately and this book will certainly never replace some of these better texts such as Rose Levy Beranbaum's `The Pie and Pastry Bible' or Nick Malgieri's `Perfect Pastry' or Flo Bracker's `The Simple Art of Perfect Baking' or Gayle Ortiz' `The Village Baker's Wife', but this book is by far the finest presentation of the very French techniques of making pie and tart pastry by working the butter into the flour with a cold work surface and the heel of your hand which `smears' the cold butter into the butter. There is no way this method is easier than either a pastry cutter or even better, a food processor, but the results are so distinctive, I feel anyone with a love of pastry techniques will want to see Mme. Ferber's use of this technique.
   
   While Ferber does not go into the depth of explanation as, for example, Ms. Beranbaum, about why certain flours are better than others for pastry making, Mme. Ferber is very careful in describing the needs of the flour in each case and typically specifies one of two French style flours and approximates how you can reproduce these products with mixtures of American wheats. The general introduction on techniques and equipment is not as big as you may find in some books, but it is more important than most in that Mme. Ferber recommends a very typically French selection of dark iron pans which may not be readily available in the United States. Knowing this is important because one may wish to pay just a little more attention to baking times if your equipment did not fly in on a plane from Strasbourg. The only piece of equipment that gave me reason to rush to the Sonoma-Williams web page was the tart pan with the detachable bottom and NO FLUTEs. Most of the finished products in the book's photographs show tarts done in fluted pans, but more than a few are done in fluteless pans.
   
   Like her book on confits, this book is arranged by season. Two years ago, this organization did not appeal to me as much as it does today since I do much more cooking and baking today than I did two years ago, and I find myself going more and more to cookbooks organized by season, now that I have a pretty good collection of them. In fact, I believe this organization doubles the value of this book as the variation in quality and price of fruits is much more than with vegetables. A cabbage is a cabbage the year around, but a peach is only a prime Georgia peach for two months of the year.
   
   Another really delightful find in this book is some of the more unusual recipes, such as the sauerkraut and Munster tart. You can almost pinpoint on the map the site of this recipe's birth, as Alsace is `sauerkraut' central, just north of Munster, Germany. You can almost imagine that in pizza was invented in the Rhineland, this is what it would look like. And, adding a little corned beef and Russian Dressing to the recipe may bring you achingly close to a great Reuben flavored appetizer.
   
   All measurements are given in units familiar to American cooks. When the `professional' unit is metric weight and the U.S. amateur cook would use a volumetric measurement, the primary unit is given in cups. Aside from the great variety of recipe types, the classic fruit tarts are done to a level of perfection you may not see outside of a very fancy patisserie. Fruit fillings have carefully prepared flavored glazes that I simply do not see in my average Martha Stewart recipe. This is no reflection on Martha Stewart Living's recipe writers. It is an indication that these are extremely serious recipes with no compromises to easy baking.
   
   For a book originally written in French, the list of American suppliers and resources is very good. In fact, this is the first and only reference I have yet to see to a web site for doing measuring unit conversions. As I thing this alone may be worth the price of the book, I suggest you buy the book and check out page 285.
   
   If you bake or collect books on baking or are especially fond of French cooking techniques, this book should be high on your list of future purchases.
   
   Very highly recommended indeed. My deepest thanks to the Michigan State University Press for making Mme. Ferber's books available to us.



3. If you love Ms Ferber's cuisine, you will love her books. The problem, as others have noted, however, is the lack of equivalents for ingredients commonly available in France but rarer elsewhere. Still, if you are adventurous and brave, you will not only try her recipes, you will love them!



4. For someone who has enjoyed Christine Ferber's jams, the news of publication of her two books (Mes Confitures and Mes Tartes) in English were very welcome. The mere flipping through the pages reveals the beautiful pairings of flavours, colours and textures as well as Mme. Ferber's genius in highlighting (rather than masking) the flavour of fruit.
   
   However, I was less impressed with the editing of the English edition of Mes Tartes. The first red flag was a mistake in the staple recipe for flaky pastry, which called for 3 tablespoons of butter (per 1lb of flour). Thankfully, the metric measures retained from the original edition provided the correct ratio (375g of butter per 1lb of flour).
   
   In other words, I highly recommend the book, but I would urge caution in relying solely on the cups/tablespoon measures provided. Use the metric measures prodived for guidance.

4 comments about Armagnac.

1. This book has (some) values for all Armagnac-interested persons. For the novice will it provide ample information about Armagnac (what is it, where is it, etc) and for the 'half-pro', many tasting notes and details of producers. For a 'professional' Armagnac drinker, however, the details about the individual producers are somewhat lacking; also it suffers from the absolute lack of color pictures (only b/w), but all-in-all recommendable (basically since no other documentation on the subject exists)



2. If you've only heard about, or had a taste of, the excellent alternative to cognac, this book will give you the big picture beautifully. Growers and producers are discussed at some length, there's excellent info on the region and its customs, and there is special attention given to some of the more technical aspects of production and character. The photos are a little dark, but the text is so lively they're almost superfluous. If you're intrigued by the topic or want to know more, this is the resource you need.



3. Although this volume is dedicated to the appreciation of armagnac, it is the most informative single volume I've found on French brandy in general. Compared to the glossy photo-filled guidebooks on cognac, it might appear a bit crude with its black-and-white photos and idiosyncratic text. But it is packed with the kind of straightforward, unvarnished information about armagnac and cognac -- production techniques, additives, relative sales volume -- that is altogether missing from those prettier books, yet is absolutely essential for understanding the fundamental differences between these two wonderful brandies. Mr. Neal has an insider's knowledge (and strong opinions), but is generally evenhanded in his treatment of the relative merits of armagnac and cognac. His thumbnail reviews of a voluminous number of specific bottlings and vintages are an indispensible purchasing guide, even if many of them are (sadly) not available beyond the estates where they are distilled and bottled. Overall, an essential addition to the brandy-lover's library.



4. This book fills the void for quality information on Armagnac very well. The book offers detailed information on the grapes, techniques, and region for the production of Armagnac generally as well as specifics about a very large percentage if not all of the producers of Armagnac. The only reason I gave this book four out of five stars is the production quality of some of the graphics and text describing them, is not top rate. Also if you are looking for a coffee table book this is probably not for you. This is a serious read and reference for enthusiasts of Armagnac. Highly recommended.

5 comments about La Maison du Chocolat: Transcendent Desserts by the Legendary Chocolatier.

1. An absolutly gorgerous book. I think I am a little greedy in that I was expecting more from this book. I believe there are around 60 recipes. Some are divine, some were the standards found in many books and some I don't think were worth putting in(like chocolate dipped dried fruit). There are numerous lush pictures and poetic discriptions of candies made at La Maison Du Chocolat but no actual recipes or guidelines for candy making. Although I may sound critical, the book is truly beautiful and one can sense the author's passion for his art.



2. Chocolate is one of the four basic food groups. The others are, some say, wine and garlic, with furious debate over the fourth.
   Linxe has, over a lifetime, created a veritable ode to chocolate in many forms, and his five stores in Paris are well worth the visit (you will come out much poorer except in chocolate). His New York jewel, which has moved slightly downtown from the East 70s to Madison Avenue, is worth seeing and smelling close up--any chocolate lover will understand.
   The soul of Linxe's art with chocolate is captured in this magnificent book. The photographs alone are sinfully sensual.
   A baker friend says that the recipes are within her grasp if she only had the time, and the money, and could get all the ingredients conveniently. She and I both agreed, and this was pointed out by another reviewer, that the history and diversity of chocolate is a significant omission, but wanting more data on chocolate is perhaps greedy on our part and we should not sit around lazily on a chocolate high, with some decent pinot noir on the side, but get out and do our own research.
   For what it is, and not for what it omits, this is a great book. It makes one want to fly to Paris right this second, and there one can find all the other vital food groups as well.



3. I have been wanting this book for a while, but I waited a long time (too long) to buy it. This book is not only visually beautiful, it has some interesting information about chocolate in general, as well as some really intriguing recipes - some of them are on a professional level and are quite complex, but a lot of them are pretty simple and sound very nice. Even if you never make a recipe out of this book, I don't think that you will regret buying it.



4. I agree with reviwers' comments on the photography - exceptional shots of works of art. I have been working with pastry and food for 12 years, and recommend this book as an excellent gift for someone. Constructively speaking however, it is not perfect. There are typographical errors, most trivial, several in recipes (not trivial). I thought the format a bit too much 'coffee table', and the fonts used too small and hard to read for some small neasures. The small fonts also wasted paper - large sections of blank paper in the pages. Regardless, the recipes are excellent and flavorful - don't be afraid to use the chocolate you have available. As a companion book, take a look at 'Belgian Chocolates' by Roger Geerts (1990). They are a great set!



5. Top flight book from the most famous chocolatier in the world. I go to Paris and make this shop my first and last stop. Good recipes and accurate. I bought an extra book and framed many of the photos. Recipes turn out perfectly.

3 comments about The Walnut Cookbook.

1. The Walnut Cookbook is filled with recipes that work. No complicated techniques or equipment (beyond a food processor) are needed to reproduce these delightful recipes. There are many desserts and salads, of course, but the appetizers and meat recipes are often brilliant. It is a very handsome trade paperback, with a heavy water-resissitant cover, a scattering of illustrations and photographs, and a beautiful lay-out. This book is a winner



2. This book has a very interesting section on the historial and health related-aspects of walnuts. Most people don't realize how beneficial for cardiovascular risk factors walnuts are, and the book outlines the "Perigord paradox" which points out how walnuts can favorably influence blood lipid levels. The recipes are fabulous, and have a genuinely French feel and taste. A must-have book.



3. Though delightful to read, and beautifully produced, the first recipe I tried turned out a disaster. Since I'm not inexperienced as a baker, I fault the imprecision of the directions--the sort of thing that, many years ago, Julia Child set herself to do away with once and for all in French cooking recipes. In any case, the walnut chocolate tart, with its delicious ingredients, turned out to be uncooked inside after the 20 minutes that were the only signal for doneness provided by the author and editors, and naturally fell apart upon removal from the pan. It's only one recipe, but I'll confess that I'm now hesitant to try the rest.

3 comments about Mastering Simplicity: A Life in the Kitchen.

1. `Mastering Simplicity' by Christian Delouvrier is a combination celebrity chef memoir and restaurant cookbook with the intended spin of making simple the apparent complexity in the canon of standard French cuisine. On the one hand, the book succeeds in presenting a well-written and interestingly presented sequence of classic French or French style recipes. On the other, it fails in presenting its primary contention that it can simplify French cooking. As the author and his cowriters admit in more than one recipe, this is long with lots of ingredients, but you can do it if you just break it down into its (many) individual steps. All the author has succeeded in doing is to show that the complexity can be broken down into a lot of steps and that what may look simple to a talented professional chef who has been in the business for over thirty years, still looks daunting to the amateur. The observation by Daniel Boulud on the difference between amateurs and professionals still holds. Professionals simply see things differently by virtue of having done the same preparations thousands of times over.

   Since Delouvrier fails in making his primary contention, which can set his book apart from all the others, what is the value of the material otherwise? As always, it all depends on what you are looking for.

   The book is organized in almost exactly the same style as Daniel Boulud's `Café Boulud Cookbook' with seven chapters of recipes instead of Boulud's four. The chapters are chronological, each dealing with a different stage in the author's career, beginning with his fairly straightforward versions of dishes from la cuisine Bourgeoise such as cassoulet and coq au vin through the author's interpretation of haute cuisine dishes at his very expensive Manhattan venues. The chapters are:

   Family Cooking, Boulogne-SurGesse, France
   Hotel School and the Early Years, Toulouse, France
   Café de la Paix, Paris, France
   Journet Through Discovery (Montreal)
   Les Celebrites, New York City
   LesPinasse and Four Stars, New York City
   Basic Recipes (Pantry preparations)

   The book does have the author's reminiscences which are entertaining and have a strong family resemblence to memoirs written by several other French chefs.

   So the question remains, `Why should I buy this book'.

   First, I think the recipes are very good, with the ones in the first four chapters being much more accessible to the amateur than the fifth and sixth recipe. The pantry recipes are interesting in that they show the chef is doing high end French technique. Stock recipes, with a few little twists, may have come right out of the Culinary Institute of America.

   Second, the recipes in the first two chapters include some regional specialities outside of Provence and Lyon. The recipes in the last three chapters do include some Oriental influences, but not much.

   Third, almost all the recipes are for entrees. Not too much space spent on desserts or salads. The mix of meat, fowl, fin, and shellfish is about right, with very few recipes for rabbit or other game style protein.

   Fourth, the headnotes offer interesting comments on the source and nature of the material and the preparation. Good, but not dramatically better than other books.

   If you already own a copy of Julia Child's `Mastering the Art of French Cooking' and Jaques Pepin's books on technique, the basis for buying this book narrows down to getting the book to see this chef's take on things plus some recipes from Gascony.

   There are no wine pairings, which I don't miss. The photography is competant. There are no ingredient sources listed, but then, there are not a lot of rare ingredients. Just lots of them and some relatively expensive ingredients.

   If you want a book like this, I would recommend one first look at Boulud's book cited above. If you really like that kind of book and want more, then I recommend this book to you.




2. This is a book written by a very professional chef who does not seek the limelight in any way. I have not studied the book in great detail but the minute i saw it I bought it without hesitation. Sure enough it was filled with anecdotes and a review of his years in various restaurants . I was also happy to see recipes for things like fish stock. Does anyone make fish stock anymore? If you want to learn the complicated and the simple this is the book for you.



3. typical cookbook for cooks who have background in the field. The book breaks down the recipe in a simple manner, but at times a new cook may have a hard time following.

2 comments about Savoring France: Recipes and Reflections on French Cooking (The Savoring Series).

1. This is quite possibly the best cookbook I have ever read! Not only does it have beautiful pictures and wonderful, EASY, delicious recipes, but it has delightful information on the customs, countryside, and people of France. It's a cookbook I actually USE all the time!



2. What really grabbed me at first glance was the vivid colors and attention to the details in the numerous photographs in this book.

   Ms. Brennan confided to me recently in a chatroom interview at the French cuisine site that she gained about ten pounds while testing the recipes for the book.

   The recipes are all very traditional dishes you'd find in homes and bistros all over France and are simple enough for a confident and even a new cook to recreate.

   Along with the delicious, hearty French recipes are little anecdotes sprinkled throughout that shed light on useful things like using creme fraiche. A perfect gift for a francophile, cook or someone who loves good classic cuisine without hours of preparation involved. The book is so vibrant and lovely you'll want to leave it on the coffee table to make your guests salivate while they wait for dinner.

4 comments about Guiliano Bugialli's Food of Naples and Campania.

1. For any one who has ever been there, eating and cooking Italian is an adventure in living. No fuss no complications, just living life for the fun of it (that is the Italian way to enjoy being here) I have visited this wonderful country several times and this book takes me back whenever I feel the need to be in touch again. It is a must for any one who wants to feel what life in that great country is all about. For the beginner it will take you to one of the most enjoyable food fests anywhere. Try this book and you will be booking your next vacation in the land of wine, food, sun, music and love.



2. Lots of beautiful photos of Naples and Campania.
   Poorly edited with many errors on Neapolitan language. Obviously written by a non-Neapolitan.
   Few photos of foods. Makes me wonder if the recipes were ever tested.
   Better choice is Naples at Table by Arthur Schwartz.
   Buy this for the pretty pictures of the Amalfi coast, because as a cook book, I think it's a dud.



3. Bugialli has again generated a well researched, technically precise and stunningly beautiful book. Bugialli is the only non-Neapolitan that could not only write the recipes down with uncanny accuracy, but capture and convey the uniquely Neapolitan aura that permeates all things that happen in the "real" city by the bay. A must buy for any cook's library!



4. Being a native, I was able to compare the recipes to what I was raised to expect from Neapolitan food, and I was pleased to find the recipes accurate. I would like to see a wider coverage of the food of the region and not just Naples, and as a previous reviewer noted, there are a few mistakes (there always seem to be little flubs in Bugialli's books), but I think it covers the feel of the region much better than Schwartz's book. His handling of such sacred topics as the sfogliatella make for good reading. All in all, like all of his books to date, I'm glad to own it.

2 comments about Casablanca Cuisine: French North African Cooking.

1. The secret of life is Aline Benayoun's mint soup. Trust me, this book is fabulous and if the only recipe you do is the mint soup, you're way ahead. But don't stop there. The thing is, I'd marry someone who makes mint soup like this. Come to think of it, I did... her! Bon appetit. /JR



2. I'm giving this book 5 stars, and that's still not enough. The recipies are simple to make yet delicious. The meals are healthy and well balanced. Trust me, it's really very good. I definately recommend it to anyone who likes to eat good food.