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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Jacques Pepin's Greatest Hits. Familiar, but still Great, July 18, 2004
Jaques Pepin may be unique among American culinary figures, as he is both a widely recognized master chef who is also a leading culinary educator to both professionals at the French Culinary Institute and to laymen through many books and PBS series. He is also closely connected to American culinary aristocracy by association with Julia Child, Craig Claiborne, and Pierre Franey, with whom he worked for many years. One small sign of his renown is that when he happened to appear on the Rocco DiSpirito reality show, `The Restaurant', both Rocco and the executive chef of the restaurant literally fell over one another to show Jaques their regard for his work.This volume, `Jaques Pepin Celebrates' is, in many ways, the album of a live show of his greatest hits, where recipes and techniques from many earlier books are reprised, with new arrangements. This means the value of the book to you will directly depend on how many other of Pepin's books you already have and how much you specifically like his take on cooking. In other words, how big a Jaques Pepin fan are you? The 26 episodes in the PBS series on which this book is based are based on menus for major holidays and other special occasions. The material in the book, however, is very wisely organized around the traditional French cuisine headings of `Stocks and Soups', `Eggs', `Shellfish and Fish', `Poultry and Game', `Meat', `Appetizers, Salads, Side Dishes', `Breads', `Pastries', and `Cakes and Desserts'. There are simple recipes in this book, especially some of the famous French egg and salad recipes, but a large number of the recipes here are relatively complicated. That is not the same as being difficult. As Jaques very honestly states, the bread recipes in the book are relatively straightforward, but achieving a superior result is very difficult, because so much depends on subtleties in your flour, environmental conditions, and oven. Jaques is a better than average source of knowledge on bread baking and pastries, but I would suggest you read what he has to say on the matter and get books by baking specialists such as Nick Malgieri, Flo Braker, Sherry Yard, or Rose Levy Beranbaum to guide you through these subtleties. Unlike books by other major chefs such as Daniel Boulud on cooking for entertaining, Pepin's dishes are almost all standards of the French cuisine. There is very little here which was not cooked in France fifty or more years ago. This is entirely in keeping with this being a `greatest hits' book. A consequence of this selection is that the book offers superior recipes for dishes such as cassolet, leg of lamb, pastry encrusted baked fish, roasted chicken, blinis with caviar, and galantines, mousses, and pates which are very familiar to a large number of people, especially to the foodies among your friends and acquaintances. Like other very good culinary writers such as James Beard, Julia Child, Shirley Corriher, and Tom Colicchio, you must weigh every word, as there is no telling when the next sentence will contain an important tip on culinary technique, such as the little device of rolling hard boiled eggs around in the pot after cooking to crack the shells then cover with cool water to improve ease of peeling the eggs when they cool down. This attention to detail that is so thrilling to find is also so disappointing when you find obvious little mistakes in well respected writers work. There are no disappointments here. With a list price of $40, this is Jaques' coffee table book that you can get to join your other big volumes from Eric Rippert, Thomas Keller, and Jeremiah Tower. In keeping with the celebratory theme, the menus include many wine recommendations, many of which are somewhat fussy, but for all of which Jaques freely allows any reasonable substitution of a wine with similar affinities. Not being a major wine fan, I found the wine suggestions very easy to overlook. Pepin is the gold standard for active American culinary writers. There is practically no room for arguing with his technique and recipes. So, the issue with this book comes down to how well you like French recipes and how many Pepin books do you already own. My personal opinion is that this is not his most valuable volume. For pure technique, I think the `Complete Techniques' volume offers a lot more culinary wisdom for the money. And, I think the `Julia and Jaques Cook at Home' volume offers much more entertainment for the money. So, I would rate this third after these volumes. This is no reflection on the PBS TV series, it is only an evaluation of the book. If you loved the series and wish to preserve these memories, get the book. It will not disappoint you. The book is certainly a lot better than his quick cooking, economic cooking, and healthy cooking titles, as these smack of being titles prepared to ride current trends in cookbooks. Although, Pepin does have special credentials for fast cooking recipes, as his partner, Pierre Franey was a long time expert on the subject. Highly recommended if you are a big Pepin fan, like to cook to entertain, or have no other books by Pepin.
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