Modern French Culinary Art Cookbook

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Description: Here is the most comprehensive, authoritative, and up-to-date book on French cooking and gastronomy ever written ... a volume for any cook worth her salt. Aspiring cooks planning a meal for the first time and experienced kitchen buffs will find Modem French Culinary Art a completely practical cookbook and the ultimate in French cooking. 

This compendium of all that Henri-Paul Pellaprat, one of France's greatest chefs and cookery teachers, knew about food and cooking has, since its first publication in France in 1935, been translated into five languages and has sold some 750,000 copies. At last, with this new edition, it is available in America. Avanelle Day, co-author of The Spice Cookbook, and David White, its publisher, have done the invaluable work of insuring that this cookbook will become a fixture in the typical American kitchen and take its rightful place as the outstanding volume on the shelf. 

A true encyclopedia of the table, Modern French Culinary Art is a magnificent volume. Americans will find a complete education in the four basic subdivisions of French cooking. There is, first, la Haute Cuisine, the truly sophisticated and elaborate cooking appropriate only to the most special occasions. There is also la Cuisine Bourgeoise, the special culmination of centuries of fine cooking by the typical French housewife. Then there is la Cuisine Regionale, that diverse and rich mixture of local dishes from all sections of France. And, finally, there is la Cuisine Impromptu, the improvised, pick-up cooking that manages to do the very best with whatever is available. 

Furnishing the sinew and substance for these four constituents of French cooking are 2,030 recipes that take up the main body of the book and cover everything from sauces through soups, pates, fish, meats, and salads to souffles, cakes, and confectioneries. Four hundred and twenty-two lavish illustrations, 284 in full color, make clear to anyone preparing a dish for the first time exactly how the final product should appear and taste. As an added benefit, the black-and-white illustrations offer a complete explanation of culinary techniques. The book's more than 1,190 pages also contain 587 easy-to-follow epicurean techniques and a complete glossary of cooking terms. Unparalleled in the scope of its material, the authenticity of its information, and the beauty of its design, Modern French Culinary Art is an incomparable work, the perfect gift for all beginners and gastronomes, to be treasured through a lifetime of cooking. 

Henri-Paul Pellaprat's career provided an exception to George Bernard Shaw's dictum that "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." Born in Paris in 1869, Pellaprat was apprenticed as a pastry cook at the age of 12. In the early part of his career, he worked in the kitchens of some of the foremost French chefs of his time, Pere Lepey of the Cafe de la Paix, Casimir Moisson at La Maison Doree and also Messrs. Bignon, Maire, and Prillard. Inevitably, his skill and reputation led him to a teaching post at the Cordon Bleu Cooking School in Paris, where, except for the interruptions to his activities brought on by World War I, he remained until his retirement in 1932. 

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Condition: Good condition. No dust jacket. Last blank page is creased.