Simple French Food
by Richard Olney
List Price:
Our Price: $10.94
You Save: $9.01 (45%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.49 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Richard OlneyIntroduction: Patricia Wells
Foreword: James Beard
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1992-06-02
ISBN: 0020100604
Number of pages: 448
Publisher: Wiley
Book Reviews of Simple French Food
Book Review: Simply Great
Summary: 5 Stars
Many of the reviews posted here bemoan the fact that the recipes in this volume are not "simple" enough... they require careful selection of raw materials, attention to detail, heightened sensibility, occasionally some difficult technique. But the reference to "simple" in the title is not, as some might assume, a sort of promise that "Anyone Can Cook." It is, instead, an affirmation of Olney's approach -- a relatively short list of ingredients, a few central flavors and textures and not a lot of fuss for the sake of fuss. No complexity for its own sake, and no piling on of flavors and "stuff" to make it big or showy or "ethnic" or whatever.
His approach is definitely not for the beginner who cannot boil water or doesn't know veal from stewing beef. It isn't for those who are looking for "20 minute meals to impress your friends" or how to make chef so and so's signature dish. Indeed, while there are recipes, much of the book consists of mere suggestions. Look, for example, at Olney's chapter on salads. He begins with some general ideas about dressings -- how to select a good quality oil, what sort of vinaigrette you might want to make to dress greens and what sort to accompany cold meats, when you might want to consider adding strong mustard and when you might think of something else. Then he describes crudites - no recipe, just a few paragraphs of ideas and things you might consider when you shop and when you begin to put together a platter. Ditto the entry on asparagus -- how to pick the most flavorful, how to peel and steam and cool; and then he will counsel to "eat it cold, toss it in butter, throw it into a salad or an omelet, cover it with bechamel and buttered breadcrumbs and gratinee it, puree the stems and mix with the tips into a souffle batter..." The entry ends with that ellipsis, I didn't add it. That's the way Olney does things. And the book goes on like this, interspersed with a recipe here and some general observations and advice and ideas there.
Every one of the recipes cries out for experimentation, modification, customization to match what's in the market, how much "technique" you are willing or unwilling to bring to bear to complete the dish. Many a "recipe" is really just a formula or "modele" -- some are even called simply "impromptu," to let you know this is one day's improvised performance but tomorrow's could and probably should be a variation on the theme. It's jazz in the kitchen.
I've had this book since I bought my first paperback copy, copyright 1977. It's covered with sauce, oil, butter, wine, stock. I have a hardback first edition that sits in a place of honor -- the paperback remains the working tool and it can get as sloppy as it wanna be. And it is from this falling from the bone paperback book, along with the Joy of Cooking and the two volumes of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," that I went from a kid who didn't know that bread was something you could make at home with some flour, water, yeast, oil and salt, or that asparagus does not grow in cans, to a young adult confident enough to improvise and good enough to do so with success.
To use the book to greatest advantage, look at one of Olney's "you could do it this way, or you could do it that way, or you could do it this way and that way" recipes, like the "Saute-Type" formula (you really cannot call it a "recipe") in the Meats and Poultry chapter. You will begin reading Olney's meditation on "Stews (ragouts, daubes, sautes...)." That will get your juices flowing. Then thumb through the "Saute-modele for 4," which will give you a nearly infinite variety of options for the dish you will compose with Olney's guidance. He isn't giving you a recipe, he is helping you make your own "recipe," which you will then repeat, with this modification and that, for the rest of your life. He will tell you what you ought to do should you choose to use lardons in your daube, how to prepare and add various vegetables to add flavor and how to separately prepare vegetables to garnish the final dish, how you might want to use stock or wine or water as a moistening agent and eventual base for a sauce. You could start with veal, or lamb, or beef, or chicken, or rabbit -- and you just take off your training wheels, get up on your bike and go from there. If you fall, it won't hurt too much. You can try again.
I recall my first experience with this "saute-modele." I found a fresh local rabbit, cut up for braising. Carefully browned it in olive oil and butter, deglazed with wine, gently braised with homemade stock and a mirepoix, added a fresh bouquet garni, some garlic, some this and that and then, as Olney suggests, prepped and butter braised each of the vegetables I would use as a garnish for the final presentation, then strained and reduced the braising liquid, thickened with beurre manie, and assembled all on a large oval platter, ringed with triangles of fresh bread sauteed in foaming butter, the glistening crisp tips of the triangles dipped in finely chopped fresh herbs to make a crown all around, the sauce napped over all. It took a couple of hours or more, this is true, but the whole process was like going on vacation, with breaks to study for exams; and the eating, with a couple of bottles of excellent cru beaujolais and two couples at the table, was like landing in a very good bistro in Burgundy. Every time I have made this dish since then, it has been new, different, easier, never dull. Sometimes veal, sometimes rabbit, sometimes chicken, whatever.
Then there are some simple, elegant, "country cooking" recipes -- pork chops and apples in mustard sauce; fish filets with zucchini; fresh fig and mint salad. Every one of them requiring attention to detail for success, every one of them calling for just a few ingredients carefully chosen for freshness and flavor and amenable to improvisation.
Finally, some demanding terrines and charcuterie, or at least I've always thought they are demanding. Others may not.
So there you have it. Nothing is fussy, everything is "simple," but not undemanding. If you take some time, give it some thought, pay a lot of attention, this book will teach you to teach yourself to select and combine ingredients, to do your mise en place and prepare your meal, to take pleasure in a simple meal well conceived and executed, in a leisurely way, and paired with complementary wines.
Now I ask, what more could anyone ask for in a "cookbook?" No, it ain't a TV show knockoff. It won't tease you with glossy color photos of spreads prepped and lighted by a "food stylist" and a fashion photographer. There's no perky Rachel Ray on the cover or cutesy "yums" involved. But I promise you, slow down and listen to this book, work with it, and you will learn to cook and you will take pleasure in cooking and eating for the rest of your life.
That's what I call a great food classic. Olney wrote and edited a number of other books. Some are very good, but none of them comes close to this one. Five stars ain't enough.
Summary of Simple French Food
Simple French Food"For twenty years Richard Olney's Simple French Food has been one of my greatest sources of inspiration for cooking at Chez Panisse." --Alice Waters
"I know this book almost by heart. It is a classic of honest French cooking and good writing. Buy it, read it, eat it." --Lydie Marshall
"I need this new edition badly because Simple French Food is the most dog-eared, falling-apart book in my library. Here it is newly bound to enrich one's life." --Kermit Lynch, author of Adventures on the Wine Route
"Simple French Food has the most marvelous French food to appear in print since Elisabeth David's French Provincial Cooking.... The book's greatest virtue is that the author...really teaches you to cook French in a way I've never seen before. Here you acquire the methods, the tour de main, the tricks that are the heart and essence of French food, unforgettable once acquired in this book because of their logical, well-explained presentation." --Nika Hazelton, The New York Times
"I am unable to find an ad equate adjective to express my enthusiasm.... I find Simple French Food marvelous. I have never read a book on French cuisine that has so excited and absorbed me." --Simone Beck
Richard Olney, best known as a general food writer, is one of America's most erudite experts on authentic French cooking, but it's difficult to find anyone who knows much about him, except for such authorities as Patricia Wells and the late James Beard. The reprinting of Olney's classic and indispensable Simple French Food offers readers the chance to learn more about this most idiosyncratic and accomplished of cooks. No pared down, paint-by-numbers recipes here: Olney is obsessed not only with showing you how to cook, but how to see, smell, feel, listen, and taste as well. Read, for example, Olney's description of Scrambled Eggs and you will understand what you are missing when they are not properly prepared (as they almost never are): "correctly prepared, the softest of barely perceptible curds held in a thickly liquid, smooth, creamy suspension." To scramble eggs, Olney insists on a wooden spoon, a generously buttered copper pan or bain-marie, and a precise control of the temperature--very simple to accomplish, as all his recipes are, as long as you take care to absorb fully his sensuous and exact instructions. --Sumi Hahn Almquist
French Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in French Books
Recipes from a Chateau in Champagneby Robin McDouall, Sheila Bush
David & Charles; Published: 1982-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $149.99
The Finest Wines of Champagne: A Guide to the Best Cuvées, Houses, and Growers (The World's Finest Wines)by Michael Edwards
University of California Press; Published: 2009-10-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $21.99
Price in other shops:
Dionne Lucas Book French Cookingby Rh Value Publishing
Gramercy; Published: 1986-07-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $68.61
Six Minute Souffle and Other Culinary DelightsClarkson N. Potter, Inc.; Published: 1976-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops:
L'Atelier of Alain Ducasse : The Artistry of a Master Chef and His Protegesby Alain Ducasse, Jean-Francoise Revel, Benedict Beauge, Herve Amiard
Wiley; Published: 2000-02-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $42.00
Price in other shops:
MODERN FRENCH COOKINGby Wolfgang Puck
Houghton Mifflin; Published: 1981-11-20; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $48.99
Mastering the art of French Cooking 50th Anniversaryby Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, Simone Beck
Alfred A. Knopf; Published: 2001-10-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.99
Price in other shops:
Mccall's Best One-Dish Mealsby Editors of McCall'S Magazine
Little, Brown; Published: 1994-10-01; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
Made in Marseille: Food and Flavors from France's Mediterranean Seaportby Daniel Young, Sebastien Boffredo
William Morrow Cookbooks; Published: 2002-09-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.84
Price in other shops:
Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipesby Elizabeth Bard
Back Bay Books; Published: 2011-02-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.91
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Essentials of Classic Italian Cookingby Marcella Hazan
Alfred A. Knopf; Published: 1992-10-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.25
Price in other shops:
French Classics Made Easyby Richard Grausman
Workman Press; Workman Publishing Company; Published: 2011-05-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.14
Price in other shops:
The French Menu Cookbook: The Food and Wine of France--Season by Delicious Season--in Beautifully Composed Menus for American Dining and Entertaining by an American Living in Paris...by Richard Olney
Ten Speed Press; Published: 2011-03-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.48
Price in other shops:
French Cooking in Ten Minutes: Adapting to the Rhythm of Modern Life (1930)by Edouard de Pomiane
North Point Press; Published: 1994-10-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.90
Price in other shops:
The Food of Franceby Waverley Root
Vintage; Published: 1992-06-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.52
Price in other shops:
Auberge Of The Flowering Hearthby Roy Andries De Groot
Ecco; Published: 1996-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.72
Price in other shops:
When French Women Cook: A Gastronomic Memoir with Over 250 Recipesby Madeleine Kamman
Ten Speed Press; Published: 2010-08-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.82
Price in other shops:
French Provincial Cooking (Penguin Classics)by Elizabeth David, Juliet Renny, Julia Child
Penguin Classics; Published: 1999-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.22
Price in other shops:
The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Foodby Adam Gopnik
Knopf; Published: 2011-10-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.32
Price in other shops:
Bistro Cookingby Patricia Wells
Workman Publishing Company; Published: 1989-01-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.48
Price in other shops: