The memoir of a young diplomat’s wife who must reinvent her dream of living in Paris—one dish at a time When journalist Ann Mah’s diplomat husband is given a three-year assignment in Paris, Ann is overjoyed. A lifelong foodie and Francophile, she immediately begins plotting gastronomic adventures à deux. Then her husband is called away to Iraq on a year-long post—alone. Suddenly, Ann’s vision of a romantic sojourn in the City of Light is turned upside down. So, not unlike another diplomatic wife, Julia Child, Ann must find a life for herself in a new city. Journeying through Paris and the surrounding regions of France, Ann combats her loneliness by seeking out the perfect pain au chocolat and learning the way the andouillette sausage is really made. She explores the history and taste of everything from boeuf Bourguignon to soupe au pistou to the crispiest of buckwheat crepes. And somewhere between Paris and the south of France, she uncovers a few of life’s truths. Like Sarah Turnbull’s Almost French and Julie Powell’s New York Times bestseller Julie and Julia, Mastering the Art of French Eating is interwoven with the lively characters Ann meets and the traditional recipes she samples. Both funny and intelligent, this is a story about love—of food, family, and France.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The definitive cookbook on French cuisine for American readers: "What a cookbook should be: packed with sumptuous recipes, detailed instructions, and precise line drawings. Some of the instructions look daunting, but as Child herself says in the introduction, 'If you can read, you can cook.'" —Entertainment Weekly “I only wish that I had written it myself.” —James Beard Featuring 524 delicious recipes and over 100 instructive illustrations to guide readers every step of the way, Mastering the Art of French Cooking offers something for everyone, from seasoned experts to beginners who love good food and long to reproduce the savory delights of French cuisine. Julia Child, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle break down the classic foods of France into a logical sequence of themes and variations rather than presenting an endless and diffuse catalogue of dishes—from historic Gallic masterpieces to the seemingly artless perfection of a dish of spring-green peas. Throughout, the focus is on key recipes that form the backbone of French cookery and lend themselves to an infinite number of elaborations—bound to increase anyone’s culinary repertoire. “Julia has slowly but surely altered our way of thinking about food. She has taken the fear out of the term ‘haute cuisine.’ She has increased gastronomic awareness a thousandfold by stressing the importance of good foundation and technique, and she has elevated our consciousness to the refined pleasures of dining." —Thomas Keller, The French Laundry
One of Christopher Kimball’s Six Favorite Books About Food A beautiful and deeply researched investigation into French cuisine, from the founding editor of The Art of Eating and author of 50 Foods. In THE FOOD AND WINE OF FRANCE, the influential food writer Edward Behr investigates French cuisine and what it means, in encounters from Champagne to Provence. He tells the stories of French artisans and chefs who continue to work at the highest level. Many people in and out of France have noted for a long time the slow retreat of French cuisine, concerned that it is losing its important place in the country's culture and in the world culture of food. And yet, as Behr writes, good French food remains very, very delicious. No cuisine is better. The sensuousness is overt. French cooking is generous, both obvious and subtle, simple and complex, rustic and utterly refined. A lot of recent inventive food by comparison is wildly abstract and austere. In the tradition of great food writers, Edward Behr seeks out the best of French food and wine. He shows not only that it is as relevant as ever, but he also challenges us to see that it might become the world's next cutting edge cuisine. France remains the greatest country for bread, cheese, and wine, and its culinary techniques are the foundation of the training of nearly every serious Western cook and some beyond. Behr talks with chefs and goes to see top artisanal producers in order to understand what "the best" means for them, the nature of traditional methods, how to enjoy the foods, and what the optimal pairings are. As he searches for the very best in French food and wine, he introduces a host of important, memorable people. THE FOOD AND WINE OF FRANCE is a remarkable journey of discovery. It is also an investigation into why classical French food is so extraordinarily delicious--and why it will endure.
French Kids Eat Everything is a wonderfully wry account of how Karen Le Billon was able to alter her children’s deep-rooted, decidedly unhealthy North American eating habits while they were all living in France. At once a memoir, a cookbook, a how-to handbook, and a delightful exploration of how the French manage to feed children without endless battles and struggles with pickiness, French Kids Eat Everything features recipes, practical tips, and ten easy-to-follow rules for raising happy and healthy young eaters—a sort of French Women Don’t Get Fat meets Food Rules.
If you’re passionate about eating well, you couldn’t ask for a better travel companion than Alexander Lobrano’s charming, friendly, and authoritative Hungry for Paris, the fully revised and updated guide to this renowned culinary scene. Having written about Paris for almost every major food and travel magazine since moving there in 1986, Lobrano shares his personal selection of the city’s best restaurants, from bistros featuring the hottest young chefs to the secret spots Parisians love. In lively prose that is not only informative but a pleasure to read, Lobrano reveals the ambience, clientele, history, and most delicious dishes of each establishment—alongside helpful maps and beautiful photographs that will surely whet your appetite for Paris. Praise for Hungry for Paris “Hungry for Paris is required reading and features [Alexander Lobrano’s] favorite 109 restaurants reviewed in a fun and witty way. . . . A native of Boston, Lobrano moved to Paris in 1986 and never looked back. He served as the European correspondent for Gourmet from 1999 until it closed in 2009 (also known as the greatest job ever that will never be a job again). . . . He also updates his website frequently with restaurant reviews, all letter graded.”—Food Republic “Written with . . . flair and . . . acerbity is the new, second edition of Alexander Lobrano’s Hungry for Paris, which includes rigorous reviews of what the author considers to be the city’s 109 best restaurants [and] a helpful list of famous Parisian restaurants to be avoided.”—The Wall Street Journal “A wonderful guide to eating in Paris.”—Alice Waters “Nobody else has such an intimate knowledge of what is going on in the Paris food world right this minute. Happily, Alexander Lobrano has written it all down in this wonderful book.”—Ruth Reichl “Delightful . . . the sort of guide you read before you go to Paris—to get in the mood and pick up a few tips, a little style.”—Los Angeles Times “No one is ‘on the ground’ in Paris more than Alec Lobrano. . . . This book will certainly make you hungry for Paris. But even if you aren’t in Paris, his tales of French dining will seduce you into feeling like you are here, sitting in your favorite bistro or sharing a carafe of wine with a witty friend at a neighborhood hotspot.”—David Lebovitz, author of The Sweet Life in Paris “Hungry for Paris is like a cozy bistro on a chilly day: It makes you feel welcome.”—The Washington Post “This book will make readers more than merely hungry for the culinary riches of Paris; it will make them ravenous for a dining companion with Monsieur Lobrano’s particular warmth, wry charm, and refreshingly pure joie de vivre.”—Julia Glass “[Lobrano is] a wonderful man and writer who might know more about Paris restaurants than any other person I’ve ever met.”—Elissa Altman, author of Poor Man’s Feast
Savoir-Faire is a comprehensive account of France’s rich culinary history, which is not only full of tales of haute cuisine, but seasoned with myths and stories from a wide variety of times and places—from snail hunting in Burgundy to female chefs in Lyon, and from cheese appreciation in Roman Gaul to bread debates from the Middle Ages to the present. It examines the use of less familiar ingredients such as chestnuts, couscous, and oysters; explores French food in literature and film; reveals the influence of France’s overseas territories on the shape of French cuisine today; and includes historical recipes for readers to try at home.
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The book that launched a French Revolution about how to approach healthy living: the ultimate non-diet book—now with more recipes. “The perfect book.... A blueprint for building a healthy attitude toward food and exercise"—San Francisco Chronicle French women don’t get fat, even though they enjoy bread and pastry, wine, and regular three-course meals. Unlocking the simple secrets of this “French paradox”—how they enjoy food while staying slim and healthy—Mireille Guiliano gives us a charming, inspiring take on health and eating for our times. For anyone who has slipped out of her Zone, missed the flight to South Beach, or accidentally let a carb pass her lips, here is a positive way to stay trim, a culture’s most precious secrets recast for the twenty-first century. A life of wine, bread—even chocolate—without girth or guilt? Pourquoi pas?
For the legions of fans who asked for seconds after devouring French Women Don’t Get Fat, a charming and practical guide to adding some joie to your vie and to your table, every day of the year. By letter, by email and in person, readers of Mireille Guiliano’s phenomenal bestseller French Women Don’t Get Fat have inundated her with requests for more advice. Her answer: this buoyant new book, brimming with tips and tricks for living with the utmost pleasure and style, without gaining weight. More than a theory or ideal, the French woman’s way is an all-encompassing program that can be practised anytime, anywhere. Here are four full seasons of strategies for shopping, cooking and moving throughout the year. Whether your aim is finding two scoopfuls of pleasure in one of crème brûlée, or entertaining beautifully when time is short and expectations are high, the answers are here. And here too are 100 new simple and appetizing recipes that feature French staples such as leeks and chocolate and many more unexpected treats besides, guaranteeing that boredom will never be a guest at your table. Woven through this year of living comme les françaises are more of Mireille’s delectable stories about living in Paris and New York and travelling just about everywhere else – in the voice that has already beguiled a million honorary French women. Lest anyone still wonder: here is a new compendium of reasons – both traditional and modern – why French women don’t get fat.
From his first newsletter, issued in 1986, through today’s beautiful full-color magazine, Edward Behr has offered companionship and creativity to avid culinary enthusiasts, including some of America’s most famous chefs. This book collects the best recipes of the magazine’s past twenty-five years—from classic appetizer and vegetable side dishes to meat entrees and desserts. Each section or recipe is introduced with a note on its relevant cultural history or the particular technique it uses, revealing how competing French and Italian cultural influences have shaped contemporary American cuisine.
