For the first time, chefs from New York City's renowned French Culinary Institute have created a collection of recipes that are not only delicious, but also easy and low in fat. You'll learn from chefs like Jacques Pepin how to create dishes worthy of restaurants like Le Cirque. The chefs share 40 seasonal menus that use only the freshest, tastiest, healthiest ingredients for a distinctly French taste.
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The chefs at the French Culinary Institute believe that people have switched to Italian cooking because they do not realize French food can be just as light, fresh, and healthy. Jacques Pepin and his cohorts, Alain Sailhac, Jacques Torres, and Andre Soltner, are out to prove that French cooking really can be deliciously low in fat in The French Culinary Institute's Salute to Healthy Cooking. At the stove, Pepin and company offer 40 low-fat menus, all luscious three-course meals made with fresh, seasonal ingredients. Dishes are prepared using familiar classic French techniques like poaching, braising, and roasting. First courses range from a light Watercress, Chicory and Radish in Beet Vinaigrette salad to elegant Leek and Roasted Pepper Tartlets. Main courses feature meat, poultry, or seafood. Desserts are for the most part fruit-based, although chocolate gets its due in a soufflé and a rich flourless torte.
Few people will make the entire menu for a week-night dinner, but even a singular dish, like salmon cooked in its own juice with broccoli florets, would be fine served with your own green salad and fruit for dessert. Even when you bring home roast chicken or plain grilled fish, adding the earthy Mushroom Sauce or zesty Tomato Vinaigrette will add immeasurably to your meal. --Dana Jacobi --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Culinary authority doesn't come much higher than these four chefs associated with the New York school founded in 1984, who offer 150 seasonally arranged recipes offered in three-course menus for health-conscious home cooks. In general, their collective approach calls for less saturated fat, less meat and more fruits and vegetables. Key techniques include cooking in nonstick pans with a minimum of fat (11/2 pounds of meat are sauteed in one teaspoon of olive oil for Lamb Stew with Glazed Turnips and Pearl Onions, serving four); making use of vegetable essences?water in which a flavoring agent is simmered for 45 minutes and then often reduced (Breast of Chicken with Fennel essence); using nonfat dairy products (Low-Fat Caramel Cream made with 1% milk). Large flavors also disguise the decrease of fat in such dishes as Baked Cod with Tomatoes, Capers and Turmeric on Sauteed Spinach and Roasted Chicken with Grapefruit and Pink Peppercorn Sauce. Sauces are another focus, as with the almost fat-free Spinach and Watercress Sauce, with chicken stock thickened with potato. Phyllo dough replaces the traditional pate brisee (e.g., Apricot Tart). When Basic Pastry is a necessity, the solution is one made with a tablespoon of canola oil and 1/4 cup of low-fat cottage cheese. These are generally easily rendered recipes that retain a French air even though calories and fat grams are listed. Photos by Maria Robledo.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
65 of 74 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Great promise; poor delivery,
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This review is from: The French Culinary Institute's Salute to Healthy Cooking (Hardcover)
Here's an original thought - you can't judge a book by its cover. On the surface, "The French Culinary Institute's Salute to Healthy Cooking" would appear to be just what the doctor ordered - a beautiful book of health conscious recipes compiled by perhaps the four most prominent French chefs living in the US. With glossy photographs of many it's 150 recipes and a layout that emphasizes seasonal menu planning over individual dishes, the book gives a wonderful first impression. But things grind to a halt quickly when you start to cook. I'm sure there are many wonderful creations contained in these pages (and low fat versions of all the big hitters in the French lineup are here). And, honest, I promise to keep trying. But even in experienced hands, so many are outright clinkers that one rapidly looses faith in the entire collection. The recipe for asparagus soup (pg.60) illustrates the book's underlying central theme: if you're going to reduce the fat, you'd better concentrate the flavors. The recipe calls for 5 cups of white chicken stock -- not unusual until you look at the book's recipe for white chicken stock (pg.37). Eight pounds of chicken bones plus mirepoix and herbs yields just 4 cups (yes, cups, not quarts) of stock. At that concentration, the soup would require the 10 lbs. of bones just to made the base. That's one concentrated stock. OK, then skip the recipes that call for chicken stock. Unfortunately, in true French style white chicken stock is required for fully 22 recipes. Fortunately, brown stock is required for only four, and the formulation is a little more reasonable. But even this recipe requires hard-to-find veal bones and yields a demi-glace strength stock. Best to own a butcher shop. I won't comment on the health claims except to ask a question. If French cuisine is so inherently healthy, why have all the recipes been changed from their classic origins? Frankly, if it's healthy high cuisine you're looking for, I'd suggest either of Graham Kerr's first two Mini-Max cookbooks before this one. Kerr's recipes are at least executable and often produce astonishing results. If you insist on traditional French, it's difficult to beat Richard Grausman's "At Home with the French Classics."
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I'm using this book to save our marriage.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The French Culinary Institute's Salute to Healthy Cooking (Hardcover)
My wife has a demanding job - so demanding in fact that I have started cooking. And with bathing suit season coming, she's concerned about her weight - so I've glommed onto The French Culinary Institute's Salute to Healthy Cooking. It's a lifesaver because it gives menus - I've never been good at figuring out what to serve with what. And the food is so delicious, we can't believe it's pretty low in calories and fat. The Warm Chocolate Tortes on page 101 is amazing - although I don't use a pastry bag to make it. Just spoon it in. Now we don't order in pizza so often!
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful recipes for weekends,
By
This review is from: The French Culinary Institute's Salute to Healthy Cooking (Hardcover)
This book is truly inspiring. It's organized by season, and then by different menus for each season. The three summer menus I have tried have been absolutely wonderful. This book really lives up to its promise; the dishes are very refined and you don't miss the fat and calories at all. The authors make very good use of herbs and aromatics such as orange juice to give their dishes a lot of flavor. You will definitely impress your friends and neighbors with these recipes. However, there are a few caveats. This book is definitely not for beginners. The recipes tend to be complicated and can involve sophisticated equipment (mandoline, crepe pan). The recipes I have tried involved many steps and a lot of knife work, and therefore consumed a lot of time. However, if you really enjoy cooking, want to eat more healthfully, and you have the time to spend, this book will become one of your favorites. My husband and I are cooking one menu a week, and now we really look forward to our Sunday dinner.
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