Synopsis
Thomas Keller, the celebrated chef at the French Laundry, a restaurant in California's wine country, shares his secrets in 150 voluptuous recipes. They include Yukon Gold Potato Blini, Pot au Feu, Braised Prime Beef Short Ribs with Root Vegetables and Sautéed Bone Marrow, Vanilla-Bean Roasted Figs with Wildflower Honey-Vanilla Ice Cream. Winner of the 1999 Versailles World Cookbook Fair Award for "Best Chef Book."
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1999-11-01 |
| Size | | Length: | 325 pages | | Height: | 11.3 in | | Width: | 10.8 in | | Thickness: | 1.0 in | | Weight: | 84.0 oz |
Publisher's Note
This cookbook, Keller's first, is as satisfying as a French Laundry meal, a series of small, highly refined, intensely focused courses. One hundred fifty recipes and more than two hundred photographs capture the impact of this extraordinary food. Keller's wit and whimsy find expression in unique recipes (and titles) such as lobster-filed crepes with a carrot emulsion sauce, topped with a pea shoot salad dressed lightly with lemon-infused oil ("Peas and Carrots"), or sauteed monkfish tail with braised oxtails, salsify, and cepes ("Surf and Turf"). This is a book to cook from, to learn from, to savor.
Industry Reviews
"[P]rompted me to slow down and cook more mindfully and analytically in my chaotic home kitchen....Hailed as one of the best chefs in America, Mr. Keller is also a tenacious perfectionist who relies on top-notch ingredients and always tends to the technical details. For the most part, the dishes in the book are time-consuming and impractical for today's harried home cooks....The book, however, is still a treasure trove. Outstanding photographs by Deborah Jones and numerous essays written by Mr. Keller, Michael Ruhlman and Susie Heller immediately lured me in."
Schacter
"[A] work that even jaded career chefs consider the ultimate in food porn...."
New York Times Book Review - Anthony Bourdain (07/30/2000)
"[T]he most beautiful cookbook of the millennium....I've never seen a restaurant cookbook that has made me so eager to visit the restaurant. I suspect this is because these recipes make no concessions to the home cook; short of making a reservation at the French Laundry, you'll never have a chance to taste whether they're as good as they sound."
Salon - Ann Hodgson (12/10/1999)
"95 percent of the recipes are over the top, much too complex, too elevated, and too dependant on having ingredients that would take weeks for the home cook to assemble....So why would you buy this book, except to dream about eating at the French Laundry? A few reasons. For one, it's gorgeous--as beautiful as most art books. And like most books about artists, it can't help but raise your own standards, which may keep you from tossing any old thing onto the table and calling it supper. What's more, it does have, hidden among the recipes for lobster pancakes with pea shoot salad and "ice cream cones" holding salmon tartare and red onion crème fraîche, a surprising amount of solid cooking advice."
Epicurious - Irene Sax (10/20/1999)
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A beautiful book, but ingredients not always practical!
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