Book description
There is more than a slight malaise in the air these days about
French food and cooking. While the rest of the world delights in the
intricacies of molecular gastronomy and even Britain is revelling in a
culinary renaissance, in France the years of worship at the temple of
the great god Michelin seem to have blinded them to change and
evolution. Why is this? What is it about the French that causes them
to be so blinkered about their food?
Plats du Jour is an attempt to answer that question, as
William Black explores the highways and byways of French cooking.
Taking as his starting point the great tradition of French food,
William tackles years of received wisdom and parochial food snobbery
head on, though with his mind (and his mouth) firmly open... He eats
tête de veau and fried cow's udder with his French wife's
family near Orléans. He samples the dubious (and illegal) delights of
ortolan in the south west and has the most painfully disappointing
gastronomic experience of his life. He combs the beaches of Brittany
for seafood and is chased away from a festival by an enraged Basque
villager. His dedication to the culinary cause knows few bounds.
Plats du Jour is a book which the French aren't going to like
very much. That said, it's a highly entertaining and irreverent look
at the world's greatest culinary tradition which will be required
reading for anyone with an interest in food and cooking...
William Black is the author of
Al Dente
and
The Land That Thyme Forgot
, and the co-author with Sophie Grigson of several bestselling travel
books:
Fish, Organic
and
Travels
Ã
la Carte
. He has sourced ingredients (fish in particular) for many of the UK's
finest restaurants and he lives in Oxfordshire.
