La Cuisine Secrets of Modern French Cooking by Raymond Oliver

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Description: Here is one of the great cookbooks of our time, written by France's most renowned chef, Raymond Oliver, the owner of the three-star Grand Vefour in Paris, a mecca for grateful gourmets all over the world. An overnight best seller in the original French, Oliver's masterpiece has now been translated and carefully adapted by two outstanding American food and wine authorities, Nika Standen HazeIton and Jack Van Bibber -- making Oliver's famed cuisine available to a whole new audience of fine food enthusiasts. 

For everyone who loves fine food, this book is essential. Covering every aspect of French cooking from basic fonds to wine selection, this volume contains nearly 1,500 of the finest recipes Raymond Oliver has garnered from the great French tradition, invented, rediscovered or refined in his long and brilliant career as master chef and restaurateur. It is a veritable encyclopedia of the "new art of gastronomy" he developed and which has served to settle on his shoulders the mantle of the legendary Escoffier.

But this work is even more than a fabulous collection of recipes; it is virtually a course in haute cuisine cookery by the master himself. Over 600 photographs show Mr. Oliver at work, presenting visual aids, found nowhere else, to the line points of French cooking. In his celebrated Tours de Main section (Tricks of the Trade, pp. 34-160) the great chef explains in photos and words over 200 basic French cooking terms from Abaisse to Zester. And throughout the book, on virtually every page, there are invaluable hints on preparing the recipes that will be helpful in a variety of other recipes as well. 

Here, you will learn those all-important, basic elements of exquisite French cooking rarely attended to in other French cookbooks: how to make the stocks that give the unique flavor to French cuisine; how to prepare the sauces; the fundamental ways of cooking an egg the way a great chef does it; methods of preparing chicken, lobster, lamb, pork for any number of delicious alternate dishes; how to make bouillabaisses, hors d'oeuvre, desserts; the preparation of vegetables of all kinds; even how to arrange food on the plate, and serve.

Furthermore, each procedure is shown step by step, based on traditional methods, yet streamlined for modern cooks and modern kitchens. 

"There is no cuisine without love," says Raymond Oliver, and it is ultimately this love that makes this book so valuable. Whether you prepare Coq au Vin Pomerol or Souffleed Bananas, you will feel the care and attention Oliver has lavished on each dish.

For this American edition, all measurements have been converted, and equivalent ingredients have been suggested wherever French staples prove difficult to locate. Throughout, the editors have been faithful to Oliver's unique approach, and the book is permeated with the personality of one of the world's foremost culinary virtuosos. 

Richly designed and printed, profusely illustrated with luxurious color plates as well as black and white photographs, Raymond Oliver's La Cuisine will find an honored place on the kitchen bookshelf of everyone who enjoys fine food, and cooking both expert and imaginative. 

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Condition: Good condition.