- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: Assouline; illustrated edition edition (January 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 2843231914
- ISBN-13: 978-2843231919
- Product Dimensions: 31.3 x 24.2 x 3.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.7 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #811,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
The best chefs know that incredible meals don't start in the kitchen--they start with the farmers, butchers, and seafood merchants. Where you get your ingredients is the key to fine dining. In Harvesting Excellence, acclaimed chef Alain Ducasse, of Manhattan's Alain Ducasse at Essex House and two three-star Michelin restaurants, takes us on a journey across the United States to visit the people who supply restaurants with the highest-caliber ingredients.
"While each region had drawn from its terroir--the climate, soil, and sun--to yield singular products," says Ducasse, "the flare and individuality of the multiple cultural influences in the United States have set the stage for modern American cuisine." Visit Coach Farm in upstate New York, where fromager Miles Cahn makes fresh goat cheese daily with milk from his herd of 1,000 goats. From there travel to Portland, Maine, and attend a fish auction where a prize halibut goes for $20 a pound. In Silicon Valley, a four-generation family farm produces cherries and apricots in the midst of the booming technology empire--and prays that they won't lose their lease and fertile farmland to commercial ventures. A connoisseur of beef, Ducasse thinks the Makache cattle of Arizona, tended by true cowboys, rivals Kobe beef in flavor and texture. What an animal eats affects the flavor of its meat, so when pigs are fed apples (they prefer Macintoshes) their meat "tastes almost as though caramelized and resembles an old-fashioned candied roast." On this same farm in Pennsylvania, chickens are fed cornmash mixed with milk for a lighter, moister meal with a delicate flavor.
Whether visiting a farm famous for its smoked pepper or for its succulent Meyer lemons, Harvesting Excellence is an interesting, intimate look at the people who raise and cultivate the food so artfully presented to you at our nation's best restaurants. --Dana Van Nest
Book Description
Alain Ducasse, the celebrated French chef, has discovered throughout the country, an excellence in food products that has inspired and reshaped his vision of Haute Cuisine. Whether it be in the cold Atlantic waters off the northern coast of Maine or the crimson-colored Arizona mountains, Alain Ducasse has found fishermen, ranchers and farmers across the nation whose products rank among the world's finest food. Harvesting Excellence celebrates the men and women who devote themselves to the artistry of creating first-rate food products. Here is the ultimate gourmet tour of what lies at the heart of all great cooking - great ingredients. And as a final touch, top chefs from all over the country give tips on selecting and preparing the best products for traditional or creative cooking.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
The newest from Ducasse, Inc.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Harvesting Excellence (Hardcover)
I have dined in all of Alain Ducasse's Paris establishments{including the just opened Plaza Athenee location}as well as his Monte Carlo establishment and consider him a genius however, with the overblown pretension of the New York restaurant and now this book, one has to ask can even a genius spread himself too thin. The two real cookbooks by Ducasse are treasures, this book is not worth the price or the trouble. It is basically the Master's musings about his sources and philosophy of freshness and source....nice filler in a real cookbook but,not worth or worthy of a whole book. Save your money for a real Ducasse cookbook.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Harvesting Excellence,
By Elisabeth Prueitt (mill valley, ca United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Harvesting Excellence (Hardcover)
This book should be an inspiration to both professional chefs and home cooks alike. It is beautifully written and photographed and conveys M. Ducasse's enjoyment of the abundance of the United States in it's many forms. To miss the inclusion of recipes is to miss the point. Of course the book is pointing out the bounty that is utilised at the restaurant, but it is there for all of us to enjoy and use. There are many, many farms across the U.S. similar to the ones profiled in the book, in every community. Many people just don't know that they are there. I would hope that this book is an inspiration to people to patronize their local food producers and to seek out farmers, fishermen, ranchers, cheesemakers et al who make it their life's work to produce something of quality for all to enjoy. Rarely has a chef written a book that is not entirely about themselves, to promote the work of others. And this chef is not even from this country.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing Harvest...,
By A Customer
This review is from: Harvesting Excellence (Hardcover)
Imagine my surprise when I opened the book and started looking for recipes,and found not a single one. The "tips" mentioned in the Amazon blurb consist of terse, extremly general,single line comments as to what sort of technique or garnish to use for the item at hand. The products discussed come from single vendors that most chefs, not to mention the home cook, will be hard pressed to get hands on. It would be nice if the man touted by some as the greatest chef in the world gave some specific ideas what he would do with the great products of this country. Alas, not a whisper. Other chefs,such as Alice Waters and Thomas Keller, do an admirable job extolling the virtues of American products and provide great ideas of how to play with them. This book seems like the first half of his L'Atelier book,wihout the culinary clues. If you're looking for a "cookbook",this is not it. I'm not sure what value the book holds,except as a peek at obscure vendors and a glimpse into a chef's thoughts.
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