As a travel guide to Burgundy, it's wonderful!
When I was looking for guidebooks for an upcoming trip to France, the librarian suggested this cookbook and, oh, what a wonderful suggestion it was! While the recipes were interesting looking and we learned much about the cuisine we would soon be tasting, it's value for us was the marvelous overview and incredible font of information it provided on the Burgundy region. It introduced us to the wines, the food, the villages and the little out-of-the-way places that made our trip so incredibly memorable. We used it constantly, met many of the people she wrote about and stopped in the restaurants, shops and sites she recommended. For anyone who is contemplating a visit to Burgundy, loves the French countryside or wants to experience it vicariously, this is just the book to do it with.
Great book for French cuisine rookies
I'm a 30-something single man who used to live in terror of trying to cook French cuisine. I found this book and have had wild success with several of Sarah's recipes. Yes, some of the sauces are "dumbed-down" north american versions of French sauces, but no one has complained about them yet! Straightforward recipes and very pleasing results make this is a great book for French cuisine rookies.
Nice Twists on Traditional French Recipes
Sarah Leah Chase is my favorite cookbook author, and while this isn't her best effort (Nantucket Open House Cookbook is *essential* for anyone who loves food), it contains plenty of excellent French provincial-inspired recipes while avoiding the stodginess of that traditional fare. Chase uses French cooking standbys, butter and cream, along with Burgundian ingredients like Dijon mustard, Chablis and red Burgundy wines. But she also spices things up with a liberal use of Creme de Cassis--the recipe for Candied Shallot and Walnut Croutes is worth the price of the book alone. Other outstanding recipes include one for Baked Oysters, a lovely Pain d'Epices and Potato Gratin Dijonnaise. If the book has a weakness, it's probably in the meat dishes. Most are pretty similar to recipes found in other French Bistro or Americanized French cookbooks. But this is still a very worthy, not to mention beautiful looking, cookbook that belongs on the pantry shelf of any serious cook or cookbook aficionado.
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