Ken Frank's La Toque Cookbook: Recipes and Anecdotes From the Famous Restau Rant

The owner and chef of La Toque, in Los Angeles, shares some of his most innovative recipes in an accessible style that allows even amateurs to recreate his unique cuisine in their own kitchens. Tour.

The chef and owner of La Toque in Los Angeles, Frank here imparts recipes and techniques for the restaurant's most popular entrees. American-born and raised, he shares the secret of his inspiration: a year with his family in France, where he cut his eye teeth on the wonders of country French cooking. His own version of French food reflects this passion--it isn't classical French cuisine, but a mixture of rural French likes and California ingredients, often given an Asian accent. Examples: toasted salmon skin salad47 , artichokes stuffed with snails and basil60 , Santa Barbara shrimp with mustard56 ,please stet comma/MM if you'd like, just remind me once and i'll always stet in food book reviews/ pre and--what could be more California?--Zinfandel sorbet.181 And the author, though insisting that "ultimately soul is at the core of cooking really great food,"15 is utterly down-to-earth in his directions. He includes "mise en place" (make-ahead) suggestions for every recipe, because the secret of La Toque's fare, he says, is the art of cooking each dish to order--not a simple task unless the chef is scrupulously organized. While some ingredients may be somewhat difficult to locate, these won't distract from what is ultimately a fine guide to some original--and actually quite accessible--feasts. Author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the owner-chef at L.A.'s La Toque restaurant, a selection of recipes for food that the publishers describe, accurately enough, as fresh and sophisticated American-French cuisine. It's decidedly upscale, conceived and executed with flair, for cooks who go for ``elegant'' entertaining and don't mind the costs or the preliminary preparation (several recipes, for example, call for veal broth, a French restaurant staple less ubiquitous in home kitchens here). Salads include one of hot eels and one using three different duck preparations; there are first courses of cream- sauced fish; main dishes include venison with wine-poached pears, breast of duck with apples and Calvados, and boneless rabbit with morels. Frank's Brillat-Savarin cheese with fresh truffle debuted at a Baron de Rothchild $650-a-plate Best-of-Ten-Decades dinner; and for dessert there's an acknowledged ``demanding'' chocolate g‚noise/chocolate mousse called ``the zigzag.'' Haute. (Line drawings throughout.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

La Toque is a popular Los Angeles restaurant, and Frank is a talented (though somewhat egotistical, judging by the text) chef. He uses his classic French training and experience in a number of California restaurants to create sophisticated dishes like Onion Soup with Roquefort and Scallop Brochettes with Rainier Cherries. The recipe instructions are well thought out and very clear, but many require expensive ingredients, and though some are not difficult, others are truly chefs' recipes. For area libraries and regional cooking collections.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.