Cooking with the Seasons: A Year In My Kitchen [Hardcover]

Monique Hooker (Author), Tracie Richardson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1997

Acclaimed chef Monique Hooker learned early on how to use seasonal, locally grown ingredients to create simple meals that celebrate the best of what each season has to offer. Drawing on her own experience growing up on a seventeenth-century family farm in France, Chef Hooker takes the home cook through the year, month-by-month, offering more than 200 original recipes that dazzle the senses by emphasizing seasonal distinctions of taste, texture and color. 30 photos.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"I learned early and well that the hand of the seasonal cook is the link between the good earth and family." Growing up on a family farm in Brittany, Monique Jamet Hooker witnessed both the changing seasons and the changing menus that accompanied them: Asparagus with Roasted Garlic and Ham in April, Scaloppine with Chanterelles in September, and Poached Cod with Saffron Sauce to keep out the chill of December. In Cooking with the Seasons, Hooker passes on the lessons--both the wisdom and the recipes--she learned at her mother's table.

Organized by months, each chapter includes a menu for a special occasion--Easter dinner in April or a bridal dinner in June--in addition to many other recipes calling for ingredients that are readily available at the particular times of year. Woven throughout the seasons are photographs of Hooker's family, headnotes and recollections of the simple pleasures she has experienced in every season of the year. Cooking with the Seasons is a book you'll find yourself coming back to over the years as you build your own trove of memorable seasonal meals.

From Library Journal

Hooker, who grew up on a farm in Brittany operating since the 17th century, has been cooking professionally and teaching in the United States for more than 25 years. Bemoaning the cottony tomatoes of January and flavorless, out-of-place asparagus of February, she makes a plea for a return to real seasonality in cooking. In chapters organized by month, she presents the simple recipes her mother cooked for their family of 12, from April's Country Soup with Dandelion to August's Blackberry Cobbler to December's Crisp Halibut Steak with Walnuts. Each chapter opens with Hooker's reminiscences of life on the farm, and she has added her own touches to the recipes, incorporating "exotic" American ingredients to some, simplifying or lightening others. For larger collections.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; 1st edition (October 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805048669
• ISBN-13: 978-0805048667
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #506,707 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I LOVE IT, May 22, 2000

By A Customer

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This review is from: Cooking with the Seasons: A Year In My Kitchen (Hardcover)

I find this cookbook to be wonderfully readable, whether for cooking or for curling up by the fireplace to read on a Sunday afternoon. I am not a very experienced French cook, I am just learning. However, I visited France for a period of time, staying with a French family. I find the recipes here to be much the same as the home cooking I recieved while in France. It may not be fancy Parisian fare with elaborate sauces, but it is not intended to be that. It seems to be written as a book for French (Brittany to be specific) country home cooking. True French cusine focuses on the freshest local ingrediants available, beautifully prepared, and that is just what is in this book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars French Style Cooking For Everyday, February 15, 2000

By 

Terry Mischelle Ogle (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cooking with the Seasons: A Year In My Kitchen (Hardcover)

Cooking With the Seasons is an excellent book filled with delicious recipes as well as snippets of the author's memories of growing up in France. The variations listed at the end of most recipes give the everyday cook the opportunity to adapt to what is on hand. Monique's tips, which are scattered throughout the book, are useful bits of information to aid the cook with common delimmas.

I was disappointed to learn that the recipes had already been adapted to what is available in America. This is useful to those who live in the US, but to those of us anticipating a move to France or those who wish to create a truly authentic French dish, it is less than ideal.

Nevertheless, it is a beautifully done book with wonderful recipes, delightful memories, and great tips. It is a book that deserves a place of honor in any cook's kitchen.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Everyday French Cookbook, January 26, 2000

By 

Terry Mischelle Ogle (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cooking with the Seasons: A Year In My Kitchen (Hardcover)

A lovely book with charming snippets of memories from the author's childhood in France, this cookbook takes you through a year, month by month, using the ingredients in season and readily available to create wonderful, everyday meals. The recipes are well written, and offer tips for variations and substitutions. A feature I found very useful was "Monique's Tips". They offer practical answers for kitchen delimmas.

I was disappointed in the fact that the recipes were adapted to suit the ingredients most commonly found in the United States, rather than those found in France. This makes it great for creating dishes with a French flair in the States, but makes it less useful for someone who plans to use it as a cornerstone cookbook when moving to France.

All in all, this is a cookbook worth buying. The lessons Monique Hooker teaches about using what is on hand and experimenting with herbs and spices are just as useful in any country, with any style of cooking. Add to this the memories of childhood in France, and you have a book you will return to again and again.