Reviews Cooking, Food And Wine Book

Product Details

Amazon.com Review
In this warm look into the world of French bistro food, eminent food writer Patricia Wells reveals her love for this simple, robust cuisine in a collection of recipes garnered from France's best bistros. From Warm Potato Salad with Herbed Vinaigrette to Lamb Stew in White Wine to Pear Clafoutis, Wells admits her preference for hearty, homey bistro dishes. Through clearly written recipes, Wells encourages cooks to buy the best ingredients and turn them into fragrant, warming dishes. Each recipe has a note telling where it came from and alluding to its flavor. Pithy quotes throughout the book relate to bistro style--in cooking, serving, and eating--and historical quotations give a cultural connotation. Wine choices reach deep into the heart of France, from a crisp white from Provence such as a Chateau Simone with lamb, to a good Côtes du Rhone (Cru du Coudelet) with guinea hen. From the introduction to the last dessert recipe (for Prunes in Red Wine), Bistro Cooking is sure to please not just the novice in the kitchen, but the experienced cook as well. --Susan Loomis, Amazon.co.uk

From Library Journal
Bistro cooking is currently the rage, and the author of The Food Lover's Guide to Paris (Workman, 1988. 2d ed.) and . . . to France (Workman, 1987) is just the person to write about it. Wells has collected recipes from bistros all over France, as well as adapting classics and creating some new dishes of her own. This is real food, simple but not without sophistication, usually uncomplicated, and always delicious: Watercress and Potato Soup, L'Ami Louis's famed Roast Chicken, a Tarte Tatin of pears. With a text that is a pleasure to read, as always, and 200 recipes for what is really "French home cooking at its best," Wells's latest is highly recommended.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Back Cover
200 recipes inspired by the small family restaurants of France celebrate a return to generous, full-flavored cooking. Bistro is warm, bistro is family. Bistro is robust soups and rustic salads, wine-scented stews, bubbling gratins, and desserts from a grandmother's kitchen. Bistro is everyday china and elbows on the table and second helpings. It is best friends over for no particular reason. Bistro is earthy, not fuss; easy, not painstaking. And BISTRO COOKING presents no-nonsense, inexpensive, soul-satisfying cuisine inspired by the neighborhood restaurants of France.

With 200 recipes, plus menus and quotes, BISTRO COOKING features not only bistro owners in the kitchen, but French housewives, farmers, winemakers, breadbakers, and many others who contribute to bistro as a way of life.

"Patricia Wells' wonderful naturalness, openness, and honesty are in perfect harmony with the simple, delicious fare she celebrates in BISTRO COOKING . . . her enthusiasm and joy are reflected on every page of this fine book, and happily we are all the beneficiaries." -JACQUES PEPIN

MENU

LEFT BANK BISTRO; TABLE FOR TWO

Familiar bistro fare, a menu designed to celebrate romance, love, or simply the fact that you're alive and well. With this, try a Saint-Veran or a Macon-Villages.

Saucisson Chaud Pommes a L'Huile

Warm Poached Sausage with Potato Salad

Canard aux Olives Chez Allard

Chez Allard's Roast Duck with Olives

Tarte aux Pommes a la CrSme

Golden Cream and Apple Tart

Customer Reviews

Great!
I love the recipes in this book. The first one I tried (Cheese puffs) have been in demand in my house ever since. This book is a nice introduction into French cooking without being overwhelming. It's comfortable and down to earth... plus, the food has been delicious.

Basic bistro eats
Very basic advice: a roast beef and tomato sandwich with creme fraiche for example. Simple recipes with thrifty cuts of meats for stews, soups (just add liquid!) along with many potato recipes (with more creme fraiche) from well-known and obscure bistros throughout France. Note: quiche is called 'tarte' here with no cross reference. Salads with anything you'd put into a sandwich, oil and vinegar dressing. Good new-cook gift or a quick read for the armchair traveler but I expected more from this famous food writer.

How can one do so much with such basic ingredients and simple recipes?
This cookbook contains a collection of recipes inspired by and taken from a wide array of French bistros. Patricia Wells has assembled a terrific array of cookbooks, but this may be her best. With a few exceptions, these recipes take what I consider to be basic ingredients and turn them into a wide array of delicious, easy to prepare dishes. There are a few recipes that call for things that are uncommon to the American palate (e.g. rabbit), but overall this cookbook contains a huge number of easy to make, accessable recipes that will be enjoyed by Americans. The book is divided into 12 sections covering salads, desserts, pasta, soups, etc. It is also a regional tour through France with a diverse selection of recipes from big city bistros and small town or rural restaurants. Each recipe has a paragraph or two describing the bistro from which it was taken and some discussion of regional cuisine. One thing that I REALLY liked about this cookbook is that it will give you ideas for other concoctions. That is, as I was trying some of the recipes, I was constantly thinking `using A with B' is a great idea. For example, there is a great recipe for poached eggs in a wine sauce. A great idea! Another (minor but important) thing that I liked about this book was that it was bound so that it could be propped open on the kitchen counter. There are also flaps on the front and back cover that can block the page open so that you don't have to go fishing through the book if it does flip closed. This is a cookbook that we return to again and again, definitely worth the money.