French Menu Cookbook Richard Olney Rare Signed Limited Edition

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Description: In revising The French Menu Cookbook, American painter, cook, food writer, editor and cookbook author Richard Olney has concentrated on the introductory sections, expanding, in particular, the chapters on Wine and on Mechanics, Aromatics, and Basic Preparations. The menus themselves have not been altered, but, when possible, procedures and presentations have been simplified. 

Emphasis throughout the book has been placed on the importance of tactile sense, which I consider to be a sort of convergence of all the senses, an awareness through touching but also through smelling, hearing, seeing, and tasting that something is "just right" -- to know by seeing the progression from the light, swelling foam of an initial boil to a fiat surface punctuated by tiny bubbles, by hearing the same progression from a soft, cottony, slurring sound to a series of sharp, staccato explosions, by judging from the degree of syrupiness or the smooth, enveloping consistency on a wooden spoon when a reduction has arrived at the point a few seconds before which it is too thin, a few seconds after which it may break or burn; to know by pinching and judging the resilience of a chop or a roast when to remove it from the heat; to recognize the perfect amber of a caramel moments before it turns burnt and bitter; to feel the right liquid flow of crepe batter and the point of light but contained airiness in a mousseline forcemeat that, having absorbed a maximum of cream to be perfect, would risk collapsing through any further addition.... 

The maniacal precisions of weights, measures, and oven temperatures imposed on modern cookbooks serve mainly to soothe feelings of insecurity in the timid cook; a blind respect for them will discourage self-confidence and the development of tactile sense, which go hand in hand. Food should be an expression of a cook's personality; a recipe executed by two individuals, in each of whom may reside a finely developed tactile sense, will produce, thanks to individual sensibilities, two different dishes, each of which may be flawless. 

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Condition: Good condition.