Thirty-five of France's most prominent chefs share recipes that will make even the most resistant vegetable snubber reach for a fork. The chefs—including pastry god Pierre Hermé, l'Arpège's elegant Alain Passard, and grande dame of Parisian cuisine Hélène Darroze—create eye-catching and satisfying recipes with vegetables ranging from spinach and broccoli to rhubarb and sweet peas, from leeks and beets to fennel and artichokes. Vegetables offers a fresh, new view of French culinary trends. Vegetables opens with a vegetable patch tour featuring Joël Thiébault, a respected French farmer who delivers his amazing produce to the doorsteps of prominent French foodies including cookbook maven Patricia Wells. Joël offers tips for growing your own produce or selecting the best vegetables at market, along with the history and nutritional properties of the featured vegetables.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Better suited to the coffee table than the kitchen counter, this heavy, gorgeous volume is filled with photos of specialty vegetables grown by a certain kind of celebrity farmer popular in France. French celebrity farmers are different from civilian farmers in that, instead of growing plain old radishes, say, they grow "cherry belle" radishes, and then hand them over to French celebrity chefs, who in turn make them into "Spider Crabs in Cherry Belle Radish Jello, with a Pistou of Radish Tops." While it's doubtful that a civilian chef would want to attempt this kind of dish at home, the full-page photo of it is a treat in itself, looking as much like jewelry as food. The same goes for "Summer Sprouting Broccoli with Calamari and its Ink" and "Slice of Slim Jim Eggplant with Fall Flavors." Even in the midst of all this lovely frivolity, however, a few recipes are both easy to source and cook. "Sweet White Onions in a Pissaladiere" is a tasty dish full of anchovies and olives; "Cantaloupe Melon Granita" is a refreshing dessert any kid with a blender could throw together. But despite a handful of relatively simple recipes, one can't help thinking that a cookbook this pretty shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the kitchen.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
About the Author
Patrick Mikanowski, an international food development and advertising consultant, is passionate about flavors. He trained as an art director and has traveled the world, meeting chefs and seeking out the best in food. He is the author of Uncooked, Tomate, and Patate, which was awarded Cookbook of the Year at the Gourmet Media World Festival. Lyndsay Mikanowski is a landscape designer with a university background in history, sociology, and anthropology. She is the coauthor of Uncooked, Tomate, and Patate. Grant Symon, a photographer from Scotland, is a specialist in advertising and design. His cover for Uncooked won the award for "Best Cookbook Cover" at the World Cookbook Awards in 2004.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The most beautiful "cookbook" ever,
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This review is from: Vegetables by 40 Great French Chefs (Hardcover)
Joël Thiébault is a legendary Parisian gardener. His great-grandparents set up shop as maraîchers, or market gardeners, in 1873 on what is now Avenue du Président Wilson in Paris. Today he grows 1,700 varieties of vegetables on 54 acres, in Carrières-sur-Seine four miles from Paris. He sells his vegetables at the market twice a week; many Pairs restaurants serve them while listing his name on the menu; and there is a weekly care package delivery system for home cooks.
This book is a illustrated compendium of his produce with 250 beautiful photographs. Thiébault describes his life and some of the unusual vegetables he favors: for example, Purple Graffiti cauliflower, Hokkaido sweet squash, Green Zebra tomatoes and coriander flowers. There are also a number of recipes from many of the top chefs in Paris who serve his vegetables. He described his vegetables to Patricia Boccadoro in an article in "The Herald Tribune": "I am insatiably curious.The moment I hear about something new I can't resist trying to grow it while at the same time, I adore cultivating vegetables which have gone out of fashion. I enjoy discovering plants which were grown way back when. Last year alone I grew 50 or 60 different kinds of tomatoes, which, administratively speaking was way too many. But I love the colour, flavour and scent of each variety such as Green Zebra which has a perfume all of its own, particularly at the end of a sunny day. Some varieties are matte, others brilliant, and each has a unique texture. Finally, you can't ignore the actual sensation of the fruit in your mouth which can be very sensual, and differs according to the variety." Thiébault offers tips for growing your own produce, on selecting the best vegetables at market, and on the history and nutritional values. For example, "the best thing to do after shopping is to take everything home and put it in a cool place as quickly as possible, particularly all leafy foods which should be wrapped in cling film and kept at 2°C [36°F]." On making spinach, wash thoroughly and dry each leaf before putting it in a large frying pan or wok with a knob of butter and stir it gently for no more than three minutes. But Thiébault is a gardener, not a chef. He provides background on each vegetable and then "hands" the vegetable over to one of the chef contributors who come up with imaginative methods of preparing them. Chef François Brouilly sautées Samos spinach garlic and butter and tops it with a soft boiled egg. Chef Jean-François Piège describes a creamy French-style pea soup and garden pea ice cream. Chef Christophe Pele describes Spider Crabs in Cherry Belle Radish Jello with a Pistou of Radish Tops. There are recipes for caramelized Belgian endive with scallops, poached cabbage with foie gras, celery root souffle, and an arrangement of cockles, whelks and borage flowers "as if in an aquarium." Don't buy this book to learn how to cook vegetables; Mark Bittman's comprehensive How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food is a much better choice for that purpose. Buy this book primarily for the wonderful pictures and to get ideas on how to spiff up your own vegetable dishes. It's a delightful addition to any food lover's library. The same team produced POTATO, Uncooked and Egg. Robert C. Ross 2007 2008
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great book!,
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This review is from: Vegetables by 40 Great French Chefs (Hardcover)
A few of these recipes appear in other books by these chefs, and a few of the chefs are a little vague in their descriptions. Not as good as "EGG", one of the other books by these guys. I am curious about the potato book still, so I'll have to check that one out.
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