Fast Food My Way (Hardcover)

by Jacques Pepin (Author), Ben Fink (Photographer)
Key Phrases: Crème Fraîche, spinach coulis, tablespoons good olive oil, Grand Marnier, Individually Quick Frozen, Yukon Gold (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Over time, in his cookbooks, and on his TV series, Jacques Pépin has taught people how to cook simple, fully flavored dishes--food that reflects his French training while embracing American informality. Jacques Pépin: Fast Food My Way takes this approach one step further by providing 100-plus recipes for a wide range of delicious, meant-to-be fast dishes. These include Stuffed Scallops on Mushroom Rice; Chicken Breasts on Mashed Cauliflower with Red Salsa; Pasta, Ham, and Vegetable Gratin; and Apple, Pecan, and Apricot Crumble. The "my way" of the title can mean the use of time-saving tools (Pépin uses pressure cookers to achieve easy stews like his beef short-rib, mushroom, and potato dish) and convenience foods (canned black bean soup or sweet potatoes for new soup versions). Generally, though, the Pépin approach emphasizes the use of foods that are themselves quickly cooked, like chicken breasts or beef fillet and that can be made flavorful with equally fast-to-fix accompaniments, like his salsa mayonnaise or his tomato-olive sauce.

Fast is, of course, a relative term, and readers will find more than a few dishes in the book that may require more time or attention than they're willing to spend on a daily basis. But overall, the book offers enough easily made recipes, and super-time-saving formulas, like Instant Vegetable Soup, to make it a true cooking resource. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly
Longtime fans of Pepin may cherish their copies of La Méthode, a gorgeously lush cookbook that devotes pages to his elaborate knife technique. But no one can accuse Pepin of falling behind the times. If the great French chef and popular peer to the late Julia Child misses the days of food as elaborate edible sculpture, he's keeping it to himself, cheerfully hosting a PBS series (Fast Food My Way) and now penning this companion book. "More often than not, I prefer simple, straightforward food that can be prepared quickly," Pepin swears, and most of the recipes stick to that statement, sometimes to excess: recipes that do little more than suggest readers add boiling water to couscous or try microwaving their potato probably add little to the repertoire of even minimally experienced chefs. The cookbook's best sections take traditional French food—braised endive, beef stew—and show readers how to skip steps to achieve a different but similarly pleasing result. Although Pepin has always packaged himself brilliantly, some of his recipe names could use a redesign: Soupy Rice and Peas hardly stimulates the appetite, and Tomato Tartare with Tomato Water Sauce actively turns it off. Other charming recipes, however, invoke the same aspirational lifestyle that older, elaborate cookbooks do, but with a different spin: Pepin says his recipe for Banana Bourbon Coupe was just something he whipped up one afternoon fresh off the slopes, making the best of the few ingredients on hand. French cooking, Pepin reminds us, is not just a matter of technique; it's a matter of chic.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1st edition (September 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618393129
• ISBN-13: 978-0618393121
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,908 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #32 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Quick & Easy

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

428 of 438 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Master Class in Easy Home Cooking. Highly Recommended, September 9, 2004

By	B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

When I approached Jacques Pepin's new book `Fast Food My Way', I was prepared on at least two counts to find fault with the book. But Jacques always comes through with a book I love to read and love to cook. My first prejudice against the book was that `Fast Cooking' is one of the top two or three hot buttons for cookbooks these days, next to low carb cookbooks and entertaining cookbooks. I predict a `Fast Cooking Low Carb Barbecue for Entertaining' book to appear within the next year. And, like so many other authors, it may seem like Jacques is just jumping on the latest bandwagon. The second prejudice I had about the book is the fact that Jacques did an earlier book on quick cooking, `The Short-Cut Cook' published in 1990. I had similar prejudices about that book, but it came through with flying colors, especially since it has been and still is one of my favorite cookbooks.

In a nutshell, this book can become your next go to cookbook because almost all of these recipes are genuinely easy for a modestly experienced cook and they are not only developed by a great master chef, they are the recipes that chef genuinely cooks at home on a regular basis. One also should have no concern that this is a rehash of his earlier book. It is not. There are a lot of similarities in the principles behind the selection of recipes, but that is only to the good. Jacques mixes a selection of the classics like cole slaw and Salad Caprese with unusual recipes such as Parsley and Pumpkin salad and Asian eggplant salad. In the older book, we got Salade Nicoise and hot Potato Salad mixed with potato and smoked bluefish and tangy rice stick salad.

On average, the recipes in the new book are more original and easier to prepare than the recipes in the first volume. In both books, Jacques' recipes follow two trends common to most good fast cooking recipes, similar to what you see Rachael Ray do every day. First, the recipes do require a modest amount of skill and a fairly well equipped kitchen with stuff like a food mill, a mandoline or Japanese slicer, a stick blender, and a food processor. Second, most dishes use foods that cook quickly such as seafood, chicken breast, filets of beef or other lean steak cuts, and veal. All of these things are more expensive than the slower cooking roasts and braising meats.

Jacques is exceptionally fond of smoked, marinated, and fresh fish recipes from the far North and from the Far East. He is very fond of Asian and Latin tastes such as cilantro and tropical fruits. But, all of this is overlaid on a solid grounding of French and Italian techniques such as the braise, the gratin, casseroles, pasta, tomatoes, potatoes, and fresh mushrooms.

The book starts with several pages of menu selections that were the basis of the PBS series shows on which the book is based. This is followed by a goldmine of ideas modestly labeled `More ideas for quick dishes'. This is not a list of general suggestions, it is a collection of 25 mini-recipes, all of which can be done very quickly with very modest skills, and the right ingredients. The remainder of the book follows very traditional lines with chapters on:

Appetizers and first courses (16), covering truly easy recipes with a heavy concentration on fish, beans, cheeses, and ham. The recipes also highlight the fact that Jacques generally likes his food spicy. Be careful with his instructions with the chiles if you have heat impaired eaters.

Soups (7), including some which I would never have believed could be made in such a short time. Here is where your food mill, stick blender, and knife skills will be put to the test. Includes an easy but not too fast recipe for chicken stock.

Eggs (4), with recipes to make this fast food staple much more interesting.

Salads (11), the darling of fast meals. Good salads do take some time, and these are no exception. Includes a good cole slaw and recipe for herbed breadcrumbs.

Vegetables (16), with ragouts, gratins, purees, relishes, sautés, and chutneys. Mostly side dishes from the French and Italian canon.

Rice, potatoes, and pasta (7), the low carb danger zone. Again, a collection of variations on French and Italian standards plus couscous and `Wonton cannelloni'.

Fish and shellfish (15), with lots of stuffing, grilling, glazing, and saucing. While fish cooks very quickly, it always seems like the sauces supplied to spice up the bland flesh always seems to chew up a lot of time. Jacques is unconventional enough to even mix in cheese with his fish. Don't tell Mario!.

Poultry (6), where Jacques does not use up a lot of space on game birds. All but one recipe is for chicken, including an unconventional chicken bouillabaisse.

Meat (10), the high rent district with tenderloins, veal, and lamb chops. It also includes some fast cooking with pork and sausages.

Desserts (30), where Jacques reminds us he is no slouch in the pastry kitchen. Baking and working with chocolate always take longer than similar savory recipes, if only because you have to be more careful in measuring and in your mixing technique, but Jacques keeps things fairly simple by relying heavily on fruit desserts and sweet toppings as in crumbles and streusels. Naturally, there is at least one crepe recipe.

Jacques Pepin is the kind of authority whose recipes can be taken as gospel, so that if they do not come out as expected, the fault is probably with the technique or the ingredients.

I strongly recommend this book as a first source for your everyday cooking. All recipes are easy, few ingredients are uncommon, and all dishes look exceptionally tasty. And, list price is quite reasonable for a very celebrated chef's work.

105 of 113 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast Food Jacques' Way is My Way, October 1, 2004

By	rodboomboom (Dearborn, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This man is legend as creative and passionate chef. If you want a good read about a truly respected chef, read his memoir "The Apprentice." It's loaded with fascinating insights into the development of this famous chef. One of the insights of my read of that book was that he slowly has evolved from a classic French chef into an American-French chef.

This shows some of that dynamic: what Pepin says is his normal way of cooking at home. He concurs that his lifestyle is much like ours: hectic and warpspeed. When he and family returns to home, want some exciting food to prepare, not microwave or carryout, but rich, exciting food to prepare and enjoy fast.

One can easily see this resultant recipe collection hits that target dead on! It is truly combo of classic French with American twists and ingreds, using easily obtainable and produceable without exotic techniques, equipment and time.

Feast on such as: Egg and tomato gratin; Shrimpand scallop pillows on boston lettuce (potsticker variation); Supreme of chicken with balsamic vinegar and shallot sauce; Chocolate-raspberry gratin; Pear brown betty.

This wonderful recipe array is presented with great style accented by exceptional photo of Ben Fink. Your zeal for attempting these is heightened by these brilliant, enticing shots.

Add a menu suggester of over twenty along with more ideas for quick dishes, glossary and aid sidebars throughout, make this a most desirable addition to one's cookbook library.

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast, yes, but also incredibly delicious, January 11, 2005

By	B. J. Lewis (Highlands Ranch, CO) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I began buying cookbooks in the 60's, with Julia Child's first book -- how's that for sheer dumb luck? My kitchen library now consists of hundreds of them, but this is my first review -- that's how impressed I am. I'll skip right to the point now: What have I made that I would recommend (My pet peeve is a review that consists mainly of generalities without the specifics).
The supreme of chicken with balsamic vinegar is ridiculous in its simplicity, yet packs a gustatory wallop! The corn/pea side dish is perfect with it. Just for fun I made the entire "Instantly Delicious" menu -- not as quickly as Jacques does it, but still do-able in a short time, and everything was excellent, although I felt it necessary to "spike" the soup with additional herbs -- a little too bland for my taste. The recipe for broiled lamb chops and spinach is perfection. The chicken bouillabaisse is a great cold-weather dish (although having spent the summer in Aix, it's a far cry from its namesake -- oh well, let's just think apples to oranges -- they're both good.) The chicken breasts with garlic and parsley are worth doing, but I prefer the balsamic version. The halibut on fresh polenta with pepper oil (part of the "Instantly Delicious" menu) was quite good -- found the fresh polenta an eye-opener. And that silly little cubed potatoes with garlic and sage recipe was nothing short of dumbfounding. I'm making the poached tilapia with herbed cream sauce tonight, and if it isn't delectable I'll be shocked! I've recently purchased "Bouchon", both Union Square books, two Portale's, two of Vongerichten's, four of Michael Chirarello's -- all excellent, but this is the book that I'm having the most fun with!