Paris Cafe Cookbook, The [Hardcover]

The Paris Café Cookbook brings home a food experience peculiar to a single city and singular kind of establishment. In Paris, the birthplace of the café, these establishments provide a sense of family cooking where little of it exists at home any longer. Daniel Young, restaurant critic for the New York Daily News, has produced a delightful and informative book.

Young begins his book with a long elaboration that defines the Parisian café, setting it apart from brasserie and bistro, though some can be either. Though his book is set up to follow a standard pattern (appetizers, sides, main dishes, and desserts), the divisions are broken up by short essays describing each of the 50 cafés Young has selected. This is as much tour guide as cookbook at this point.

But it also anchors to a specific place and sensibility the food described in the recipes. Sure, Pot-au-Feu recipes are a dime a dozen, but Young gives the reader the Pot-au-Feu to be found at Brasserie Stella--as well as the Brasserie itself. Steamed Chicken with Tarragon Sauce is sure to elicit no big surprises, yet this is the recipe served at Pétrissan's. The Stuffed Artichokes with Ratatouille Niçoise can be found at Les Fontaines or at your very own dinner table. Café food is not elaborate or technique intensive. You can, in fact, do this home cooking at home.

That's what is so delightful about The Paris Café Cookbook: anyone who can't make it to Paris 16 times in three years to work on a book about Paris cafés can simply cook the food at home, establish the right ambience, sit down, dine, and pretend. Let taste be your guide. --Schuyler Ingle

Young, a New York City restaurant critic and food commentator, collects recipes from the City of Lights' best-known haunts in this serviceable cookbook. In a slightly smug introduction, Young explains why he?a New Yorker?is qualified to select the best of Paris (he's more open to the city's charm) and suggests that although the dishes he's selected are high in fat, the small portions (along with cigarettes and alcohol) aid Parisians in staying slim. Appetizers include an Onion Tart from Brasserie de l'ile St.-Louis and Mussels and Zucchini Salad with Spicy Mayonnaise from the Clown Bar. The Decadent Mashed Potatoes from Le Cafe Marly live up to their name with 1 1/4 cups butter plus one cup cream. Desserts are the strongest category here: Lemon Tart with Prune Compote from L'Ete en Pente Douce is pleasantly tangy, while Le Vaudeville's Gratin of Fresh Figs with a Red Wine Sabayon is simple yet original. Descriptions and histories of the cafes themselves are light and fun: despite its name, Cafe Cannibale was created as a place where women could gather without falling prey to cruising men, and the famous clientele at the Cafe de Flore has included Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. The owner called the latter his worst customer ever because he could make one drink last so long.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Not bad?Young, the restaurant critic for the New York Daily News and an NPR commentator, got to spend months in Paris discovering his favorite cafes and sampling their fare. His book includes a page or more description of each, numerous atmospheric black-and-white photographs, and more than 150 recipes, ranging from the traditional?Poule au Pot, or Chicken in the Pot?to the contemporary?Sauteed Tuna with Orange and Star Anise Butter Sauce. Fun for both armchair travelers and anyone interested in French cooking, this is recommended for most libraries.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Not only irresistible but essential. The recipes comprise "classic French food at its most practical," whether for dishes that can be cooked quickly (croque monsieur, omelettes), in advance (pot-au-feu, roast leg of lamb) or not at all (salmon tartare, composed salads). Even if I didn't enjoy perusing the recipes, I would cherish the book for its evocative black-and-white photographs by Sophie Elmosnino and witty little color drawings by Camille Joste.

Each cafe has it own pithy, idiosyncratic descriptive essay...It's a worthy descendant of the classic cookbooks Paris Cuisine by James Beard and Alexander Watt (1952) and Watt's Paris Bistro Cookery (1957) and a worthy companion to A Moveable Feast, the essential Hemingway book about his Paris years. You'll find recipes from Hemingway's favorites, Aux Deux Magots and the Brasserie Lipp, as well as Jean-Paul Sartre's and Simone de Beauvoir's inevitable hangout the Cafe de Flore. -- New Times Los Angeles, 12-24-98

Offers a richly detailed look at the French capital's cafe culture. As virtual transport for daydreaming Francophiles, c'est magnifique. -- Atlanta Journal Constitution, 11-8-98

Paris's cafes and bistros are at the heart of that romantic city's personality and appeal. Young infuses both insight and wit into 50 "people-percolating properties." Among dozens of recipes, he tells how to re-create the Clown Bar's mussels and zucchini salad, Cafe Very's salmon with coconut milk, Le Cafe Marly's tomato and goat cheese cake and Cafe Cannibale's bricks (paper-thin sheets of pastry) with raisins, cucumbers and onions...This hard-cover volume is a keeper." -- Houston Chronicle, 12-13-98

Young...a blatant cafe romantic... writes with a breezy "being there" style that immediately endears the reader to the city's cafes, both legendary and unsung. In addition to his wry observations about cafe culture, Young provides recipes that give American cooks a good taste of contemporary and classic bistro fare. -- Hartford Courant, 12-2-98

Author Daniel Young brings home to American cooks the charm, culture, and food of the fifty best Paris cafe's. Unlike the bistro, the cafe' is a place where you can sit for as long as you like with only a drink -- but the food is so tempting, you'll want to order more than just a cafe' au lait. Here are more than 150 recipes for classics like Coq au Vin and Boeuf Bourguignon, which satisfy cravings for hearty comfort food. Many French favorites such as Pommes Dauphine (Croquettes of Pureed Potatoes) are surprisingly simple and can be prepared in under thirty minutes. Desserts like tarte tatin and chocolate-hazelnut-filled crepes are quintessential French treats and wonderfully easy to make.

Sure to transport even armchair travelers, The Paris Cafe' Cookbook presents stories of rendezvous and routines from the author's travels to cafe's from Ma Bourgogne, situated in the oldest square in Paris, to the Web Bar, a new cyber cafe'. Evocative black-and-white photographs and colorful illustrations accompany the essays and recipes, making this cookbook a delightful gift for food lovers and Francophiles.

Daniel Young is the restaurant critic for the New York Daily News and the food commentator for Weekend Edition on National Public Radio.He has written for various other publications including Conde Nast Traveler and the New York Times and currently conducts courses at the New School for Social Research.He lives in New York City.