East of Paris: The New Cuisines of Austria and the Danube (Ecco) [Hardcover]

For the more discerning cookbook buyers among you, this is a celebrity chef coffee table style book of recipes from David Bouley?s restaurant ?Danube? which specializes in recipes from Vienna or in the style of Vienna, primarily those which would have been served to the Hapsburgs rather than simpler fare found in a Prater district caf?. This is Austrian haute cuisine, oddly showing much more influence from northern Italy than from Paris (hence the title of the book). This makes eminent sense as much of northern Italy was once under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Recipes are divided among seven (7) chapters primarily presenting cuisine by season. Chapters are:

Fall: 14 recipes featuring cabbage, plums, truffles, and suckling pig.
Winter: 16 recipes freaturing venison, strudel, goulash, and viener schnitzel
Spring: 13 recipes featuring salads, rabbit, lobster, and crab
Summer: 12 recipes featuring veal shank, lamb chops, mackeral, salmon, and foie gras
Signature Dishes: 8 cocktail recipes plus 14 entrees, including 7 seafood entrees
Traditional sweets: 15 recipes including the world famous Sachertorte and Linzertorte. Yum
Pantry: 13 recipes for stocks, doughs, and cures

Most recipes are relatively long but very well written (Melissa Clark, one of the co-authors, is a professional writer who has written or collaborated on 16 books, including at least one on desserts). Aside from the usual ocurrences of foie gras, black truffles, and caviar one would expect from a cuisine prepared for emperors, there are few unusual ingredients. One of the least familiar is a soft ricotta like cheese named Quark (Topfen in German) which is a soft, fresh, white curd cheese similar to pot cheese. I have never seen it in my local megamart, but then I never looked for it.

For the cuisine of Vienna, there are a surprisingly large number of seafood recipes, although I suspect that by the middle of the 19th century, Vienna was within 12 to 16 hours of the Adriatic coast by train.

The layout of the book and the photography are as good or better than similar books with equal or higher list prices. The photographs of frolicking sous chefs are kept to a minimum and the photographs really succeed in making the food, especially the pasteries, look appetizing.

If you have no cookbook which include the flagship Viennese tortes and strudels, this alone is worth the price of admission. The recipe for Sachertorte, for example, is similar to the recipe in the recent book ?Kaffeehaus? by Rick Rodgers, but seems to achieve a much fancier result with two layers instead of one and with more chocolate, but less sugar.

I would trade a Daniel Boulud and two Jacques Pepin softcovers for this one. This may not be for everyone, and the authors are honest about not doing historically accurate cuisine (?New Cuisines of Austria and the Danube?) but if part of your heart belongs to Austria, you will enjoy this book.

One notices the title, East of Paris, something else other than French. In this case, Austrian. Bouley reached this point via a journey leading from his G-Mom's roasted fresh vegetables to cooking in Vienna 49 and from there spending time in Vienna.

The cuisine result: peak flavor of ingredients, combining classic technique with world flavors and then having all this translated into an Austrian gestalt. Teaming up with Austrian Chef Lohninger, they offer a combo of Austrian classics, classics upgraded, and others dreamed up from scratch soley with us, the home cooks in mind.

The offerings come forth in seasons, with additional chapters on desserts, signature dishes, pantry, wine suggests and sources.
The layout is rich and photos are large, stylistic and captivatingly sumptuous.

Try the likes of: Rosti Potatoes with Smoked Salmon and Mustard Vinaigrette; Krautwickler=Cabbage Rolls Stuffed with Duck, Dates and Foie Gras; Roasted Prosciutto-Wrapped Striped Bass with Szedediner Sauerkraut; An unbelievably good "Goulash Soup; Wine-Braised Beef Cheeks with Chanterelle Goulash (a good dish to venture into a new ingredient); Rubarb Buttermilk Parfait; Salt-Crusted Lamb with Green Tomato Jam; Tyrolean Wine Soup with Fresh Trout and Smoked Trout Crepes.

Of course there are schnitzel and pastry/coffee house items here as well. You'll want to go exploring in this big, wide recipe offering. Be aware though that this is not for the timid home cook who isn't into venturing out with time, technique, or ingreds. But for those who are or on the edge, splurge right into this beaut!

This is a definite upper crust cookbook!