Customer Reviews

From a Breton Garden: The Vegetable Cookery of Josephine Araldo

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This cookbook features very imaginative vegetable recipes, although they are neither completely vegetarian nor low fat. Josephine Araldo, who "influenced a generation of American chefs," was born in Brittany, studied at the Cordon Bleu in Paris, and, in 1924, moved to San Francisco. The book is divided into three sections reflecting her work and influences from these settings. One simple and tasty recipe is for "Green Beans From the Brittany Coast" ("Haricots Verts Cotes de Bretagne"); it combines blanched string beans, new potatoes, scallions, garlic, butter, parsley, and seasoning. Directions are clear but brief; for example, there is no instruction on how to "blanch" vegetables. This is probably a very simple procedure, but the author, Robert Reynolds (friend and student of Ms. Araldo) assumes you know the technique. (Caution: Vegetarians and Bugs Bunny fans may also be turned off by the suggested accompaniment of braised rabbit.)

It's interesting to contrast the regional and perhaps historical differences among recipes for a particular vegetable; for example, "Cabbage and Rutabaga with Almonds" from Brittany (you may want to skip the two tablespoons of goose or duck fat), "Red Cabbage and Pears" from Paris, and "Cabbage with Apples and Gooseberries" (good with poached salmon) from her San Francisco days.

Collated by her friend, Chef Robert Reynolds ("Le Trou Restaurant Francais," San Francisco), who also wrote fascinating regional and biographical notes for each section. No nutritional information, but excellent brief comments on each recipe, an index, and some black and white reproductions of watercolors, and clear uncrowded typeset on thick luminous paper: Overall, a beautifully produced book.

This recipe book isn't like any other. The author skillfully combines ingredients that one wouldn't think belong together. I bought my first copy of this book after reading the review in the New York Times almost 20 years ago. It became one of my favorite sources for ideas for using the beautiful produce from my vegetable garden. Ingredients and techniques aren't complicated and the unique way with using vegetables makes cooking with these recipes a little bit of an adventure, or at least a departure from the usual recipes found elsewhere. I now like to give this book as a hostess gift for the good cook with a vegetable garden who seems to have everything and is hard to buy for.