The Paris Neighborhood Cookbook: Danyel Couet's Guide to the City's Ethnic Cuisines (Cookbooks) [Hardcover]

Danyel Couet (Author), David Loftus (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2008

Chef Danyel Couet's life-long love affair with simple French food began in his paternal grandmother's Parisian kitchen. Here onions gave sweetness to the best of all onion soups, while lentils, asparagus and flavorful sausages were all treated equally lovingly. And the fries! There were no better fries than Grandma's! But of course the gastro polis of Paris offers much more than just the dishes cooked in Grandma's kitchen. After innumerable outings in Paris's many ethnic quarters, he has developed a love for couscous, strudel, and Peking duck that is just as strong as that for boeuf bourguignon and mousse au chocolat. Through eight neighborhoods and just as many kitchens, via markets, shops and restaurants--and approximately 90 recipes--Couet takes you with him to his Paris.

Lusciously photographed by David Loftus, The Paris Neighborhood Cookbook reveals the gastronomic secrets of the City of Light, a place where food and cultural diversity is at the center of Parisian life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Veteran restaurateur Couet and food photographer David Loftus team for a tour-in-recipes of the City of Light, its neighborhoods, and all the culinary nooks and crannies they hide. Couet acknowledges the quaint bistros and brasseries indelibly linked to the city, providing classics like Pommes Frites, Quiche Lorraine and an easy but luscious appetizer of baked goat cheese and honey. Couet argues that genuine Paris comes through in the city's many ethnic neighborhoods. The spicy lamb sausage called Merguez takes home cooks to the city's Arab Quarter; a simple but exotic salad of pineapple, coconut and pomegranate spiked with lime juice and a habanero chile transports readers to Paris' African neighborhood; and the Asian Quarter can be sampled in a crisp Green Tea and Cilantro Martini. Loftus expertly supplements Couet's rustic dishes with color and black and white photos. For many, the culinary cornerstone of the book will be Couet's take on Parisian markets and street food, in which he offers tips on creating a menu for an impromptu picnic: a trio of marinated olives, pickled sardines, wine-cooked artichokes and stuffed camembert among them. Readers who have never set foot in the French capitol will feel like they've just returned home after taking in this multifaceted cookbook.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Paris , like all great metropolises, is a city of neighborhoods where newly arrived immigrants congregate together to preserve native traditions and establish systems of support within alien cultures. Within many of Paris’ fabled arrondissements, enclaves of distinctly non-French cooking hold sway. Couet has collected typical ethnic recipes from these local markets, cafés, and restaurants. From the Marais, centuries-old host to a sizable Jewish community, come carrot kugel and potato blini. The Fifth Arrondissement’s Greeks prepare fried squid. The Avenue d’Ivry is noted for its Vietnamese spring rolls. The Arab community near the Barbès Metro stop offers duck tagine. East Africans roast chicken rubbed with exotic spices, but the cooking methodology is still verifiably French. Couet also includes examples of provincial French cooking from some of the city’s bistros and brasseries. The book brims with photographs of food and of Paris’ streets and parks. --Mark Knoblauch

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 262 pages
• Publisher: Interlink Books (September 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566567238
• ISBN-13: 978-1566567237
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #444,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Cookbook!, March 8, 2010

By 

Foodie (Lake Forest, IL USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Paris Neighborhood Cookbook: Danyel Couet's Guide to the City's Ethnic Cuisines (Cookbooks) (Hardcover)

Let me start off by stating that I'd seen this book at a local bookstore, and the recipes inside immediately captured my interest. Returning home, I decided to check Amazon for a better price (of course), and to see what others have thought of it. After reading the one previous negative review, I decided to purchase the book anyway, because I simply feel that the recipes are worth having.

The first thing I cooked from the book was an hors d'oeuvre in the "Bistro Food" chapter: "Chévre Chaud," which is a sliced baquette topped with a bit of goat cheese, baked, and then you pour a fantastic mixture that includes tarragon, parsley, and basil mixed with orange blossom honey on top of each. Needless to say, my dinner guests weren't complaining. In fact, they wanted to go back and polish them off after dinner!

So, last night I decided to try the "Flétan Aux 'Epices" (Spiced Fish), in which I cooked sea bass with a spice dry-rub comprised of fennel seeds, black mustard seeds, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, and tumeric. After frying the fish in a bit of olive oil on each side, the sauce is a strained mixture of jalapeno pepper, cilantro, butter, and orange juice. Again, the guests loved it; and I am quite pleased with my new cookbook.

To sum things up, I haven't cooked a lot from the Paris Neighborhood Cookbook yet, but nearly every recipe seems to suit my tastes, and I trust the instincts of author/chef Daniel Couet based upon what I like to cook as well.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, Nice mix of Food and Thought., November 1, 2011

By 

Tuna Bones - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Paris Neighborhood Cookbook: Danyel Couet's Guide to the City's Ethnic Cuisines (Cookbooks) (Hardcover)

This is a little more than just a cookbook it also offers information on food culture and Parisian neighborhood spots and ethnic cuisine. A nice read not just to cook from. Recipes are from various establishments and all very nice. I should stress that this book is much broader than just French cuisine. It is also multinational ex-pats that now reside in Paris. Nothing too complicated or unapproachable, everything looks and is yummy. Some sexy food porn pictures too. If you want something a little different this is a pretty good one.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars More a walking tour book., January 24, 2009

By 

J. J. Collins "Katethegrape" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Paris Neighborhood Cookbook: Danyel Couet's Guide to the City's Ethnic Cuisines (Cookbooks) (Hardcover)

I returned the book because it ended up not what I thought it was going to be. Turns out it is a walking tour through ethnic Paris neighborhoods getting recipes from the various countries that these neighborhoods were settled by.

In essence eating North African, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, etc. in Paris. Anecdotes are good just not quite the cookbook I was hoping for.