I understand all the rave reviews for this cookbook based on the photography and the narrative story it tells. But as a cookbook, I find it completely impractical. I bought the book based on these rave reviews and I wish one person would have been more upfront about the recipes and I would have made a more informed choice. The photographs are lovely. The narrative is interesting. The food and recipes however are impractical to replicate in my own home which is why I only gave this cookbook one star.
As an example, here is a list of key ingredients for one recipe after another in this cookbook: fresh sardines (not canned), rabbit, rose geranium leaves, rice bran oil, huckleberries, lemon verbena leaves, mulberries, rockfish, burrata, fresh mackrel, quail, foi gras, quince, ahi tuna, fresh oysters, beluga lentils, fresh squid, etc. etc.
I have nothing against this type of cooking. I'm sure the recipes are delicious. I sadly will never know because I live in the mid west in a modest sized town and just simply don't have access to these ingredients. If you have access to this type of food then this cookbook will probably work for you. These 'rarified' ingredients aren't widely available to the rest of us and I wish I had known what type of cookbook this was before wasting my money.
