Learn to COOK - Grand Livre de Cuisine: Alain Ducasse's Culinary Encyclopedia
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List Price: $80.00
Our Price: $50.40
Your Save: $ 29.60 ( 37% )
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Manufacturer: Stewart, Tabori and Chang
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 641
EAN: 9782848440385
ISBN: 2848440384
Label: Stewart, Tabori and Chang
Manufacturer: Stewart, Tabori and Chang
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 1080
Publication Date: 2007-11-01
Publisher: Stewart, Tabori and Chang
Studio: Stewart, Tabori and Chang
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Editorial Reviews:
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A true master class in haute cuisine by a true master
Features 700 recipes with ingredients from anchovies to zucchini
An extensive appendix offers a complete description, including the choosing and buying, of the 100 basic ingredients used in the recipes
World-renowned French chef Alain Ducasse has built a reputation on meticulously selecting and preparing ingredients. Grand Livre de Cuisine: Alain Ducasse’s Culinary Encyclopedia brought his 25 years of culinary expertise to kitchens nationwide when it hit bookshelves two years ago. Now, with the release of the first paperback edition, this comprehensive culinary resource has become enticingly affordable for professional chefs and experienced home cooks alike.
Featuring 700 recipes culled from the best of French and Mediterranean cuisine, and more than 1,000 photographs and original drawings, Grand Livre de Cuisine is an invaluable tool for reviewing or perfecting one’s knowledge of culinary fundamentals. The recipes, organized alphabetically by main ingredient—from a thin-crusted anchovy tart to zucchini blossom fritters—are clear and concise, with a special emphasis on finish and presentation. The book also includes a glossary of 100 basic ingredients, as well as a primer on recipes such as stocks and sauces.
As proprietor of four first-rate restaurants and founder of a professional-level cooking school, Ducasse is a natural teacher who can demystify the most complex of recipes. In writing Grand Livre de Cuisine, he has created an impressive guide to appreciating and practicing the art of French cooking. It is sure to teach and inspire cooks of every level.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting ideas but too many typos and mistranslations
Comment: This could have been a wonderful book. There are many exciting recipes, both in concept and execution. Alas, where some techniques are explained ad nauseam, as if to a five year old, others have no explanation at all. Fortunately the original French titles appear alongside the English versions and quantities are given in metric as well as American measurements. There are a number of errors in the English version. Of particular interest are the recipes for sous-vide cooking. But,even here,timing is often omitted. I shall use the book but it is a disappointment. I wish I had bought it in the original French although there is no guarantee that the editors were any more attentive to its production
Customer Rating:
Summary: I wouldnt have known it was discounted if i hadnt bought it myself
Comment: The book came quickly. It was packaged very well. The product was in excellent condition and I wouldnt know the difference beween a the book I recieved and one purchased at full price
Customer Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking recipes!
Comment: A quotation from the Introduction, written by Jean-Francois Revel, of the Academie Francaise: "By imitating the masters, one cannot of course reach their level of perfection, but one often escapes the routine of one's own banality. You are going to discover the French art, one which has never been so alive, in the following pages. May then and from now on your dream, inspired by Alain Ducasse, direct your hands, as fallible as they may be!" Rather edgy, I think, but probably accurate.
First, this is a thousand page volume, genuinely a Culinary Encyclopedia, pulled together by a team of chefs under famed chef, Alain Ducasse. There are some wild elements to it, such as lobster recipes from page 422 through page 491 (almost 70 pages worth of lobster works!). Some nice features at the close of this volume: a glossary of terms, some basic recipes (consomme, stocks, jellies, juices, etc.), serving quantities associated with different dishes, and a seasonal table of meats, vegetables, fruits.
Second, though, it's the recipes that make this book fascinating. Here, I'll say it at the outset. There are some (many, even most) recipes here that I would never try. I'm too impatient and don't know all the skills needed for some of the dishes. Take, for example, Wild Roasted Hare Saddle. The process of preparation and cooking is complex--from cutting up the hare and reserving its lungs, kidneys, heart, etc. Next, each segment of the recipe is complex, with steps one does not usually experience, such as shredding the hare's shoulders with pliers. You create a sauce, with a first and a second thickener, plus a garnish for the finale. I imagine that this would be delicious when eaten, but I get exhausted looking at the process of preparation.
However, there are some recipes that seem like they are doable and would be fun and taste good. Acacia Blossom Fritters for one. You begin with a bunch of acacia flowers and then create a fritter batter Put the acacia flowers in the batter and fry in grapeseed oil. Looks tasty!
This is an absolutely massive volume, and even though many recipes won't get into my household's menus, they are enchanting to read. For one thing, I admire the work of the team that would put these dishes together in a restaurant. For another, it makes me appreciate more what goes into the work of a "starred" restaurant.
So, even though the bulk of these recipes don't fit my modus operandi of cooking, I will try some and will appreciate what goes into fine dishes more than I ever did before.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Great and Professional Work
Comment: This is actually much more useful than the original because it is a reasonable size and can be flipped through and really used. It is a tremendous resource because it explains exactly how the dishes are prepared in Ducasse's very serious and perfectionist restaurants with professional equipment, sous-vide, salamanders, etc. If you read French the small edition of the original is probably even more useful.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Grand Livre de Cuisine: Alain Ducasse's Culinary Encyclopedia (Hardcover)
Comment: This book is the reprint of the bigger verson. It is a good book and also easier to carry around. The recipes are great. Its worthy to get it.
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