Customer Reviews

The Great Book of French Cuisine

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I give this book a lousy rating. I applaud the effort to take a venerable cookbook and update it for the modern day, but people who pick up this book will probably want Pellaprat, not Pellaprat as filtered through present day sensibilities. The result is an OK cookbook, but I do not recommend it (there are other such encyclopedic cookbooks on French cuisine that are better); I suggest you pick up an earlier edition of this book that is NOT revised. I was disappointed with this book; I did not get what I was expecting.

Editorial note on this edition: my mistake in buying this book was not studying the various editions more carefully. This and an earlier edition of the same title are `revised' and `adapted', respectively. A much earlier edition is titled `Modern French Culinary Art'; I believe that is the original translation, sans `improvements', and this is the edition I recommend you get. I positively do NOT recommend this version of Pellaprat. (There are multiple listings in Amazon Books for 'Modern French Culinary Art', and it is not clear from the vague descriptions which ones are just translations, and which ones are translations + 'improvements'. If I ever figure it out, I will list; for the time being, all I can say is 'buyer beware').

Both Pellaprat (P.) and Tower (T.) are legendary chefs in their own right; both have started a culinary revolution, and both taught an entire generation how to cook. P. was part of the Cordon Bleu during the early part of the 20th century and given credit for inventing modern French cuisine, and this is (or is suppose to be) his definitive cookbook. This book is a new edition, with a new Introduction and revisions done by T. The genius of P. was to embrace 4 different type of cooking: haute cuisine, cuisine bourgeoise, regional cuisine, and impromptu cuisine. Sadly, P. does not identify which category each recipe corresponds to. T. and a few others took impromptu cooking and developed a whole new cuisine around it.

On page 290, T. produced at least one gem: the statement that the true glory of French food is fish or shellfish + sauce. Course, he also repeats the old wives tale about fresh fish having clear eyes and red gills; this is true for some fish (notable salmon and trout), but not all of them.

I wonder about T's revisions. He gives no hint in the introductory material how extensive his `improvements' are. When you read a recipe, there is no way to tell whose recipe it is or how much the recipe has been changed. Some kind of indication, perhaps in a different color ink, should have been used so you can tell what is original and what has been revised or is entirely new. Some places, like the starch chapter, appear to be heavily edited. The chapter on cakes and pastry (not to mention the Confectionery chapter) seem to have been heavily edited, and were especially disappointing and worthy of ignoring; the recipes clearly have NOT been tested. I note that T. has smoothed only a few of the many kinks in the recipes; there is still plenty that will trip up the inexperienced or unwary cook. In light of the number of recipes, I wonder how many of his recipe changes T. has actually kitchen tested, or if this was mainly a word processor project; they are well written, so it is often difficult to tell. I hate to say it, but it sure seems like T has diluted P's genius.

Format Problems
*recipe titles are usually English (but, confusingly, the original French has sometimes been retained, but not always, and usually randomly), so sometimes you have to guess how this book translated the French name of a recipe
*there are both major and minor editorial errors. Page 350 (Lobster a l'Americaine) has `New Igredient'. Huh? Perhaps T. planned to add another, modern ingredient or `improvement', but never got around to it. On p. 374, the beef section transitions from tournedos to other cuts, but there is no editorial comment to warn the reader that the recipes now require a different cut of beef.
*the TOC has chapter titles only, and some of them are quite long. The chapters are divided in the text into sections, but these are not listed in the TOC.
*there is only one bread recipe and 2 pizza crusts, and all seem to be T's.
*I object to the translation of the book's title (well, this edition has been so heavily changed that perhaps a different English title is in order).

This is one of those lavishly impractical texts that serious food-lovers should own because it so neatly reminds us of the aristocratic origins of French Haute Cuisine. Originally published in 1935 as L'Art Culinaire Moderne, it records, encyclopedically, the last days of the grand hotel cuisine of the 19th century. Within a few years of its first release, Hitler had overrun Paris, the great restaurants and cooking schools were closed, aging gourmands were withering on an unintentional diet of cuisine minceur in the countryside, and war-enforced austerity replaced these rich indulgences. That austerity eventually became the astringent modernity at the heart of most French high cuisine today. Sauces have simplified and lightened, butter is used more sparingly, tastes have shifted toward lighter, fresher ingredients that are left closer to their natural state.

Which brings up a good working summary of what chef Henri-Paul Pellaprat advocated: a cuisine of transformation, in which often humble ingredients are artfully altered into the most sumptuous forms imaginable and served with fanfare and deference. A bourgeois form of this luxe aesthetic is still available at several of the 3-star restaurants, especially in Paris, but deference, per se, is no longer organic. It has become a commodity for sale, part of the lingering stage-set of pre-war hierarchies.

You could do worse than to cook from the roughly 800 recipes the Great Book contains, but you will find them anachronistically, if not unpleasantly, rich and opaque. I have cooked several of the more arch recipes [Sole Mornay, Lobster Bordelaise, Tournedos Clamart...just the names evoke another era] and have enjoyed the results. More to the point, I have enjoyed my guests' reactions [a mix of surprise, glee, giggling, and eventual gasps for mercy] to a cuisine that now feels profoundly foreign, or at least nostalgic.

But I should note that mixed in with these old restaurant dishes are many simpler ones, and a surprising assortment of Italian, Spanish, German, and even Asian dishes. Pellaprat wasn't a snob, I guess, and he knew that Osso Buco a la Milanese, for example, is as good as anything French.

I do highly recommend this book, whether you plan to cook from it or not. It's a fascinating historical vignette, as well as one monumental cookbook. I also recommend you try, at least once before you die, to serve a meal cooked entirely from these pages, served as Pellaprat recommends. Your guests will remember it forever. Great fun.

`The Great Book of French Cuisine' by Henri-Paul Pellaprat is the kind of book every foodie should own. The question is whether this is the very best summary of French cuisine or simply a very good one. The primary competition to this position would be the works of August Escoffier. I should also be clear that this book is not in direct competition with the great `Mastering the Art of French Cooking' by Julia Child. In fact, Jeremiah Tower's introduction indirectly makes it clear in echoing Maurice-Edmund Saillant's classification of four cooking styles that while Pellaprat and Escoffier are addressing haute cuisine, Mme. Child's works address `La cuisine bourgeoisie'. The numerous books on regional French and Italian cooking represent `La cuisine regionale'. La cuisine impromptue' might be represented by Jacques Pepin's latest book, `Fast Food My Way'.

The first thing that impresses us about this `Great Book...' is that it is truly great in size, weighing in at over 750 pages of rather small printing. It is not so small to make it unreadable in the kitchen, but compact enough to assure us we are getting our money's worth for a very modest list price of $35.

The second thing that impresses us is the confirmation that there are few things that are new under our sun. In spite of Alton Brown's jabs at French cooking, there are chapters in this book which raise the quite probable specter that if AB didn't exactly steal some ideas from this book for his two `I'm Just Here for the Food' volumes, he comes very close to taking out a long term lease on Pellaprat's summaries of types of cooking and types of mixing for doughs. The other side of the coin is that if AB never read this book, he gets high marks for coming to the same conclusions as a leading writer on French `haute cuisine'. `Sacre bleu'.

The third thing that impresses us about the book is the encyclopedic treatment of several important culinary subjects. On poached eggs alone, there are 39 different named recipes, with names coming generally from the person, event, or location responsible for their creation. It gives on the sense that when chefs are looking for dishes with clever or impressive names; it is to this book they will turn. Marie Simmons' book, `The Good Egg' has but 11 recipes for poached eggs. An even better piece of information on eggs comes from Pellaprat's classification of omelets into classic French, American style (which looks remarkably like what some people describe as the Normandy style), and Italian (frittatas).

The section on both omelets and stocks demonstrates that this book is long on encyclopedic coverage of the field of French cooking, but sometimes short on some of the finer details. As great an authority as this book is on French technique, I sense that the author is leaving a few details out. This is my impression on many of the thousands of recipes in this book, although, of course, there is no need to repeat all the finer points of egg poaching in 39 recipes. You just need to point out what distinguishes each variation from the basic technique. This is another distinction between Pellaprat and writers such as Child and Elizabeth David. The latter ladies are teaching people who have never before cooked an omelet or a souffle or a gratin. On the other hand, Pellaprat opens with a chapter that is straight out of the world of Martha Stewart in that it teaches us the proper methods for entertaining and serving meals.

In many ways, the closest analogue to this book in the modern lexicon of cookbooks is `The Joy of Cooking'. Both are encyclopedic in that they focus on giving at least some attention to even the most arcane of meats. While `Joy of Cooking' gives us recipes for possum and boar, Pellaprat gives us a great number of recipes for venison, hare, and woodcock.

This book is an eminent proof that if one is serious about cooking, you need more than one cookbook, at least on those important subjects like omelets, stews, and stocks. No one book can cover everything in the depth to which one may need. While this book covers an enormous range, it does not even cover everything French, let alone the rest of the world.

For a translated work, this reads remarkably well. It is also much more up to date than you may expect from a book first published in the mid-1930's. There is mention of both the microwave and the food processor in many recipes. And, all measurements are in simple spoon and cup units. One may however, be on the lookout for pork recipes that may be expecting a much fatter porkie than what we get in the markets today. I have even seen 1970s James Beard pork recipes falter because the fat on the pig has been reduced so much.

Subject to a review of Escoffier's major work, I heartily recommend this for your armchair library and as a great source of fancy pants recipes. I am sure there are thousands of restaurant chefs who refer to this for that very purpose.

Several editions of this cookbook have been published, each more visually attractive than the last. Whether you're merely thumbing through or engaged in meal preparation this is a must for all who enjoy French cuisine.

This volume contains over 2,000 receiptes by the former director of the Ecole du Cordon Bleu. When first published in our country it was deemed one of the classic French cookbooks, and it remains so today. Each republication is a cause for rejoicing. The full-color, full-page photographs are worth the price.

It is a comprehensive reference piece, whether your tastes run to la haute cuisine - the most elaborate meal preparation or to la cuisine impromptue - the quickest and most basic cooking method.

This is a really nice book. Great recipes, nicely organized, and comprehensive. Photos or illustrations would earn it 5 stars, but don't let that keep you from buying.