The Little Paris Kitchen: Classic French recipes with a fresh and fun approach [Hardcover]

This is just my sort of cookery book. I usually avoid celebrity chefs, but I caught one of her shows on BBC1 by accident a couple of weeks ago and I really admired the simple approach, the emphasis on good quality ingredients and the truly celebrationary results. I though that the book would be a risk because so many of these celebrity chef books focus as much on the chef as on the food, but this turned out to be wonderfully food-orientated.

The recipes are excellent. They are all relatively simple, the ingredients are realistic (none of them either ridiculously expensive or too difficult to find), and there is always some edge to them that gives even the most familiar dishes an unusual touch (like the cauliflower bake with hazelnut crunch crust, which is so much more than cauliflower cheese, the three-coloured shepherd's pie, which is topped with pumpkin, mash and parsley mash, and bbq coq au vin on skewers). Some of the recipes come with a tip for varying it (for example, a Japanese twist to steak tartare).

Most importantly for me, all of the main recipes are accompanied by a good photograph so that you can see what the end result is supposed to look like. The photography is good. The "basics" section of sauces, dressings and stocks does not have photographs, but that doesn't much matter.

Each recipe is given its French title, followed by the English translation. There is a paragraph of chat about the recipe, followed by a list of ingredients and directions for making it up.

The recipes offer a great variety of flavours and ingredients. I can see myself living happily out of this book for quite a long time!

There is an introduction by Rachel Khoo, but it only takes up a page and a half. Throughout the book there are loads of full page photos of Rachel out and about in Paris, which add nothing for me (except weight to the book) but might appeal to those who enjoyed the series.

The contents are as follows: Introduction, Everyday cooking, Snack time, Summer picnics, Aperitifs, Dinner with friends and family, Sweet treats, French basics, Cook's notes, My Paris Addresses, Index. The My Paris Addresses is a list of markets, restaurants and shops that the author uses. The index lists dishes by main ingredient (so if you look up "orange" it will show you orange mousse and citrus fruit cake but doesn't show you the duck with orange recipe). There's a useful set of cook's notes, weights and oven temperatures.

Favourite recipes are: leeks in vinaigrette with poached egg and Bayonne ham; Oeufs en cocotte; Crispy rabbit with Meaux mustard; Trout in a parcel with lemon, fennel and creme fraiche; croque madame muffins; fromage frais; rillettes au porc; Parisian asparagus; prawn and asparagus blancmange; scallop sabayon; fish meuniere; lemon and lavender chicken; chicken and mushrooms in a white wine sauce; boeuf bourgingon with baguette dumplings; duck with fizzy orange; tarte tatin. There are a lot of desserts and cakes, but I'm not keen on desserts so haven't tried any of them except the wonderful tarte tatin.

I received this book only yesterday morning, and I have already made three of the recipes. The oeufs en cocotte, the croque madame muffins and the chicken liver and fig salad. All three were extremely simple to make and tasted delicious.
I love french food, but even though I have a pretty large collection of recipe books, I only have 2 other french ones, and haven't really used them other than for cassoulet and confit duck. The moment I opened this book, I was charmed by the design and layout of the book, especially all the little illustrations. The recipes in the book look, for the most part, fairly simple to make, and i have now got post-it markers on pretty much every other page of the book. Another winner for me is that the ingredients for most of the recipes are inexpensive, a definite bonus in the current economic climate.

Cheap, easy-to-make, delicious food, in a lovingly designed book that's fun to read. I will definitely be recommending this to friends!

OK, this is going to sound like an excuse but for me, French Cuisine has always seemed like fancy food that takes forever to prepare and designed more for a dinner party than everyday use. This stereotype was reinforced when you start looking at the whole Michelin Star system and to be blunt, I've always thought that it wasn't for me. Yes I like my French Bread and my Pain Aux Raisins but for me the stereotype has proven to be one that's hard to do away with, especially when you also watch some of the cheffy things on the TV where they start talking big foreign words that you don't have a clue what they mean and the product that they serve is unrecognisable from what comes out from your own Kitchen. (That said, whenever I've been to France I do like to have a rummage around places like the Patisserie or the Chocolatiere as I do like a lot of their sweeter things, but on the whole I've always been intimidated by the whole thing.)

Luckily for me, this title by Rachel Khoo landed and whilst I'm still scared of it, I've found an absolute ton of recipes that are easy to prepare, taste divine and of course give me that "je ne sais quois" when I bring them out. Like Italian Cuisine (my comfort zone) the recipes depend on quality ingredients prepared quickly and served on completion. It can bring families together and it makes eating an experience to cherish. Back that up with food for all types of celebrations (be it a fancy meal or a picnic) and this title will allow you to really give it your all.

All in, it's a wonderful book and this does for French Cuisine what I want, it makes it accessable for anyone who likes to spend time in the kitchen as well as helping to remove the stuffiness alongside fear that the words French Cuisine normally conjures up.