Product Description

Each title in this award-winning series offers an exquisite region-by-region taste tour filled with culinary specialties and surprises.Included in each large-format volume are gorgeous food and landscape photographs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #402493 in Books
• Published on: 1993-06-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

From Amazon.com
Provence is loved for its sunlit beauty and earthy, tantalizing cuisine. Both are celebrated in Provence the Beautiful Cookbook, an oversized (more than two feet tall!) picture and cookbook of breathtaking color photos and authentic regional recipes. The 270 recipes, compiled and written by award-winning food book author Richard Olney, include soups and starters; seafood, meat, game, and poultry dishes; vegetable and grain specialties; and simple but luscious desserts. Readers seeking an armchair tour of the region, singularly depicted, and the chance to see and reproduce its dishes, will delight in the book, which would also make a welcome gift.

Beginning with an introduction to the land and its cooking, the book then weaves short essays about the Provençal regions with recipes arranged by courses. There are exemplary versions of bouillabaisse and bourride (the creamy, garlic-infused fish chowder), estouffade (braised beef, here with olives and mushrooms), daubs (stews), vegetable-filled omelets, and tians (savory gratins). Less familiar treasures include a mixed herb pasta from Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, porgy with crab sauce from the Var, a braised stuffed lamb shoulder from Vaucluse, zucchini and rice gratin from the Alpes Maritimes, and dried figs in thyme and red wine syrup, also from the Var. The recipes reflect Olney's unerring palate and dedication to tradition; some cooks may find certain dishes beyond their reach, but all will discover approachable recipes that are easily made. Wine information and a glossary conclude the portrait of Provence and its table--a feast for the eye and palate alike. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly
Provence has long been a magnet for artists, writers and those in search of a good climate. And yet, while Provence was the birthplace of Auguste Escoffier, the patron saint of French cooking, Provencal cooking itself has been relegated to the sidelines of French cuisine. It relies on simple ingredients like garlic, onions and anchovies, and therein lies its charm. Provence is composed of the Alpes Maritimes, Alpes-De-Haute Provence, the Vaucluse region, the Bouches-du-Rhone and Var. Within these five areas can be found lavender fields, Marseilles fishing boats and the celebrity-laden Cote d'Azur. Likewise, the cuisine varies, drawing heavily from its Italian influence and from local bounty from the sea and soil. This latest in Collins's "Beautiful Cookbook" series features recipes gathered by Olney ( Simple French Food ), who has clearly enjoyed himself while doing so. He ably introduces the reader to the traditions of Provencal cooking with clear, articulate recipes. The book is divided into 10 chapters, five of which discuss the history and gastronomic development of particular regions, the other five of which cover soups, fish, meats, vegetables and desserts. Olney also includes a useful glossary of terms from which the reader will learn how to make aioli, coulis and mirepoix, the building-blocks of Provencal cooking. He also includes valuable advice on matching Provencal wines with dishes. With its lush photographs of food and scenery, this is a book to savor, whether in the library or the kitchen.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Hard on the heels of Robert Carrier's Feasts of Provence ( LJ 8/93) comes this entry by Olney, widely respected as an authority on French food and wine. Olney, who has lived in France for more than 30 years, is the author of Simple French Food (1974) and the now-classic The French Menu Cookbook ( LJ 12/85. rev. ed.), among many other titles. In contrast to Carrier, who includes both new and old interpretations of Provencal cooking, he focuses on authentic regional specialties, many of them far less familiar than the ubiquitous ratatouille and bouillabaise. His knowledge and expertise are evident both in the thoughtful headnotes and in the 200-plus recipes. Gantie's background text lacks the spirit of Carrier's writing, and the photography in Feasts of Provence seems somehow more vivid, but these are relatively minor points. Most collections will find this title a necessary purchase as well.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Good intro to Provencal cooking
I like this book, but it does point out one weakness in Provencal cooking...a slight lack of variety. There are multiple gratin recipes, good fish dishes, etc. It also doesn't shy away from organ meats, etc., much like the region itself. Like all the books in this visually stunning series, this one has lovely photography.

BIG AND BEAUTIFUL
I was a little suspicious of the series. After all, should we trust a book more suitably sized for the coffee table than for the kitchen counter? But my mistrust was misguided. The food is wonderful. All people have assumptions about "others," and one of the assumptions Americans make about the French is that their food is very difficult to prepare and relies on expensive ingredients. The truth is that French food need not be difficult and that it is a cuisine that recognizes the beauty of each season. Since my children bought this book for me, we have been building seasonal rituals around it. For example, we get salt anchovies from the neighborhood Italian deli for our Christmas eve appetizer. At Mardi Gras, we make the oreilles found in this book, which are the pastries sold as "pig's ears" or "angel wings" in the last days before Lent by Polish bakeries in Detroit. Depending on the bakery, they were known as "pig's ears" or "angels wings." My only criticism of the book is that I feel the need to keep it open in the dining room, lest kitchen grease spoils it.

Oh la la!
French born and 4th generation provençale, I take pride in the cuisine from my homeland and I have to confess I was a little wary about what I would find in this book. Well, the authors did a wonderful job at promoting the gastronomic traditions of Provence without betraying them. My grand-mother, our family's head-cook, and our culinary inspiration would have given her seal of approval without hesitation, would she have been around to discover this wonderful recipe collection and it is with her and my homeland in mind that I enjoy preparing the recipes featured in this excellent collection for my own enjoyment and the one of my (American) husband and our friends.