Parisian Home Cooking [Hardcover]

Picture for a moment a package of salmon steaks wrapped in plastic, labeled with a price sticker, and put out on display with the rest of the shrink-wrapped seafood in your neighborhood giant supermarket. Or for that matter, picture yourself racing through the supermarket, getting the food shopping over with as quickly and as sanely as possible. This is the opposite of Michael Roberts' Parisian Home Cooking, a cookbook as much about attitude as actual food.

Through artful recipes and engaging street photography, Roberts brings to life a culinary Paris found in private homes, a cuisine with a different sense of rhythm than anything American. Lunches are longer. Dinners are later. Shopping for the best ingredients imaginable is an interpersonal experience to be savored. "The charm of a French meal," Roberts writes, "is their insistence on quality ingredients and balanced flavor, in respecting those ingredients by not overcomplicating the cooking...."

To take this book to heart in an American city, Roberts suggests we "make marketing an adventure." To this end he finds himself making full use of ethnic markets and groceries, buying fish from Japanese markets, fresh poultry in Chinese markets, and so on. "The Indian grocery is where I buy chickpea flour for making socca, a Niçoise crepe.... Don't think that you need access to a French market or gourmet emporium to cook French food."

That said, prepare for the likes of Senegalese Salt Cod Fritters, Cream of Sorrel Soup, Escarole Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette, Green Beans and Morels, Scallops with Noodles and Basil, Turkey Cutlets with Sage and Lemon Butter, Braised Rabbit with Mustard and Calvados, Roasted Turnips with Sage, and Spiced Poached Peaches.

Roberts divides his book into the traditional courses of a French meal, starting with little things to nibble and encourage an appetite, and ending with dessert. Traveling the pages in between takes the casual visitor deep into the heart of Parisian markets, then back home to a small kitchen filled with the heart-healing aromas of a simple, divine meal, Parisian style. --Schuyler Ingle

Chef and hotel restaurant consultant Roberts brings a disarmingly relaxed approach to French cooking and succeeds in taming a cuisine that can intimidate with its sometimes exacting procedures. He shows that Parisian home cooks are as hampered by small kitchens and time shortages as the rest of us, and that, as a result, their daily recipes are far less complicated than traditional French cookbooks suggest. Roberts proves that techniques are within the reach of anyone; his book provides ingredient lists that are not overwhelming and brims with such fresh ideas as the simple Cream of Radish Leaf Soup. Steamed Mussels West Indian Style tingles with coriander, curry and red pepper flakes. Pan-Seared Tuna Served with Its Marinade boasts a virtually effortless sauce of red wine, Dijon mustard and shallots. Casserole Roasted Chicken is one of several recipes that recall earlier Parisian stoves without thermostats, while delivering a very moist bird. Veal Shanks with Bread Sauce has a braising liquid ingeniously thickened with bread crumbs. Beef Tenderloin Steaks with Roquefort Sauce lavishly weds savory flavors popular with Parisians, as does Pork in the Style of the Butcher's Wife, heady with a mustard cream sauce, herbs, capers and cornichons. Many dishes are not for the fat conscious, but those who want to prepare French food with an informality that's almost Italian will relish Roberts's delectably casual recipes. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Despite the obvious lure of their restaurants, Parisians can't eat out every night, so they have developed a superior cooking style suitable to their home kitchens. Roberts has plumbed the depths of this cuisine bourgeoise, and he shares his knowledge with American cooks. Americans will recognize how close to each other are Parisian home cooking and bistro cuisine. Both depend on Paris' markets' best available meats, fish, and vegetables for their success. Cooking routines are simple and serve to enhance flavors already present in such simple items as roast chicken and roasted monkfish. A bundle of mussels taken home after work and steamed in garlic broth make a tasty meal that can be elaborated on with curry powder and spices. Anyone with access to duck legs can create a savory meal in minutes by pressure cooking them and bathing them in garlic cream. Simple cakes and fruit-based desserts conclude meals with a light touch. Mark Knoblauch

In Parisian Home Cooking, Michael Roberts offers a look at how real people shop, cook, and eat in the City of Lights. The side streets and markets of Paris come alive with anecdotes about traditional recipes and the daily shopping. Each chapter takes a trip to a different part of the market, with descriptions of the shopkeepers and their goods. And more than 150 recipes document the meals that many Parisians know by heart and consider their daily fare.

This isn't fancy restaurant cooking that is difficult to duplicate in the home kitchen, but rather wholesome, easy-to-make recipes, most of which take less than thirty minutes to prepare. Take your pick from Smothered Duck Legs and Apples, Baked Tomatoes with Pesto, and Stuffed Cod with Asparagus. Indulge yourself in Lamb and Red Bean Stew, Tuna Braised in Sherry with Rosemary, or Parisian Bread Pudding. From cover to cover, Parisian Home Cooking is a delicious way to bring a bit of everyday Paris into your own home.

Michel Roberts has worked as a chef since 1980. His work has appeared in Bon Appitit, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Details, and the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. He currently consults for hotel restaurants and lives in Los Angeles.