Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #505118 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Celebrity chefs face a particular problem when they come to publish their recipes (and these days they always do). For they are giving instruction for the creation of dishes which are probably far beyond the technical resources of many of their readers. Most address this problem by toning down the complexity and producing domestic versions of their creations (although the photographs often give the game away). The ineffably glamorous Jean-Christophe Novelli, who runs a highly regarded string of restaurants named after himself, takes a different approach in his flirtatiously titled Your Place or Mine. He presents the dishes (mostly French in origin and grouped into the usual Fish, Poultry, Meat etc.) firstly in a relatively undeveloped, straightforward manner, then subjects it to the creative alchemy through which it is transmuted into a Michelin star winner. A plain Pot au Feu of pork hocks, cabbage and root vegetables becomes, Cinderella-like, a jellied terrine of the same ingredients. This is a fairly simple example: others are technically highly demanding and can tend to the farouche. Could anyone outside an expense-account restaurant seriously consider dressing up a simple little cylinder of tiramisu as a galleon with drawn caramel masts and tuile biscuit sails? But this is a fascinating book, not just for the recipes, valuable in themselves in both their forms, but for the insight it offers in the creative processes of an extravagantly gifted chef. --Robin Davidson

Customer Reviews

Inspiration for passionate foodie
I pick up all magazines on food and I also cook for a living. it has been a very long time since I have picked up a cook book and actually read it cover to cover. The colour photographs are an inspiration in them selves. The fact that Novelli also slowly takes you through each stage will make you feel that you could create magic even if you have never peeled a potato in your life This a definate must have for any one who is passionate about cooking.

Elegant & Earthy
It was about 3 years ago, when I meet Novelli. He was about to open his first restaurant "Maison Novelli" at Clerkenwell and I was working at the time at "Cafe Gaudi", literally next door. He came to us for lunch a couple of times and my Sous Chef and I had the pleasure in dinning at his restaurant. He archived a "Michelin Star" in only nine months after opening.

He since has opened a few more Restaurants, including "Novelli at the Ark" formerly know as the "Ark" where I used to work part-time 7 years ago.

In a very short space of time he has become very successful, I am not talking only about his cooking but also his business sense. In his book he expresses himself perfectly, his recipes are easy to follow although the final presentations need a great deal of skill to perform.

His food is elegant and earthy. Instead of cooking fashionable food, he concentrates on what he has a full understanding off. Uses some of the so called "cheap cuts", which seems to have been forgotten, emphasises in its flavours and archives great results.

His sweets are uncomplicated but perfect, yet his final touches are the ones that make all the difference.

advanced cooking, great for extending your limits
In the halcyon days of Maison Novelli, Clerkenwell, a good meal there opened my eyes and taste buds to sauce making. Sometime later I purchased the proprietor's glitzy and fairly expensive! book. I had a flick through it noting the good quality photography, glanced at a few dishes and put it to one side. It initially struck me as a rather thin, insubstantial affair and it took sometime for me to come back to it. I then started trying some of the recipes...

The recipes are rarely quick affairs, they tend to require a lot of preparation, some of the components are often best prepared ahead of time. When you get the recipes right and everything comes together, these dishes are fantastic. I'm sure others were doing it before, and many since, but in my mind Jean-Christophe is the master of the reduction - sauces concentrated in flavour by evaporation. And he shows you how to make garnishes that are light years beyond edible - they add massively to the dish in taste, not just visual terms.

The liquid chocolate puddings are very good as is his caramel artwork which takes a bit of practise. I got a 10/10 for the banana tatin too.

Good photography, as you'd expect, including groups of shots showing various steps in the process.

Very much recommended for those times when you want to put the effort in, although as with most things, i would practise the dish once before letting it loose on the guests. They will be impressed, very impressed.