.com Review
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To eat at Thomas Keller's Napa Valley restaurant,
The French Laundry, is to experience a peak culinary experience.
In The French Laundry Cookbook, Keller articulates his passions
and offers home cooks a means to duplicate the level of
perfection that makes him one of the best chefs in the U.S. and,
arguably, the world.
This cookbook provides 150 recipes exactly as they are used at
Keller's restaurant. It is also his culinary manifesto, in which
he shares the unique creative processes that led him to invent
Peas and Carrots--a succulent pillow of a lobster paired with pea
shoots and creamy ginger-carrot sauce--and other high-wire
culinary acts. It offers unimagined experiences, from extracting
chlorophyll to use in coloring sauces to a recipe for chocolate
cake accompanied by red beet ice cream and a walnut sauce. You
are urged to follow Keller's recipes precisely and also to view
them as blueprints. To keep them alive, they must be infused with
your own commitment to perfection and pleasure, as you define
those terms.
Keller's story, shared through the writing of Michael Ruhlman (
/exec/obidos/Author=Ruhlman%2C%20Michael/%24%7B0%7D ), shows how
this chef was both born and made. After winning rave reviews when
he was still in his 20s, it took a more experienced chef throwing
a at him because he did not know how to truss a chicken to
open his eyes to the importance of the discipline and techniques
of classical French cooking. To acquire these fundamental skills,
he apprenticed at eight of the finest restaurants in France.
Grounded in classic technique, Keller's cooking is characterized
by traditional marriages of ingredients, assembled in
breathtakingly daring new ways, such as Pearls and Oyster,
glistening caviar and oysters served on a bed of creamy pearl
tapioca. Continually piquing the palate, his meals are a
procession of 5 to 10 dishes, all small portions vibrantly
composed. For example, Pan Roasted of Squab with Swiss
Chard, Seared Foie Gras, and Oven-Dried Black Figs require just
three birds to serve six. The result: you are never sated, always
stimulated.
The 200 photographs by Deborah Jones include more than just
beauty s: they show how to prepare various dishes; how
Keller, shown stroking a whole salmon, respects his ingredients;
and how the perfection of baby fava beans still nestled in the
downy lining of their succulent pod, or the seduction of an
abundance of fresh caviar, calls out the best from the chef.
--Dana Jacobi
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From Publishers Weekly
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"Cooking is not about convenience, and it's not
about shortcuts. Take your time. Move slowly and deliberately,
and with great attention," writes Keller, the owner of the French
Laundry in Napa Valley who was named 1997's best chef in America
by the James Beard Foundation. At a decidedly unhurried pace,
Keller delivers 150 recipes that reflect the perfectionism that
catapulted him to national accl. With few exceptions (e.g.,
Gazpacho, Eric's Staff Lasagne), recipes are haute,
labor-intensive preparations: Lobster Consomm? en Gel?e, Warm
Fruitwood-Smoked Salmon with Potato Gnocchi and Balsamic Glaze,
or Braised Stuffed Pig's Head. Tongue-in-cheek recipe names like
"Macaroni and Cheese" (aka Butter-Poached Maine Lobster with
Creamy Lobster Broth and Mapone-Enriched Orzo) and "Banana
Split" (actually, Poached Banana Ice Cream with White
Chocolate-Banana Crepes and Chocolate Sauce) belie the complexity
of the dishes. Throughout, Keller conveys his vision as a
culinary artist in spare, meticulous prose, emphasizing form over
expedience: "the great challenge [of cooking] is... to derive
deep satisfaction from the mundane." (Nov..
- is... to derive deep satisfaction from the mundane." (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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