Customer Reviews

The Food of France

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I saw this book while window shopping in Anthropology - flipping through and finding the pictures tempting. After getting it from Amazon, I've made 3 dishes from the book, all received wild welcomes from my friends.

This is a wonderful source for dinner parties. Even though it doesn't have a lot of pictures for each recipe, the descriptions are very concise, clear, and easy to follow. Having zero experience cooking western food prior to this book, I did not expect to cook anything descent on the first try at all. I was very surprised to see how well these dishes turned out. A must-have if you love cooking.

This is an excellent introduction to French cuisine. Many famous dishes are here in a straightforward and not overly complex format. This may not be for purists who want the authentic, real deal. But I have found this book a great help in learning how to cook some well-known French dishes. Most ingredients are readily available and the results have been great!

I lived in France for almost a decade.... and apart from the trusty tome that all French mothers give to their daughters when they get married, this book is my other reference, in English, for popular French recipes from around the country. It covers all the favourite and familiar dishes visitors to France will have come across.

After a recent trip to France I decided that I would like to prepare some of the local fare. I had heard about this book from a friend of mine and decided to try it. I have prepared many of the recipes that I had tried in France and am really pleased with their authenticity. The book is easy to use and understand.

There are a great many cookbooks featuring french food. My problem with most of them is that they seem to feature ingredients and equipment that I can't find locally. So often these ingredients are simply standard things that I can find but called by a French name. I realize they are proud of their language, but it makes the book fairly useless. The advantage of this book is that the ingredients seem to have been Americanized so that I can find what they use. It also seems that this book has gone to some effort to make the instructions reasonably simple to follow.

I suppose that these simplified ingredients and instructions mean that the resulting dishes are slightly different than the originator might have prepared, but the resulting dishes are a lot better to eat than something that can't be made due to the way the cookbook is written.

As for the book itself, it is profusely illustrated, and contains a huge number of recipies that I find myself ready to try the next time people come over. What more can you ask of a cookbook?

I have seen many books of French food, but this one has excellent recipes! with great pictures, detailed steps and sections that take you into the heart of the cuisine!

I love Julia Child and have used "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," which is a masterpiece, but THE FOOD OF FRANCE is my everyday, go-to French cooking practical cookbook! Every recipe has a gorgeous photo to accompany it and EVERY recipe I've tried from it has been EXCELLENT, from "40 Cloves of Garlic Chicken" (despite the name, not at all garlicky), to the "Onion Tart" (rich and sublime), and the "Pork Chops with Calvados" (I didn't have Calvados so substituted cheap brandy and still ... AMAZING). The "Vichy Carrots" are so simple and so delicious and the "Pithiviers" (almond tart w/ puff pastry) is now a staple in my cooking repertoire. This book de-mystifies French cooking and makes you crave cream and butter long after picking up that slippery chicken, LOL ... an absolute must for any cook.

The only downside for some people might be the oversized book (slightly larger than a magazine), but I find that to be an attribute for browsing and salivating ... purchasing the book in paperback makes it a little easier to manage in the kitchen and a cookbook stand helps, too.

the book is coloful with lots of traditional french food. simple and easy steps to have your french food at home. I love it and this is bought as a gift to my family who enjoys learning how to master french cooking!

This is absoultely one cookbook that everyone should own. We own the entire series and there is no other cookbook like it. There are beautiful pictures for every recipe and the recipes are very unique, interesting, and delicious. Several recipes will suggest ingredients that may be difficult or expensive to find but the recipes can also be simplified. My husband loves to cook and looooves this entire series of cookbooks. This cookbook will help any chef tap into their creativity and explore their passion for cooking and take it to a new level.

I love this cookbook. It has beautiful photographs. I never get tired of looking through it. My boyfriend and I have made several recipes from it and they have been delicious. The recipes are fairly simple in comparison with other French cookbooks I have seen. When I look through this book, I want to go to France.