Customer Reviews

Made in Morocco

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have this book and have used it for several dinner parties. People love the meals and love looking through the cookbook. The fantastic photographs not only capture the the dishes perfectly, but also give an excellent glimpse of Morocco, the place. Julie Le Clerc is so good at translating the local foods into recipes that anyone can make. I envision many more wonderful meals from this cookbook.

My family and I just returned from a trip to Marrakech. This book captures the culture of Morocco with the most beautiful photographs. The colors are amazing and the recipes it provides are delicious. The book portrays the people, architecture and food of Morocco beautifully. Highly recommended.

`made in morocco' by Anzac (Australian and New Zealand) chef and culinary writer, Julie Le Clerc and fellow Anzac businessman and photographer, John Bougen, is a culinary travelogue, composed of four types of material. The first and most prominent is Bougen's folio-sized photographic spreads, which begin on the covers and simply don't quit throughout the book. The second is Mme. Le Clerc's recipes organized nominally by location, but more seriously by type of dish (by location). The third component is Mme. LeClerc's culinary introductions and characterizations of the culinary landscape at each Moroccan terroir. The fourth is the text by photographer Bougen, adding some meat to the understanding of the pictures.

Since I was attracted to this volume through a search for primarily culinary titles, my initial reaction was disappointment. As a culinary treatment of Morocco, it can't hold a candle to Paula Wolfert's famous and authoritative `Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco'. But after reasonable reflection, I realized that the book has quite successfully accomplished its objective, in that it actually incited a desire in me to travel to Morocco. Even Miss Paula didn't do that. But then, that is the object of this book, to provoke an interest in the country in general through photography and culinary material.

Why then do I give this less than five stars! Mostly, it's for small things, such as inadequate captions to the luscious photographs. I would simply love to know what the large copper (or brass) kettle in the frontispiece picture is for, but nothing is offered to explain the setting or the unusual kitchen utensils therein. Another small item is that if you are doing a travelogue, put the map of the trip in the FRONT of the book! The rather anemic map is in the back of the book, just before the index, and it is a poor excuse for a map at that.

There is little attempt to characterize Moroccan cuisine in general (see Wolfert for that), but it is interesting to see a fine example of the fact that while Morocco is at the far western edge of the Mediterranean, west of Italy, France, and even Spain, its cuisine has much more in common with the Arab Levant than with its closer European neighbors bordering the Mediterranean. While Italy never gets too excited about sweet desserts, Morocco relishes them with all the gusto of Lebanon and Syria.

It's interesting to see the book end with what seem like excellent `travel notes', but there is no information on how best to travel to Morocco, just as there are no sources for Moroccan staples on the Internet.

This is a great little book to tease you into wanting to go to Morocco. It's culinary content is light, but all recipes are made easy for convincing entertaining in a Moroccan style. If you are adverse to hot, dry climates and want more culinary material, try Wolfert's book for a better analytical all-around grounding in Moroccan cuisine.

bought this for my cousin and her husband with a tagine and they love the recipes! i tried their leftovers from one of the dishes and they were delicious.

This Book is better than i excpected, it has a lot of good information and also some good recepies.