The Cooking of Provincial France

M. F. K. Fisher, Editors of Time-Life Books

Published by Time-Life Books, 1968

About this Item

2 lb 12.9 oz French cooking means an elaborate and expensive way of complicating or at least masking foods with sauces, which rightly but sometimes impatiently are referred to as "French sauces". There is another side to the cooking of France. What is called "haute", or "grande" may be one of modern mans nearest approaches of pure bliss. Every dish must be prepared with skill and artistry by cooking such plain ingredients as butter and eggs and fresh herbs into masterpieces of subtlety. French provincial cooking means something quite different from "grande cuisine". It must be made clear that the word provincial, in this context, does not mean countrified, rude, narrow, limited, oafish, intolerant, or bumpkinish--connotations fastened in our minds by only one facet of the term. It means simply the cooking that springs from the regional areas called provinces for many hundreds of years in the highly diversified country known as France. It is true that many of the chefs have come from villages in the provinces. Escoffier, still called the great modern chef although he is long since gone, said that the whole of French cooking, which to him meant the "grande cuisine", stood or fell upon its essential stocks, and on the five basic warm sauces: "espagnole", "veloute", "bechamel", "tomato", and "hollandaise", giving his own list of Grand Sauces--"espagnole" or brown, "veloute" or white, cream "bechamel", and "allemande"-stipulated the following supplies to make the basic stocks: two legs or 40 pounds of white veal, the same of gravy beef, the same each of leg of beef and of veal knuckles, carrots, turnips, celery, and leeks, lean ham for both brown and white sauces, with wild rabbits for the construction of the basic stock, and recipes for the Grand Sauces, he gives recipes for 93 hot and 11 cold sauces. Along with the recipes and pictures there is a history in this book that explains in-depth the French culture and all of the important parts of choosing the right food, the preparation of the food, and the true meaning and importance of the enjoyment of cooking and eating. There is light wear to board edges and corner bumps from use. The pages are clean and free of any markings and highlighting. There are two bonus newspaper articles from the Ottawa Citizen from 1987 and 1988 regarding Provincial cooking.

Seller Inventory # 1292

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Cooking of Provincial France
• Publisher: Time-Life Books
• Publication Date: 1968
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Seller catalogs:
  • French Cooking