Publisher review:
Michel Bras is a three star Michelin chef, the owner of an extraordinary inn located in one of the most beautiful spots in France, but he is much more than that.
He is the author of a cuisine filled with fres emotions. Each of his dishes is a discovery and simplicity itself. It is a happy and iventive cuisine. It is a cuisien that owes more to love than to science, auniverse filled with wonder.
Ginette and Michel gambled on the sky and the high land. Their son Sébastien and his wife, Véronique, live this adventure together with them. It is a great team.
To live an work at Puech du Suquet, they chose a bold architecture that suits the high plain of Aubrac, in the heart of the land where Michel Bras sees himself. Local products garnish the tables, as do the silverware and the famous knifes of Laguiole. Aubrac inspires not only Michel Bras' best recipes but also some of his best photographs.
More tana a simple portrait, Essential cuisine is the work of a great chef in his maturity and an invitation to share his universe.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful
By jumpy1
Format:Hardcover
This man loves his cuisine and loves nature. The photos are simple and stylish but not contrived. There are also many well executed photos of the countryside in the back. The directions are as simple as if you are standing next to a cook who is explaining things to you as they cook. I can't help feeling his intense emotional love of working with food as I read and look through this book. Frankly, it makes the current popular chefs and cooking show hosts look like ... Sorry -- but I'm a chef, and books like this are hard to find.
18 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
`Essential Cuisine', nominally written by Michelin starred French chef Michel Bras and his brother, Sebastian, is translated from the French and is published by a very small house, `ici la Press' that I guess specializes in distributing such French material transplanted to these shores.
Like an earlier book `A Chef in Provence' by Edouard Loubet, this book is the perfect example of a foodie's coffee table decoration which will very likely never see the inside of a kitchen or suffer an olive oil stained fingerprint on any of its especially glossy pages. The main difference between Loubert and Bras' efforts are that Bras and company wastes less page space on nice pictures of Provencal gardens, hill, forests, and wildflowers among the recipes. The gallery of pretty pictures is relegated to the back of the book. This is little solace for the $50 price tag for highly impractical recipes.
This does not mean this is a bad book. It only means that it would be a real shame for someone to buy this book under a mistaken idea about its contents. If cookbooks were mapped to magazines on building, carpentry, crafts, and hobbies, Julia Child's `Mastering the Art of French Cooking' would become `Fine Woodworking', Tony Bourdain's `Les Halles Cookbook' would become `Handyman', and Michel Bras' `Essential Cooking' would become `Architectural Digest'. The first two are consulted for serious ideas on projects that an amateur can do at home. The latter is browsed for the pictures and the romance of very expensive venues.
The title, `Essential Cooking' gives the impression of being about basics. The book is about as far removed from being about basics as you can imagine. Unfortunately, it is also devoid of much insight about professional cooking which can be transferred to improving an amateur's cooking practice. But let me spend a few words on telling you what is good about this book.
The very first thing which appealed to me was the somewhat quirky, but highly effective method of laying out the ingredients and procedure for each recipe which typically appears on the left side of a two page spread dedicated to each dish. The translators have done a serviceable, albeit somewhat gross translation of metric measurements into familiar English units. I can't complain too much about these, as even the equivalencies in Patricia Wells' excellent books are often off by about 20%. But, in the world of savory cooking, 20% difference doesn't mean a whole lot.
The next feature that impressed me was the dual table of contents that cross-referenced all the recipes by both primary ingredient and by type of dish. This is really a very European thing, as I see it much more often in French and German books than in books written by Americans.
Other especially good features were the basic advice and basic recipe sections. The basic advice has not nearly enough content to come even close to being a tutorial on cooking, but it does include a few rare pointers centered on taking your time, paying attention to taste, and being organized. The basic recipes are not just your typical stocks and vinaigrettes, as Monsieur Bras' recipes require several unusual pantry preparations. There are some less common but still familiar preparations such as beurre noisette, pate brisee, pate sablee, Italian meringue, and French meringue. There are also some preparations I have never seen before such as aigo boulido, gomasio, grilled lard, huille rance, kefir, long jus, short jus, and nougatine. Some of these preparations are simply unfamiliar names for common cooking techniques. Gomasio, for example, is simply toasted sesame seeds crushed with sea salt. Some preparations are totally familiar to every cook, yet they are generally thought of as nuisances, such as milk skin, that skin that forms on the surface of heated milk.
Other nice features are the short glossary of terms, the very necessary table of substitutions, and the totally unique page of stencils, templates, and diagrams of unusual equipment. The table of substitutions, like many of the pantry preparations is not your everyday sour milk substitution for buttermilk. These recipes use lots of exceedingly uncommon ingredients such as agar-agar, amaranth, bee balm, rau0ram, tansy flowers, and yellow bedstraw flowers. Fortunately, all the stand-in products are very common, such as spinach, gelatin, celery, and basil.
I should also soften my judgment that the recipes in this book are totally impractical for the home cook. There are many ideas here which, with a fair amount of practice, can turn up on your table when you entertain to impress. The chef author is very fond of soft-boiled eggs; something which is very uncommon in American cookery and which therefore, would make a big impression, especially with the ways the author tweaks the presentations. The soft-boiled egg recipes appear under the unfamiliar rubric `mises en bouche', a variation on `amuse-bouche'.
Many other recipes also start with very common ingredients to give us fried bread and Mediterranean tuna with a presentation which would knock the socks off of the most jaded brunch guest. But then, the author goes off the deep end by giving us recipes requiring Banyuls sweet wine, venison, potimarron squash, demerara sugar, candied orange, and juniper berries to yield a leg of venison with licorice-like lemon puree. The presentation of this dish, like all the others, is a knockout.
The texts surrounding the recipes are a combination of childhood memories and somewhat mystical ruminations on things that inspire the chef's cooking.
The bottom line is that this expensive book is totally impractical for everyday cookery, but it does give us a look at the substance and inspirations of French haute cuisine. And, unlike Charlie Trotter's book `Raw', it is not totally impractical. The four stars I give are a compromise between a warning to look before you lay out your cash and a recommendation of the book as very good eye candy and a source of inspiration.
Like an earlier book `A Chef in Provence' by Edouard Loubet, this book is the perfect example of a foodie's coffee table decoration which will very likely never see the inside of a kitchen or suffer an olive oil stained fingerprint on any of its especially glossy pages. The main difference between Loubert and Bras' efforts are that Bras and company wastes less page space on nice pictures of Provencal gardens, hill, forests, and wildflowers among the recipes. The gallery of pretty pictures is relegated to the back of the book. This is little solace for the $50 price tag for highly impractical recipes.
This does not mean this is a bad book. It only means that it would be a real shame for someone to buy this book under a mistaken idea about its contents. If cookbooks were mapped to magazines on building, carpentry, crafts, and hobbies, Julia Child's `Mastering the Art of French Cooking' would become `Fine Woodworking', Tony Bourdain's `Les Halles Cookbook' would become `Handyman', and Michel Bras' `Essential Cooking' would become `Architectural Digest'. The first two are consulted for serious ideas on projects that an amateur can do at home. The latter is browsed for the pictures and the romance of very expensive venues.
The title, `Essential Cooking' gives the impression of being about basics. The book is about as far removed from being about basics as you can imagine. Unfortunately, it is also devoid of much insight about professional cooking which can be transferred to improving an amateur's cooking practice. But let me spend a few words on telling you what is good about this book.
The very first thing which appealed to me was the somewhat quirky, but highly effective method of laying out the ingredients and procedure for each recipe which typically appears on the left side of a two page spread dedicated to each dish. The translators have done a serviceable, albeit somewhat gross translation of metric measurements into familiar English units. I can't complain too much about these, as even the equivalencies in Patricia Wells' excellent books are often off by about 20%. But, in the world of savory cooking, 20% difference doesn't mean a whole lot.
The next feature that impressed me was the dual table of contents that cross-referenced all the recipes by both primary ingredient and by type of dish. This is really a very European thing, as I see it much more often in French and German books than in books written by Americans.
Other especially good features were the basic advice and basic recipe sections. The basic advice has not nearly enough content to come even close to being a tutorial on cooking, but it does include a few rare pointers centered on taking your time, paying attention to taste, and being organized. The basic recipes are not just your typical stocks and vinaigrettes, as Monsieur Bras' recipes require several unusual pantry preparations. There are some less common but still familiar preparations such as beurre noisette, pate brisee, pate sablee, Italian meringue, and French meringue. There are also some preparations I have never seen before such as aigo boulido, gomasio, grilled lard, huille rance, kefir, long jus, short jus, and nougatine. Some of these preparations are simply unfamiliar names for common cooking techniques. Gomasio, for example, is simply toasted sesame seeds crushed with sea salt. Some preparations are totally familiar to every cook, yet they are generally thought of as nuisances, such as milk skin, that skin that forms on the surface of heated milk.
Other nice features are the short glossary of terms, the very necessary table of substitutions, and the totally unique page of stencils, templates, and diagrams of unusual equipment. The table of substitutions, like many of the pantry preparations is not your everyday sour milk substitution for buttermilk. These recipes use lots of exceedingly uncommon ingredients such as agar-agar, amaranth, bee balm, rau0ram, tansy flowers, and yellow bedstraw flowers. Fortunately, all the stand-in products are very common, such as spinach, gelatin, celery, and basil.
I should also soften my judgment that the recipes in this book are totally impractical for the home cook. There are many ideas here which, with a fair amount of practice, can turn up on your table when you entertain to impress. The chef author is very fond of soft-boiled eggs; something which is very uncommon in American cookery and which therefore, would make a big impression, especially with the ways the author tweaks the presentations. The soft-boiled egg recipes appear under the unfamiliar rubric `mises en bouche', a variation on `amuse-bouche'.
Many other recipes also start with very common ingredients to give us fried bread and Mediterranean tuna with a presentation which would knock the socks off of the most jaded brunch guest. But then, the author goes off the deep end by giving us recipes requiring Banyuls sweet wine, venison, potimarron squash, demerara sugar, candied orange, and juniper berries to yield a leg of venison with licorice-like lemon puree. The presentation of this dish, like all the others, is a knockout.
The texts surrounding the recipes are a combination of childhood memories and somewhat mystical ruminations on things that inspire the chef's cooking.
The bottom line is that this expensive book is totally impractical for everyday cookery, but it does give us a look at the substance and inspirations of French haute cuisine. And, unlike Charlie Trotter's book `Raw', it is not totally impractical. The four stars I give are a compromise between a warning to look before you lay out your cash and a recommendation of the book as very good eye candy and a source of inspiration.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By CarolinaZ
Format:Hardcover
This book as well as his DVD are incredible as others have noted. The concepts and artistry he incorporates into his dishes are mind-blowing. But if you can navigate it, buy the english-language version of this book on the Amazon.fr (French) website. The price, even with the exchange rate, is less than half the price shown here.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good
Unbearably ...
I hurts
However I would dream.
When you try shouting that chest will explode,
Only echoes come back ... Read more
I hurts
However I would dream.
When you try shouting that chest will explode,
Only echoes come back ... Read more
Published 4 days ago by HAEHONG JEONG
5.0 out of 5 stars
Muse book! Professionals only book
My husband is a chef and I purchased this as a gift for him. He loves it. This book is a muse not a technical cookbook for a foodie or average cook. Read more
Published 3 months ago by TC
5.0 out of 5 stars
Is This The Best Cookbook Ever?
I can't remember having been so completely absorbed by a cookbook before. But Essential Cuisine is much more than a cookbook, it's a visual feast, a fine literary serving and,... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Ken Brass
4.0 out of 5 stars
inspireing
Michelle Bras is a pioneer. His food is so beautiful and inspireing. I would reccomend this book to professionals and home cooks alike. If you love food, this is a must have!
Published 6 months ago by jose salazar
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must have for any serious foodie
This book is great from a conceptual and technical level. Bras revolutionized cuisine/plating and it is all captured here. Read more
Published on June 9, 2010 by David Kanter
5.0 out of 5 stars
Artwork
Simply the best and most artistic culinary publication ever produced. The entire book is a study in not only cooking technique, but in light, color, and the art of it all. Read more
Published on February 22, 2009 by J. Stoneberger
5.0 out of 5 stars
the french trotter
if you're a disciple of charlie trotter, it's time you made the pilgrimage to michel bras. they both seem to have been born with very similar genes - their food derives from... Read more
Published on April 29, 2002 by gavin bradley
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