Product Description

Brash, driven, and dazzlingly inventive, fourteen-star chef Alain Ducasse is a larger-than-life figure. At thirty-three, he was the youngest chef ever to be awarded three Michelin stars; and in 2005 he became the first chef in the world to win three stars for three restaurants, with a staggering total of fourteen stars spread across eight restaurants in three countries. He has mentored a generation of younger chefs who have introduced his cooking around the world and he has, quite simply, changed the face of traditional French cooking.

In this, his first American cookbook, M. Ducasse shares the principles and techniques of his uniquely elemental cuisine. At its core are clarity of taste, precision in execution, and respect for the food itself, which to Ducasse means retaining its essential flavor. That respect for true taste results in a multitude of simple but striking techniques. Ducasse uses as much of each ingredient as he can—the skins, the shells, the baking juices, the pan drippings, the heads, the cooking broth, all the by-products of the process—in order to capture the truest taste. He incorporates different preparations of the same ingredient into a given dish, each revealing an individual aspect of its flavor—sliced raw artichokes, braised whole artichokes, and paper-thin slices of fried artichoke, for example, might be featured together. The brilliance of his food—apparent in recipes made with no more than two ingredients enhanced by a simple aromatic element, with seasoning reduced to a few grains of salt—explains why he is "the country's star chef" (Wine Spectator) and "the Escoffier of our time" (Le Point).

Ducasse Flavors of France documents, in more than one hundred lavishly photographed recipes, the influences—Mediterranean, Provençal, and classical French—that permeate this extaordinary cuisine. Many of the recipes are simple, others complex, but all can be perfectly accomplished with a little time and patience.With its "alluringly simple dishes, like buttery fork-mashed potatoes, peppered slices of sauteed pumpkin, swordfish with citrus, exquisite chocolate tartlets, and a homey pear and honey cake made with big chunks of pear" (The New York Times), this is the most accessible Ducasse cookbook published. Yet there are still recipes to challenge ambitious cooks and great tips that will make all cooks better in the kitchen.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #298315 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-21
• Format: Deluxe Edition
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 264 pages

Amazon.com Review
Ducasse is a book you'll want to leave out on a coffee table. It is more than beautiful--left open, it has the power to transform the nature of a room with its exquisite photographs and recipes, which are as good to read as they are to cook from. Taken into the kitchen, the power is inherent in Ducasse to transform any meal well beyond the exemplary. But then there's the danger that a spill or greasy fingers might soil the pages, which would be tragic. And yet, this is not just another pretty book, something to thumb through and shrug off. This is a book to take to heart, starting with the first recipe--Fennel "Marmalade"--and then on to Cocotte of Young Spring Vegetables, Spiny Lobster with a Rhubarb-Ginger Chardonnay Sauce, and Chicken Fricassee with Morels, and so on, and so on, until you end up with Coffee and Chocolate Parfait with Dark Chocolate Sauce. Alain Ducasse is the only chef with six Michelin stars to his credit. In his kitchens and in his book he uses the best possible ingredients, treating each and every one with deserved respect. Recipes have been tried and tested to ensure perfection, and--reassuringly--dishes work well in the home kitchen. Ducasse is a wonderful teacher, and every page is filled with rich descriptions of flavor, color, texture, and aroma. Like so much about Alain Ducasse, it is a picture of food that defies language. You will recognize it, though, turning these gorgeous pages, plotting the next dish you choose to master. The opportunity exists with Ducasse to gain a new kind of fluency. --Schuyler Ingle

From Library Journal
Ducasse recently became the first chef in 60 years to garner three stars in two restaurants simultaneously. If you can't take a trip to France to visit them, here is the next best option. Written for an American readership, this cookbook is, quite simply, a masterpiece by a genius. It consists of five chapters: "with aperitifs," vegetables, shellfish and fish, poultry and meat, and desserts. Most recipes are brief, reflecting an orientation rather than a formula, and many suggest wines of widespread availability. Ducasse is, above all, concerned with "clarity of taste, precision in execution, and respect for the product" yet realizes that certain French ingredients are rare in North America. Thus, there is an excellent appendix that provides hints for adaptations: ingredients, including viable substitutes, are discussed at length, as are techniques. A list of sources for kitchenware and specialty ingredients appears at the end. A beautiful and passionate book; highly recommended.?Wendy Miller, Lexington P.L., KY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"A stunner."
—People magazine (People Magazine )

"Alluringly simple dishes, like buttery fork-mashed potatoes, peppered slices of sautéed pumpkin, and a homey pear and honey cake made with big chunks of pear."
—The New York Times (The New York Times )

"Stunningly produced and poetically written."
—Time magazine (Time magazine )

A stunner. People magazine (People Magazine )

Alluringly simple dishes, like buttery fork-mashed potatoes, peppered slices of sauted pumpkin, and a homey pear and honey cake made with big chunks of pear. The New York Times (The New York Times )

Stunningly produced and poetically written. Time magazine (Time magazine )

Customer Reviews

Great chef, average cookbook.
There is no denying Alain Ducasse is the chef of the moment. However, this book was somewhat of a disappointment. The recipes are interesting, the photography decent. But the problem lies in the ingredients. Too many recipes call for ingredients that are flat out impossible to find - and he offers no alternatives. It is one thing to ask for truffles, caviar, or duck confit. It is another to require specific mediterranean fish that are not found in this country, or obscure wild game and offal that cannot be had. Substituting chicken, or even quail or pheasant just doesn't cut it.

Great Chef, Beautiful Cookbook, Beginners need not apply
I purchased this book on sale for $24.95, however I would have paid the list price of $60 because I feel it is worth it.

The photography is absolutely stunning. If you are familiar with Roger Verge's "Entertaining in the New French Style", the photographer is the same.

Recipes I have tried with success:
Dark Chocolate Tart with Rich Pastry Dough Crust
Pear Tart: Raw and Caramelized
Jasmine Pots de Creme

Criticisms
-Many of the recipes require ingredients unavailable in this country.
-Many times, the pictures do not quite match up with the recipes, which is very frustrating when looking for visual clues.

Overall, this book is for serious chefs or those who want to look like serious chefs by putting this book on their coffee table. Many of the recipes are simple: the filling for the chocolate tart only contains 4 ingredients, but this makes them all the more challenging: there is nothing easy about the recipes.

Coffee Table Cookbook
Big, bold and beautiful describe this volume.

From one of the greatest French chefs, too much of this fare is unavailable to the home gourmet. However, savory and well done is this book with its exceptional photos and stylish intros to setup this exquisite cuisine.

Some of the soups and simple seafood dishes are about all anyone except the pros could attempt due to lack of ingredients and guts to go after some of these rather complicated recipes.