Customer Reviews

Van Gogh's Table at the Auberge Ravoux: Recipes From the Artist's Last Home and Paintings of Cafe Life

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book has a unique combination of art and cooking. It is highly readable. It has lots of interesting facts about van Gogh in his last weeks, and about his relationship with food and drink. It has beautiful reproductions of paintings by van Gogh, but it also has many recipies that can be tried out. A great Xmas gift and a value for money! I really enjoyed it.

The Grandmother's Apple Cake recipe in this book is my favorite recipe on Epicurious so I bought the book hoping the other recipes would be as good. Wow! It was so beautiful and interesting and so much more than a cookbook that I gave it to a good friend as a Christmas gift and ordered another.

This is really half art book, half cookbook. The book is co-written by an art historian (mostly the first part, which recounts Van Gogh's last days, spent in the hotel, when he churned out 70 paintings in 70 days) and Alexandra Leaf, a food historian, who together with the chef at the hotel (which exists to this day) includes recipes for dishes Van Gogh ate. They're fantastic. Highly recommended.

I have enjoyed reading the historical and personalized view of Van Gogh's stay at the Auberge Ravoux. The recipes appear to be ones that can be enjoyed. My husband surprised me with the chocolate mousse the other night and it was the best I have ever eaten.
Compliments to Alexandra Leaf!

Van Gogh's Table At The Auberge Ravoux isn't just an art book, though Van Gogh's paintings form its foundation - it's also a survey of recipes from his last home, providing an intimate portrait of his world and culinary appreciations. Recipes are from the cafe and boarding house where the painter lived his final days, and provide intriguing views of dishes and art.

This book is a deep and colorful look into the fascinating and sad life of Vincent Van Gogh and the place where it ended.

The book drew me into the artist's life, and to the Auberge and Auverse Sur Oise, which I have now visited twice in the last year. I ate at the restaurant, and stood in the small, sad room where Van Gogh breathed his last after shooting himself in the chest - a room photographed and written about in this book.

My thoughtful middle son gave me the book for Mothers Day several years ago - and I loved it from the moment I saw the beautiful cover photo of the restored Auberge Ravoux restaurant . I leafed through the color plates of the restaurant and inn, Van Gogh's paintings, the scrumptious almost edible photos of the meals in the recipe pages - replications of the food served in the nineteenth century - and even a handwritten Van Gogh letter. I read about the recent restoration of the inn to match its appearance at the time of Van Gogh's nineteenth century residency there, and the intimate details of much of the artist's life in articles and essays by professor Fred Leeman, the former chief curator of the Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum and food historian Alexandra Leaf. One article is about the cafes, restaurants and auberges that Van Gogh freqeuented and painted in his lifelong search for "a room of one's own", one about his friendships and acquainceships, and another about his attempts to ward off suicidal tendencies by following Dickens' suggested infusions of food and drink - and yet another, about his complex relationship with food, and one about his final days at the Auberge. Accompanying the articles are wonderful color photos and black and white engravings.

I highly recommend the book - which I still go back to from time to time for reference. I also recommend that the reader then take the book with him or her and visit the Auberge and the town.

Excellent condition Fast and efficient service.Not just a fanciful fairytale as some accounts of van Gogh have proven to be.Backed up with authentic letters and history of the time this is a very agreeable read and the recipes give it that added interest.

Thank's, I went Auberge Ravooux in this september and take a runch same as table.
This is my important memorry.

This is one beautiful book. I received it recently and tonight made one of the meals from the cookbook section -- it was absolutely delicious and simple to make. This is an amazing book -- beautiful to look at, full of depth and mood, gorgeously photographed, full of prints of Vincent's work and stories of Vincent's life in Auvers -- the printing is beautiful, the paper is heavy and rich, the mood is just right. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Vincent Van Gogh and/or a fan of French food.

An interesting combination of information about Van Gogh's last months in a small town together with recipes from a restaurant in the auberge (inn) where he was living.

The recipes are from a functioning restaurant and the chocolate recipes are the best you will ever taste - and easy to make.

It's entertaining and educational. I really enjoyed. Great gift idea.