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Learn to COOK - French Food at Home
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List Price: $14.99
Our Price: $11.21
Your Save: $ 3.78 ( 25% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: William Morrow Cookbooks
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 641
EAN: 9780060087722
ISBN: 0060087722
Label: William Morrow Cookbooks
Manufacturer: William Morrow Cookbooks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: 2005-07-01
Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks
Release Date: 2005-07-05
Studio: William Morrow Cookbooks
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Editorial Reviews:
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The French cooking of everyday life is lighthearted, accessible, and suited to modern tastes. Whether it's getting weeknight dinners on the table fairly fast (Basil Beef, Rhubarb Chops, or Carrot Juice Chicken) or leisurely cooking for dining at a slightly slower pace (Lamb Tagine, Holiday Hen, or Fennel Bass), Laura Calder shares recipes she's created at home in her own French kitchen.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Muse of Food...!
Comment: If there were a Muse of Food, just as we have Terpsichore for the Dance and her sisters Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Polyhymnia, Melpomene, Thalia and Urania, then she would surely be known as Delectabilia, or possibly Pulchritudina to the gods but Laura Calder to the rest of us enchanted mortals!
I cannot confess to having read the book...yet - but I shall. It is ordered. I have experienced, however, something arguably even better than the book - the muse herself, first hand. She is presently enrapturing audiences in this corner of South-East Asia with 'French Food at Home' on BBC Lifestyle and it is about the only television I have to see apart from the odd documentary or drama (and neither of these are sufficiently common in Hong Kong).
Laura Calder is spectacularly beautiful but less obviously conscious of the fact - hmmm Nigella! - looks the fresh and faultless epitome of French elegance, and apparently can sample and eat her most deliciously calorific food without putting on a single gramme of avoirdupois despite a plentiful use of butter, cream and all those necessary ingredients to la bonne cuisine.
Her food is French - absolutely so - but it is as inspired and as modern and still as authentic as only the best French cuisine can be. It is light years away from the dreadful messes that Fanny Craddock used to pass off as haute cuisine, and is redolent of happiness, joy and conviviality. This is the cooking of a person who loves her family and friends, and who loves little better than cooking for them.
My maternal grandmother was French, and I learnt to cook from her. Laura Calder has inspired me as much - I used to think that that would be an impossible feat.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Non Fussy Recipes
Comment: I first got this book out of the library and liked it so much I bought it. I made an entire birthday dinner from recipes here. The recipes, and I tried them from most of the categories in doing my dinner, are simple enough to make yet tasty and attractive.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed and Happy!!!!!!
Comment: I am disappointed that quite a few of the recipes from the "French Food at Home" television show are not in this book. The chapters are not structured as the television show is; instead I found this a modern take on the 'Elizabeth David' genre, though I am grateful that there is a recipe per page. As I particularly bought the book because of the show, it was not what I was expecting! In saying that, the recipes do not disappoint.
Customer Rating:
Summary: French food for the novice and experienced cook
Comment: I studied French cooking 30 years ago and thought I would never need to buy another cookbook on the subject. I couldn't have been more wrong. Laura's book is a delightful addition to other tomes such as 'Mastering the Art of French Cookery' but much less intimidating to the average cook. The steamed fish dish 'Pink & Green Papillotes' has already entered family legend and is indicative of her elegant but simple style of cooking. Laura has captured the essence of French food without the fussy touches. Try and catch the TV show of the same name as well.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Familiar Recipes with some new twists. Repeats other books
Comment: `French Food at Home' by Laura Calder is a very puzzling book. The biggest question which occurs to me at the get go is why write a 229 page book on a subject which has been covered in so much greater detail in the1270 pages of `Mastering the Art of French Cooking', the great cookbook classic by Julia Child, et. al. If that was not enough, you have the legions of volumes by Ms. Child's disciples such as Patricia Wells, Susan Hermann Loomis, Ina Garten, Amanda Hesser, and a dozen lesser lights who have touched on this subject. And, that doesn't even touch the professional chef's contributions to the genre with such prominent names such Thomas Keller (`Bouchon') and Tony Bourdain (`Le Halle Cookbook'). Last but not least are the books by professional teachers such as James Peterson, Jacques Pepin, Anne Willan, Richard Olney, and Madeline Kammen. So why add a new book to this very long list.
My puzzlement was doubled when I noticed that many of the recipes in this book are chestnuts which appear in virtually all general books on French recipes, not to mention the tomes put out by `Betty Crocker', `Better Homes and Gardens', and Martha Stewart. Exactly how many recipes do you need for Tapenade, Crudites, Gougeres, Tuiles, Hot Mussels (moules mariniere), Hollandaise, Endive Salad, Ratatouille, Tarte Tatin, and on and on and on!
Then I started to read Ms. Calder's headnotes and noticed that Miss Laura has a sense of humor about her writing. I can't give her complete credit for this, as a lightness and humor comparable to her famous high spirits on her TV shows also distinguish the great Julia's writing. But aside from Julia Child and, among writers of French cookbooks, Tony Bourdain, there may be just a little too much seriousness about cooking.
I also discovered a few recipes that did have a strong novelty about them, as with `duck on a string'. In some of the classics, I also noticed a fairly high level of ingenuity in giving special twists to classics, such as the tapenade rolled into a spiral with pastry.
The author is also pleasantly realistic about the fact that cooking some dishes simply does take time. To this end, she provides main courses in two different chapters, one entitled `Dinner Fairly Fast' and the other entitled `Dinner Slightly Slower'. Like the better `fast cooking' apostles, Ms. Calder's fast dishes are classics which are easy to prepare without introducing any artificial shortcuts. These include lots of fish and egg dishes. The slower dishes are braises roasts, gratins, and tarts, among other things. One of the most interesting recipes in this section is entitled `Housewife Chicken' where a 3 pound bird can be cooked on top of the stove, en casserole, with veggies thrown in for good measure.
There are a number of better than average sidebars on techniques such as how to debone a chicken. Unfortunately, there are no pictures, so you are probably much better off going to Monsieur Pepin or Herr Peterson for some illustrated guidance.
One page Ms. Calder takes from Patricia Wells' book is that many of her recipes are cribbed directly from major French chefs. The most common contributor is Michael Bras whose three star recipes are turned into something easy for the average amateur.
I am really happy I found and read this book, but the extent to which it duplicates material in many other books makes it difficult to know if the book is really worth the cost. For someone who owns no books on French recipes, and who just wants to see what all the excitement is about, I strongly recommend the book. It is entertaining and it has many of the recipes which made French cookery famous. For someone who owns and has assimilated one or more major good books on French cooking, you may want to save your money for a more complete book such as Madeleine Kammen's `The Making of a Cook' or a book with more different recipes, such as Patricia Wells' books on the cooking of Provence.
This book gives a pretty fresh look to a very well worn path!
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