French Feasts: 299 Traditional Recipes for Family Meals and Gatherings
*Starred Review* It might be presumptuous to say that anything could be a one-stop resource on rustic French cooking, but Reynaud’s door-stopper cookbook comes pretty close. Don’t mistake this for a beginner’s course, though. Though uncomplicated, Reynaud’s recipes assume some culinary expertise and are refreshingly free of hand-holding, which allows cooks with a decent grasp of technique to gather a more wide-angled picture of what they’re actually doing to food, rather than a detailed map of how to arrive at a finished dish. Most of the creations get their own full-page, artistically composed photograph that proves that there’s a passionate relationship between the eyes and the stomach. Reynaud clearly possesses a comprehensive knowledge of French cuisine, and in this book he takes special pleasure in bringing together all aspects of French country life, offering brief bios of local artisans, sheet music for traditional songs, and glib cartoons detailing everything from the different cuts on a cow and the proper method for rolling croissants to the various pleasures fit to be accompanied by Champagne. Much more than just a collection of recipes, this hearty homage to culinary artistry is itself a work of art worthy of being savored, slowly and thoroughly or one bite at a time. --Ian Chipman