- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (30 Oct 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0471413593
- ISBN-13: 978-0471413592
- Product Dimensions: 24 x 21.3 x 2.4 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 349,054 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
Mastering Simplicity: A Life in the Kitchen
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Delouvrier, former executive chef at Lespinasse, doesn′t skimp on the duck fat or creme fraiche in his chronological tome, which details his rise from hotel school in Toulouse to the four–star kitchen of the now defunct Lespinasse in New York City. Along the way there are charming anecdotes about boyhood weekends on his grandparents′ farm, learning the ropes as a lowly worker in the bustling kitchen of Paris′s Cafe de la Paix, and becoming the chef de cuisine at New York′s Maurice Restaurant. Delouvrier′s recipes are not as accessible as his prose, however. The Cassoulet, for example, has 23 steps and over two–dozen ingredients; and the Bouillabaisse has separate recipes for the stock, rouille and croutons. Even the seemingly simple Marie Louise′s Rice Pudding demands nearly two hours of one′s time, although the end result is, admittedly, stellar. Also, although it is interesting to see how Delouvrier′s recipes develop over his 4o–year career (from Coq au Vin to Stewed Chicken with Cream and Tarragon to Stuffed Chicken with Truffles Poached in Bouillon), the evolution is not nearly as dramatic as one might expect. (Oct.) (Publishers Weekly, September 29, 2003)
Product Description
A captivating portrait of the life and cooking of Lespinasse′s Christian Delouvrier, the four–star chef who has defined French cuisine for the American dining public
Celebrity chefs continue to fascinate growing numbers of increasingly sophisticated foodlovers. Now, Mastering Simplicity puts the spotlight on Christian Delouvrier, one of today′s brightest and most distinguished culinary stars, celebrated by Florence Fabricant in the New York Times as "a cook whose entire culinary life is a testament to tradition." Part memoir, part cookbook, it captures the things that have brought Chef Delouvrier to the top of his profession as Executive Chef of the acclaimed four–star restaurant Lespinasse in New York City: his devotion to the best ingredients, his unique blend of techniques, and his mastery of the culinary traditions of southwest France. Chef Delouvrier shares valuable insights on his techniques and the chefs and restaurants that have influenced his style of cooking, along with entertaining anecdotes that bring his experiences to life. At the heart of the book, he shares a variety of his best–loved recipes from around the world, a repertoire of personal favorites that include a delightful Veal Stew (Toulouse), an Upside Down Apple Tart (Paris), and Salmon Cooked in Olive Oil with Arugula Salad and Balsamic Vinegar (New York). Dozens of color and more than 50 black–and–white photographs display finished dishes and capture the life of the chef in his early days in his grandmother′s kitchen and on his journey to Lespinasse.
Christian Delouvrier (New York, NY) is Executive Chef at Lespinasse (at the St. Regis Hotel). Trained at the Lycée Hôtelier of Toulouse, he worked in several Michelin–star restaurants in Paris before moving to New York, where he was a chef at Les Célébrités. Jennifer Leuzzi (New York, NY) is a publicist who studied at the Ecole Ritz Escoffier in Paris.
Celebrity chefs continue to fascinate growing numbers of increasingly sophisticated foodlovers. Now, Mastering Simplicity puts the spotlight on Christian Delouvrier, one of today′s brightest and most distinguished culinary stars, celebrated by Florence Fabricant in the New York Times as "a cook whose entire culinary life is a testament to tradition." Part memoir, part cookbook, it captures the things that have brought Chef Delouvrier to the top of his profession as Executive Chef of the acclaimed four–star restaurant Lespinasse in New York City: his devotion to the best ingredients, his unique blend of techniques, and his mastery of the culinary traditions of southwest France. Chef Delouvrier shares valuable insights on his techniques and the chefs and restaurants that have influenced his style of cooking, along with entertaining anecdotes that bring his experiences to life. At the heart of the book, he shares a variety of his best–loved recipes from around the world, a repertoire of personal favorites that include a delightful Veal Stew (Toulouse), an Upside Down Apple Tart (Paris), and Salmon Cooked in Olive Oil with Arugula Salad and Balsamic Vinegar (New York). Dozens of color and more than 50 black–and–white photographs display finished dishes and capture the life of the chef in his early days in his grandmother′s kitchen and on his journey to Lespinasse.
Christian Delouvrier (New York, NY) is Executive Chef at Lespinasse (at the St. Regis Hotel). Trained at the Lycée Hôtelier of Toulouse, he worked in several Michelin–star restaurants in Paris before moving to New York, where he was a chef at Les Célébrités. Jennifer Leuzzi (New York, NY) is a publicist who studied at the Ecole Ritz Escoffier in Paris.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
When I began to think about collecting my recipes into a book, I wondered how I could find the words to talk about something that had been my obsession for so long. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
When I began to think about collecting my recipes into a book, I wondered how I could find the words to talk about something that had been my obsession for so long. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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3 reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Another Life in the French Kitchen
7 Jan 2004
Format:Hardcover
`Mastering Simplicity' by Christian Delouvrier is a combination celebrity chef memoir and restaurant cookbook with the intended spin of making simple the apparent complexity in the canon of standard French cuisine. On the one hand, the book succeeds in presenting a well-written and interestingly presented sequence of classic French or French style recipes. On the other, it fails in presenting its primary contention that it can simplify French cooking. As the author and his cowriters admit in more than one recipe, this is long with lots of ingredients, but you can do it if you just break it down into its (many) individual steps. All the author has succeeded in doing is to show that the complexity can be broken down into a lot of steps and that what may look simple to a talented professional chef who has been in the business for over thirty years, still looks daunting to the amateur. The observation by Daniel Boulud on the difference between amateurs and professionals still holds. Professionals simply see things differently by virtue of having done the same preparations thousands of times over.
Since Delouvrier fails in making his primary contention, which can set his book apart from all the others, what is the value of the material otherwise? As always, it all depends on what you are looking for.
The book is organized in almost exactly the same style as Daniel Boulud's `Café Boulud Cookbook' with seven chapters of recipes instead of Boulud's four. The chapters are chronological, each dealing with a different stage in the author's career, beginning with his fairly straightforward versions of dishes from la cuisine Bourgeoise such as cassoulet and coq au vin through the author's interpretation of haute cuisine dishes at his very expensive Manhattan venues. The chapters are:
Family Cooking, Boulogne-SurGesse, France
Hotel School and the Early Years, Toulouse, France
Café de la Paix, Paris, France
Journet Through Discovery (Montreal)
Les Celebrites, New York City
LesPinasse and Four Stars, New York City
Basic Recipes (Pantry preparations)
The book does have the author's reminiscences which are entertaining and have a strong family resemblence to memoirs written by several other French chefs.
So the question remains, `Why should I buy this book'.
First, I think the recipes are very good, with the ones in the first four chapters being much more accessible to the amateur than the fifth and sixth recipe. The pantry recipes are interesting in that they show the chef is doing high end French technique. Stock recipes, with a few little twists, may have come right out of the Culinary Institute of America.
Second, the recipes in the first two chapters include some regional specialities outside of Provence and Lyon. The recipes in the last three chapters do include some Oriental influences, but not much.
Third, almost all the recipes are for entrees. Not too much space spent on desserts or salads. The mix of meat, fowl, fin, and shellfish is about right, with very few recipes for rabbit or other game style protein.
Fourth, the headnotes offer interesting comments on the source and nature of the material and the preparation. Good, but not dramatically better than other books.
If you already own a copy of Julia Child's `Mastering the Art of French Cooking' and Jaques Pepin's books on technique, the basis for buying this book narrows down to getting the book to see this chef's take on things plus some recipes from Gascony.
There are no wine pairings, which I don't miss. The photography is competant. There are no ingredient sources listed, but then, there are not a lot of rare ingredients. Just lots of them and some relatively expensive ingredients.
If you want a book like this, I would recommend one first look at Boulud's book cited above. If you really like that kind of book and want more, then I recommend this book to you.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
great book
25 Mar 2007
Format:Hardcover
typical cookbook for cooks who have background in the field. The book breaks down the recipe in a simple manner, but at times a new cook may have a hard time following.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
A very good chef
12 Feb 2006
Format:Hardcover
This is a book written by a very professional chef who does not seek the limelight in any way. I have not studied the book in great detail but the minute i saw it I bought it without hesitation. Sure enough it was filled with anecdotes and a review of his years in various restaurants . I was also happy to see recipes for things like fish stock. Does anyone make fish stock anymore? If you want to learn the complicated and the simple this is the book for you.
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