Anthony Bourdain's "Les Halles" Cookbook: Classic Bistro Cooking Author: Visit Amazon's Anthony Bourdain Page | Language: English | ISBN:
074758012X | Format: PDF
Anthony Bourdain's "Les Halles" Cookbook: Classic Bistro Cooking Description
From Publishers Weekly
A celebrity with a high-profile position as executive chef at New York bistro Les Halles, and bestselling author of
Kitchen Confidential and
A Cook's Tour, Bourdain doesn't intend to break new ground. The dishes do exactly as the subtitle notes and include such solid classic fare as Onion Soup Les Halles, Steak au Poivre, Boeuf Bourguignon, Coq au Vin and Chocolate Mousse. Nearly all recipes are within reach of competent home cooks, and those that are more complicated or time-consuming—Bouillabaisse, Cassoulet and Roulade of Wild Pheasant—are thoroughly spelled out to calm most jitters. Foie gras, duck fat and dark veal stock are frequent components, but a list of suppliers makes just about every ingredient available. Even though many of the dishes can be found in other cookbooks, what sets this one apart is Bourdain's signature wise-ass attitude that pervades nearly every recipe, explanatory note and chapter introduction. Profanity adds frequent color. If Aunt Doris would blanche at pearl onions being called "little fuckers," a cook who prefers boneless meat in Daube Provençal a "poor deluded bastard," or a person nervous about making these recipes a "dipshit," this book is not for her. Photos.
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--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Review
'In a style partaking of Hunter S. Thompson, Iggy Pop and a little Jonathan Swift, Bourdain gleefully rips through the scenery to reveal private backstage horrors the guy is hysterical' New York Times Book Review 'Bawdy, bolshie, and bursting with energy, celebrity chef Bourdain throws open the doors of every kitchen he's ever worked in to leave the reader peering nervously in through clouds of steam' Daily Mail 'How very different from our own dear Delia' Mail on Sunday 'Voracious, visceral, obsessed and orally fixated, Bourdain writes like a sardonic, articulate demon. He talks like a blend of Scorsese and Tarantino and dishes the dirt on the restaurant trade with scurrilous flair' Big Issue
See all Editorial Reviews
- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (September 4, 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 074758012X
- ISBN-13: 978-0747580126
- Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 9.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
Culinary bad boy Tony Bourdain and his Les Halles owner chefs have written a very, very good cookbook. If you have an ounce of interest in reading good cookbooks, stop reading this and go to the top of the page and order yourself a copy.
If you are still here, I will tell you that this is an excellent cookbook:
1. Tony Bourdain is a very good writer. That means reading this book is very entertaining and worth the price even if you make none of the recipes. There are hundreds of good cookbooks, but Bourdain joins the very select rank, along with Alton Brown and Wayne Harley Brachman of culinary writers who can have you laughing out loud. It also means that he knows how to put things so you understand them and remember them.
2. The book is all about demystifying classic Bistro cooking and in convincing you that with the right attitude and the right directions, you can do as well or better than any newbie professional cook entering Tony's kitchen to work for the first time. Bourdain lays out the reality of this cuisine in a way I have never seen before. If you ever had any reservations about whether you wanted to cook or had the aptitude to cook, this is the book for you.
3. The book presents excellent directions for doing most of the basic preparations for bistro dishes, with special emphasis on preparing stocks. I even think Tony sells himself short when he says that if a chef used his directions at one of Thomas Keller's restaurants, he would be fired on the spot. I personally find Bourdain's stockmaking recipes as good or better than any I have seen short of the CIA textbook. All the right steps are there and all the right culinary reasons for doing them are there.
4.
The target audience for this book is the dedicated home cook, or "foodie." The introduction, and the comments interspersed, which aim to simplify and demystify professional cuisine, are worth the price of the book: you can get recipes anywhere, but they don't come with the benefit of Anthony Bourdain's years of training and exploration (which wasn't a walk in the park; read _Kitchen Confidential_ if you're curious about the underside).
His passion makes the prose explode off the page. I actually read most of the Introduction out loud to my wife once, as I was finding it just too delicious not to share the humor and deep insight.
I also had to give my first copy to my daughter (who, as a sous-chef at an Atlanta restaurant, is not in the target audience), but she can't get enough of "Uncle Tony"'s writing, either.
The recipes spell out not only ingredients, but what tools are needed. Where else can you be instructed to make cotes du boeuf wearing "novelty apron or vintage Ted Nugent T-shirt," and to serve it with "an outrageously expensive Burgundy in cheap glasses to show [the guests] who's their Daddy"?
All of the funky, sometimes ribald humor (you no like cusswords, you no buy da book, OK, paisan'?) serves to brand certain points into your brain (on using fresh herbs for poulet roti: "keep that dried trash away from my bird").
The emphasis on prep and mise en place, as applied to the home kitchen, will do most cooks a world of good. He makes it clear that by thinking through what you need and what you're going to do ahead of time, and then organizing everything, you reduce mistakes, speed up the process, let go of a ton of stress, and make better food. Resistance is futile.
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