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Learn to COOK - Bouchon
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List Price: $50.00
Our Price: $31.50
Your Save: $ 18.50 ( 37% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Artisan
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5944
EAN: 9781579652395
ISBN: 1579652395
Label: Artisan
Manufacturer: Artisan
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 360
Publication Date: 2004-11-15
Publisher: Artisan
Studio: Artisan
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Editorial Reviews:
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Thomas Keller, chef/proprieter of Napa Valley's French Laundry, is passionate about bistro cooking. He believes fervently that the real art of cooking lies in elevating to excellence the simplest ingredients; that bistro cooking embodies at once a culinary ethos of generosity, economy, and simplicity; that the techniques at its foundation are profound, and the recipes at its heart have a powerful ability to nourish and please.
So enamored is he of this older, more casual type of cooking that he opened the restaurant Bouchon, right next door to the French Laundry, so he could satisfy a craving for a perfectly made quiche, or a gratinéed onion soup, or a simple but irresistible roasted chicken. Now Bouchon, the cookbook, embodies this cuisine in all its sublime simplicity.
But let's begin at the real beginning. For Keller, great cooking is all about the virtue of process and attention to detail. Even in the humblest dish, the extra thought is evident, which is why this food tastes so amazing: The onions for the onion soup are caramelized for five hours; lamb cheeks are used for the navarin; basic but essential refinements every step of the way make for the cleanest flavors, the brightest vegetables, the perfect balance—whether of fat to acid for a vinaigrette, of egg to liquid for a custard, of salt to meat for a duck confit.
Because versatility as a cook is achieved through learning foundations, Keller and Bouchon executive chef Jeff Cerciello illuminate all the key points of technique along the way: how a two-inch ring makes for a perfect quiche; how to recognize the right hazelnut brown for a brown butter sauce; how far to caramelize sugar for different uses.
But learning and refinement aside—oh those recipes! Steamed mussels with saffron, bourride, trout grenobloise with its parsley, lemon, and croutons; steak frites, beef bourguignon, chicken in the pot—all exquisitely crafted. And those immortal desserts: the tarte Tatin, the chocolate mousse, the lemon tart, the profiteroles with chocolate sauce. In Bouchon, you get to experience them in impeccably realized form.
This is a book to cherish, with its alluring mix of recipes and the author's knowledge, warmth, and wit: "I find this a hopeful time for the pig," says Keller about our yearning for the flavor that has been bred out of pork. So let your imagination transport you back to the burnished warmth of an old-fashioned French bistro, pull up a stool to the zinc bar or slide into a banquette, and treat yourself to truly great preparations that have not just withstood the vagaries of fashion, but have improved with time. Welcome to Bouchon.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: French Home Cooking
Comment: "Bouchon" is Thomas Keller's everyday home cooking equivalent to his fancy "French Laundry." While the French Laundry cookbook has elaborate equivalents to everyday dishes, Bouchon goes back to the basics of French cooking. Keller teaches the basics of quiches, using the egg, and onion soup. He even describes what makes a bistro a bistro. One could be dismissive like the fictional critic Anton Ego in "Ratatouille" when he calls it a "simple peasant dish"--but with Keller,even ordinary cooking is extraordinary.
"Bouchon" is named for Keller's bistro of the same name in Yountville. It's also the name of his bakery/pastry shop that's right next door. The Bouchon bakery supplies many coffee shops in the Napa Valley, and its version of the Oreo cookie is positively divine!
"Bouchon" is sophisticated everyday French cooking. Since this is a Thomas Keller work,it's not a "30 minute meal." Its recipes are more within reach of the ordinary cook... though he does say onions need to caramelize for 5 hours to make the soup just right. Still,it's a fun,fascinating coffee table book. Bon appetit!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Gift
Comment: This is a great book. It is so much more than a cookbook. I have quite a collection of cookbooks and love to read them. This one is very interesting and visually pleasing. If you are looking for a great gift for someone who enjoys food (cooking and/or eating) this is it! The French Laundry Cookbook makes a great companion to this book. Thomas Keller is a culinary genius.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautiful book
Comment: Beautiful book with a special atmosphere and story. The format, pictures, text are really interesting and worth to see and read.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: nice watch - shame about the book design
Comment: My immediate reaction on unpacking this was 'yuck'. This is the book equivalent of a roast chicken with little paper toques on the legs - the target audience looks to be the sort of people who enjoy reading in-flight magazines, and who store the major part of their libraries under the coffee table. This first reaction was immediately reinforced by sentences that told me things like that 'a good quiche is like sex' (or maybe 'a quiche is like good sex' - I'm not sure, I quote from memory), and a general impression that Keller is to Bistro food what Marie-Antoinette was to cheese making.
Nevertheless, if you can muscle your way past the gag reflex, there are a healthy number of good ideas and recipes here within a coherent (if somewhat Baroque) framing perspective.
In summary, technical content is actually very good, but I won't be filing it beside Elizabeth David, where people can see it.
One other thing - does Keller have a watch endorsement deal? A large chunk of expensive looking (but not actually identifiable) steel is on display on his wrist in many of the pictures - I don't think I have ever seen a watch on a chef's wrist before in technique photos, never mind displayed so prominently).
Note added (31.05.08) W.r.t. watches, it appears Keller is just ahead of the curve: I just got Heston Blumenthal's two 'Perfection' books in the mail, and he also sports a large chunk of mechanical timepiece. Blumenthal's books are infinitely more attractive than Keller's - if nothing else, Blumenthal has a well-developed sense of irony, something Keller appears completely to lack.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent gift
Comment: This was bought as a gift. Rarely do you get a chance to give a gift that keeps on giving. In addition, it shows careful thought. The recipes outlined in the book can be accomplished and make the "chef" who cooks them a star. So the giver is one too!!!
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