Product Description

Elizabeth David's books belong in the libraries of everyone who loves to read and prepare food and this one is generally regarded as her best; her passion and knowledge comes through on every page. She was one of the foremost writers on food in the latter half of the 20th century and this book has her most celebrated writing. "French Provincial Cooking" should be approached and read as a series of short stories, as well written and evocative as the best literature. The voice is highly personal and opinionated, sometimes sharp but always true and always entertaining. Here is a long essay on French cuisine, offering background stories and sketches of recipes more than the slavishly didactic type of recipes that most modern readers might be used to today. For many Elizabeth David was the first to introduce us to the French notion of la cuisine terroir, sometimes interpreted as 'what grows together goes together'. For David, this is the heart of regional cooking, and the thing which most distinguishes it from cooking in haute cuisine restaurants where diners arrive at any time or any season and expect to be able to order any well known French speciality. One of the passages which best characterizes David's approach to a lot of cooking is her opening statement on the perfect omelette: 'As everybody knows, there is only one infallible recipe for the perfect omelette: your own.' The book starts with a short essay on each of the major culinary regions of France, starting perhaps not surprisingly with Provence which is blessed an abundance of produce. The largest portion of the book consists of chapters on cuisine by type of dish: Sauces, Hors-D'oeuvres and Salads, Soups, Eggs and Cheese, Pates and Terrines, Vegetables, Fish, Shellfish, Meat, Composite Meat Dishes, Poultry and Game, and Sweet dishes. The book is all the more valuable in that it paints a picture of a cooking style which existed before modern equipment such as the food processor. Most importantly, the recipes work if your aim is to produce the most excellent food imaginable. What initially may seem to be annoying details (e.g., for omelettes, eggs 'should not really be beaten at all, but stirred,' whereas for scrambled eggs, they should be 'very well beaten') are actually secrets to be treasured, that elevate a good dish to a superb one. The lesson is that good food should be done simply, but it takes care, attention to detail, and frequently, time. A hardback edition of "French Provincial Cooking" has been unavailable for many years and Grub Street is re-issuing it because of overwhelming demand. It should become as popular an edition as the best-selling "Elizabeth David Classics".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10994 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 528 pages

Review
It is difficult to think of any home that can do without Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking.The Observer

Daily Express, 30 November 2007
I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that this book taught a generation how to cook and how to eat.
Terence Conran

Synopsis
Elizabeth David's books belong in the libraries of everyone who loves to read and prepare food and this one is generally regarded as her best; her passion and knowledge comes through on every page. She was one of the foremost writers on food in the latter half of the 20th century and this book has her most celebrated writing. "French Provincial Cooking" should be approached and read as a series of short stories, as well written and evocative as the best literature. The voice is highly personal and opinionated, sometimes sharp but always true and always entertaining. Here is a long essay on French cuisine, offering background stories and sketches of recipes more than the slavishly didactic type of recipes that most modern readers might be used to today. For many Elizabeth David was the first to introduce us to the French notion of la cuisine terroir, sometimes interpreted as 'what grows together goes together'. For David, this is the heart of regional cooking, and the thing which most distinguishes it from cooking in haute cuisine restaurants where diners arrive at any time or any season and expect to be able to order any well known French speciality.

One of the passages which best characterizes David's approach to a lot of cooking is her opening statement on the perfect omelette: 'As everybody knows, there is only one infallible recipe for the perfect omelette: your own.' The book starts with a short essay on each of the major culinary regions of France, starting perhaps not surprisingly with Provence which is blessed an abundance of produce. The largest portion of the book consists of chapters on cuisine by type of dish: Sauces, Hors-D'oeuvres and Salads, Soups, Eggs and Cheese, Pates and Terrines, Vegetables, Fish, Shellfish, Meat, Composite Meat Dishes, Poultry and Game, and Sweet dishes. The book is all the more valuable in that it paints a picture of a cooking style which existed before modern equipment such as the food processor. Most importantly, the recipes work if your aim is to produce the most excellent food imaginable. What initially may seem to be annoying details (e.g., for omelettes, eggs 'should not really be beaten at all, but stirred,' whereas for scrambled eggs, they should be 'very well beaten') are actually secrets to be treasured, that elevate a good dish to a superb one.

The lesson is that good food should be done simply, but it takes care, attention to detail, and frequently, time. A hardback edition of "French Provincial Cooking" has been unavailable for many years and Grub Street is re-issuing it because of overwhelming demand. It should become as popular an edition as the best-selling "Elizabeth David Classics".

Customer Reviews

"Cut a cockrerel into joints"....
I bought this book on eBay and found myself in proud possession of a hardcover `second edition' reprint from 1965. (I have no idea if the current version is updated or even converted to metric, sorry).
Elizabeth is a darling ! and definitely the first English Domestic Goddess, long before Nigella et al came onto the scene. Her delivery of these many, many regional recipes is neither as school madam-ish as early Delia, nor as infuriatingly chummy as Jamie-the-mockeny-Oliver. She engages us in such a way as to make one really believe that nobody cooks like the French, but at the same time that anyone can recreate this culinary wonderland here in grey old England.
This book is so much more than a list of recipes, it is an adventure in France. Given that, when it was written, France was somewhere most of us had only heard of, this book takes us on a fascinating tour into the psyche of a foreign people.
Buy this book today. Even if you have absolutely no interest in cooking. It really is that rip-roaring a read !

A perfect pot of memories
I still have my first copy given me in 1975. Its very well thumbed! A great read, written like a recipe journal, in an easy flowing style, with a no nonesense approach to ingredients - only the best and freshest is tolerated, cooked to bring out the best in the ingredients- you get out what you put in - and a ton of butter! A palpable feeling of nostalgia pervades these recipes. Having cooked with fresh ingredients in many countries, I understand completely why ED warns us against attempts to recreate authenticity. It cannot be done. All we can do is turn the pages and let her memories guide us through all our yesterdays....our tongues savouring the memory of perfect carrot soup or pot au feu cooked up 27 years ago on the camping stove in a field in the Dordogne as we watched the sun set,sniffed the dew in the air and.....Ahhh, those were the days.....

Penguin degrades the experience
I bought this edition to replace our Penguin book from 1964 which had gradually worn into a pile of disconnected pages over decades of loving use. All the inspiring writing is still there, of course, all the no-nonsense, no compromise common sense of Elizabeth David that makes this book an essential for anyone who loves to eat well, cook well, or both. But oh, Penguin, you have chosen the cheapest of thick paper, and the print is woefully smaller than the old edition, on pages that are larger! This looks like a scan of a hardback edition. Juliet Renny's delicate line drawings now appear coarsened. Once upon a time, French Provincial Cooking was mostly for browsing -- you simply could not find all the ingredients. Today you can get everything, so you have the pleasure of cooking authentic French dishes with Elizabeth David's unparalleled expert guidance. Nevertheless, you will still want to settle down and read your way through recipes you plan to make some day and learn what makes them so good, and you might just want to do it with a rather nicer edition than this one. So 4 stars out of 4 for the content and 0 stars out of 1 for the production.