Cook and the Gardener: A Year of Recipes and Writings from the French Countryside
Author: Amanda Hesser
Winner of the Best Book on France by a Non-French Writer Award at the Versailles Cookbook Fair; finalist for the Julia Child Award, the Gourmet Magazine Award, and "Best Cookbook of the Year" sponsored by IACP; and nominated in the international category of the KitchenAid Book Awards of the James Beard Foundation Awards. The unique, award-winning cookbook—a collection of seasonal recipes from a traditional French garden. A unique blend of stylish cookbook and earthy garden story, here is a collection of 250 recipes derived from a centuries-old French kitchen garden. The stunning debut of a lively new culinary voice, The Cook and the Gardener chronicles a year in the life of the walled kitchen garden at Chateau du Fey and its taciturn, resourceful, charmingly sly peasant caretaker. Using the fruits and vegetables harvested from Monsieur Milbert's garden, Amanda Hesser creates four seasons of recipes tied ineluctably to the land and the all-but-forgotten practices upheld by Milbert. Hesser's sublimely simple recipes—each with accessible ingredients and clear notes and instructions—also tell a story. They are a month-by-month record of the ingredients available to her, so that this cookbook also serves as an almanac for cooks. Special "Basics" sections at the opening of each season lay the culinary groundwork for the recipes that follow. Tips on how to buy, store, and prepare particular vegetables, fruits, and herbs are presented in margin notes to recipes. By bringing the kitchen closer to the garden, The Cook and the Gardener gives home cooks a new understanding of the produce they have on hand, whether from the supermarket, the farmer's market, or theirown gardens. Atthe same time, it captures the quirky customs and wily wisdom of a vanishing way of life in provincial France.
Cooks who pick from Hesser's 200 month-by-month recipes will easily imagine themselves at least momentarily transported to the French countryside. (Publishers Weekly starred and boxed review, 1 February 1999)
Hesser's knowledgeable, graceful, and opinionated prose calls to mind the great food writers M.F.K. Fisher and Elizabeth David. (Cooking Light)
A seasonal tribute to the symbiotic relationship between a chef and her provider of ingredients. (Austin Chronicle)
Both Hesser's taste and voice are gentle and sure. (The New York Times Book Review)
Hesser gained the kind of old-fashioned seasonable sensibility that many of us have lost today—her delightful recipes reflect this. (Fine Cooking)
Cooks who pick from Hesser's 200 month-by-month recipes will easily imagine themselves at least momentarily transported to the French countryside. (Publishers Weekly starred and boxed review, 1 February 1999)
Book Magazine
What could be more tempting than the bounty of the garden prepared with skill and style....Amanda Hesser's been there, done that. This is her story.
Publishers Weekly
Readers who have been pining for a new literary cookbook need look no further. The cook of the title is the author, a staff reporter for the "Dining In/Dining Out" section of the New York Times. The gardener is a crusty, irascible French country gardener of considerable age and vast experience. Hesser met M. Milbert when she began cooking for Anne Willan, founder of the cooking school La Varenne, at Willan's estate in Burgundy, France, where Milbert and his wife were caretakers, a job they took on after selling their small farm. With respect and grace, Hesser describes her encounters with Milbert in his domain, the estate's one-acre garden, tracing four seasons' worth of interwoven gardening and cooking. Beginning in spring, Hesser makes use of what's freshest in such recipes as Early Carrots with Tarragon Beurre Blanc, Warm Roasted Shallots with Balsamic Vinegar and Braised Lamb with Garlic, Asparagus and Peas. Summer recipes range from Sauteed Duck with Artichokes to Zucchini-Lemon Soup, Striped Bass and Fennel and Seared Tomatoes with Olive Oil and Sage. In similar fashion, recipes for the fall and winter months make use of the seasons' offerings: Red Beets with Shallots and Sage, Pear-and-Almond Tart and White Sausages with Turnips and Butternut Squash. Like Milbert's approach to growing herbs, fruits and vegetables, Hesser's recipes follow the traditional French country techniques and are neither fussy nor marked by shortcuts. Seamlessly including basics--e.g., pastry doughs, stocks (one for each season), preserves and mayonnaises--in the introductions to the seasons, Hesser delivers a solid grounding for beginning cooks as well; or at least for those whose interest is in preparing food with fresh ingredients (and who don't need to learn how to cook broccoli, which apparently Milbert didn't grow). Hesser's voice, as she carefully earns Milbert's trust, becoming finally in his words, la petite jardiniere, is as sure and convincing as is her hand in the kitchen. Cooks who pick from Hesser's 200 month-by-month recipes will easily imagine themselves at least momentarily transported to the French countryside. (Mar.)
Library Journal
Hesser, now a reporter for the New York Times food section, was for two years the chef at a chateau in Burgundy, and she has written a month-by-month account with recipes of her experience there. She spent a fair amount of time trying to befriend the crusty gardener, with eventual success, and learned a great deal from him. Her book follows the seasons, each section opening with basic recipes (e.g., canning tomatoes, peaches, and plums for summer); recipes for each month are introduced by an essay touching on the progress of the kitchen garden, Monsieur Milbert's plans and travails during those weeks, and other aspects of life in Burgundy. Hesser relied on the garden for her inspiration as she cooked, only rarely visiting the market in the adjoining town to find fruits and vegetables for her recipes: Early Carrots with Tarragon Beurre Blanc, Baby Potatoes in Hazelnut Oil, Lamb Roasted with a Family of Onions. Both gardeners and cooks will enjoy this; recommended for most cookery collections.
NY Times Book Review
Hesser...understands and values the bred-in-the-bone wisdom of people who have grown up on the land...
What People Are Saying
Patricia Wells
With her warm, engaging style, Amanda Hesser guides us through the seasons of a French garden, cultivating our own enthusiasm and respect for the farmer's labors, the cook's complicity.
&151; (Patricia Wells, author of The Food Lover's Guide to Paris)
Susan Herrmann Loomis
The Cook and the Gardener offers a bright, charming approach which uplifts the French tradition of the potager above its usual realm. Ms. Hesser definitely sees the best in situations as she explores the crops, the seasons, the recipes and the gardener who ties them all together.
&151; (Susan Herrmann Loomis, author of The French Farmhouse Cookbook)
Nancy Harmon Jenkins
It's an all too facile observation to say that Amanda Hesser writes beautifully and from the heart. I think I love her writing more for what she doesn't say than for what she does. She has a rare gift, a sense of tact and restraint, that simultaneously pulls us into the story and sets boundaries beyond which we dare not tread. Thus, Monsieur Milbert, her crotchety old gardener, is a real person, a three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood portrait, not a colorful postcard-size caricature.
I am fully persuaded that...if there's anyone writing about food in America today who might someday inherit M.F.K. Fisher's status, it's Amanda Hesser.
&151; (Nancy Harmon Jenkins, author of The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook and The Flavors of Puglia)
Book about: Javatrekker or Dysphagia Cookbook
Hemingway & Bailey's Bartending Guide to Great American Writers
Author: Edward Hemingway
In this entertaining homage to the golden age of the cocktail, illustrator Edward Hemingway and writer Mark Bailey present the best (and thirstiest) American writers, their favorite cocktails, true stories of their saucy escapades, and intoxicating excerpts from their literary works. It’s the perfect blend of classic cocktail recipes, literary history, and tales of the good old days of extravagant Martini lunches and delicious excess.
When Algonquin Round Table legend Robert Benchley was asked if he knew that drinkingwas a slow death, Benchley took a sip of his cocktail and replied, “So who’s in a hurry?” Hunter S. Thompson took Muhammad Ali’s health tip to eat grapefruit every day; he just added liquor to the mix. Invited to a “come as you are” party, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, arrived in their pajamas ready for their cocktail of choice: a Gin Rickey.
Forty-three classic American writers, forty-three authentic cocktail recipes, forty-three telling anecdotes about the high life, and forty-three samples of the best writing in literature –Hemingway & Bailey’s Bartending Guide to Great American Writers delivers straight-up fun.
USAToday -
Who better to illustrate a belly-up-to-the-bar guide to American writers than Papa Hemingway's grandson? Edward Hemingway's charming caricatures of cocktail-loving writers—from his own grandpapa to Dorothy Parker to Hunter S. Thompson—add the fizz to Hemingway & Bailey's Bartending Guide to Great American Writers. Writer Mark Bailey spices things up with literary drinking anecdotes that recall the glass-clinking glory days of Parisian cafes and Algonquin Round Tables.
What People Are Saying
"I like everything about this book, except that I'm not in it."—Norman Mailer
"Hemingway and Bailey's Bartending Guide to Great American Writers is a bracing cocktail of wit, anecdote, and practical knowledge. All your favorite literary drinkers are here along with their favorite drinks. I'm keeping one copy by the bed and one by the bar. Read responsibly—no more than three or at most four pages a night."
—Jay McInerney
"I like everything about this book, except that I'm not in it."
—Norman Mailer
