****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
You'll find wonderful recipes and stories about country life in the South of France. I felt I was in the aothors kitchen. The recipies are the best part.Lovely book by an expert on French cuisine whom I respect tremendously.perfectBought this when it first came out and have loved it. It's worth buying for the potato pizza crust alone, in my estimation--a totally practical recipe that can be kept in the fridge and brought out for several days to make instant meals to serve a few or many. Ideal for a family. And the vegetable dishes are super--a whole new slant on the zucchini and tomato glut that we often have at the end of summer, and enough to make us all plant basil in our window boxes or pots. Surely the wild boar in the stew could be replaced by rabbit or lean beef--in that case it's the technique and the drama of it that count! Congrats to Lydie Marshallon this nice little book that can add depth to any kitchen bookshelf.I do not want to make any negative remarks about this book, rather I am just giving feedback for consideration of purchase. I should have considered the title -- cooking from the south of france. The recipes are heavier than most french recipes and, what i found to be most frustrating was the repeating of recipes, over and over, with just the slightest variation. For instance, there are 13 recipes for fruit tarts. It also seems the author fancies a few ingredients and those are repeat again, and again, without much branching out to new ones. There is a recipe for a gratin, and then there's a recipe for gratin with mushrooms. Recipe for Gnocci and then recipe for gnocci with mushrooms.The anecdotes, introductions, and tales of living in france are enjoyable.I bought this book because Ms. Marshall's cooking school and books were highly favored by Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa. I'm glad I bought this book used and saved a lot. I would be disappointed if I had paid full price. I only gleaned a small handful of useable recipes from this book.
