Customer Reviews

Pedaling Through Burgundy Cookbook

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

 

 

Sarah Leah Chase is my favorite cookbook author, and while this isn't her best effort (Nantucket Open House Cookbook is *essential* for anyone who loves food), it contains plenty of excellent French provincial-inspired recipes while avoiding the stodginess of that traditional fare. Chase uses French cooking standbys, butter and cream, along with Burgundian ingredients like Dijon mustard, Chablis and red Burgundy wines. But she also spices things up with a liberal use of Creme de Cassis--the recipe for Candied Shallot and Walnut Croutes is worth the price of the book alone. Other outstanding recipes include one for Baked Oysters, a lovely Pain d'Epices and Potato Gratin Dijonnaise. If the book has a weakness, it's probably in the meat dishes. Most are pretty similar to recipes found in other French Bistro or Americanized French cookbooks. But this is still a very worthy, not to mention beautiful looking, cookbook that belongs on the pantry shelf of any serious cook or cookbook aficionado.

I agree with the reviewer below: the author takes frequent liberties with traditional recipes. I, however, think this is a good thing. It's analogous to the difference between dining out at a traditional French bistro vs. a French inspired more nouvelle cuisine type of restaurant. They each have their place, they're just different.

It's totally understandable to expect this book to have traditional Burgundian recipes and it largely doesn't. But this doesn't mean that it, and the companion Provence cookbook, are unworthy of spots on your cookbook shelf. The recipes are creative and come out consistently well, plus the book is a good read. I made the asparagus in aigrelette sauce last night and served it with seared salmon as the recipe suggested-- incredibly fast, easy, different, and delicious. You can't ask for much more in a cookbook, assuming you are not looking for 100% traditional recipes. There are are plenty of books with those, so kudos to Ms. Chase for providing us with something different and doing it very well.

When I was looking for guidebooks for an upcoming trip to France, the librarian suggested this cookbook and, oh, what a wonderful suggestion it was! While the recipes were interesting looking and we learned much about the cuisine we would soon be tasting, it's value for us was the marvelous overview and incredible font of information it provided on the Burgundy region. It introduced us to the wines, the food, the villages and the little out-of-the-way places that made our trip so incredibly memorable. We used it constantly, met many of the people she wrote about and stopped in the restaurants, shops and sites she recommended. For anyone who is contemplating a visit to Burgundy, loves the French countryside or wants to experience it vicariously, this is just the book to do it with.

An amusing and well-written little book, with some very practical information about the region, the villages, the vineyards, the winemakers and their wines, and the rich specialties of the cuisine.

Be forewarned, however: if you are looking for actual classic recipes of Burgundy, you will not find them here. The author, apparantly, knows best. For example, the author thinks that the traditional escargot baked in shells with snail butter is too rich and too old-fashioned, so she offers a Italo-American creation of her own (using proscuitto!) instead of the original. She does not like coq au vin, made in the traditional fashion, either; it suffers a similar fate. The delicious (to my mind, at any rate) starter of ham and parsley in wine-flavoured aspic, Jambon en Perseille, is another traditional dish of Burgundy that the author disapproves of; it too is only offered as an unrecognizable "improved" (Americanized) creation. Without the aspic, of course. Boeuf Bourgignonne, the quintessential slow-cooked red wine stew of Burgundy, indeed, THE regional specialty, is also too rich and old-fashioned for her tastes, so she does not offer the traditional recipe at all, but rather another of her "improvements": BBQ beef kabobs with a red wine sauce.

To be scrupulously fair, there are some actual traditional recipes of Burgundy included: Gougeres, the little cheese puffs that are such a wonderful accompaniment to the wines of the region, and gingerbread, another Burgundian specialty. And some of the soups and salads are at least in the spirit of Bourgogne.

So in summary, if you are planning to visit Burgundy, this book may prove useful, but if you are seeking recipes of the classic cuisine of Burgundy, you had best look for another cookbook.

I'm a 30-something single man who used to live in terror of trying to cook French cuisine. I found this book and have had wild success with several of Sarah's recipes. Yes, some of the sauces are "dumbed-down" north american versions of French sauces, but no one has complained about them yet! Straightforward recipes and very pleasing results make this is a great book for French cuisine rookies.