Le Cordon Bleu at Home or Complete Book of Mexican Cooking

Le Cordon Bleu at Home

Author: Le Cordon Bleu

Here is the first English-language cookbook from the Parisian cooking school whose very name epitomizes excellence. Le Cordon Bleu at Home provides a solid understanding of the philosophy and skills taught for nearly a century in the school's nine-month "Classic Cycle" course. Moving through three stages, from basic to advanced techniques, this in-depth approach to classical French cuisine offers a series of easy-to-follow menus and recipes that correspond to classes at the school. Nearly three hundred beautiful color photographs depict finished dishes, serving ideas, and cooking techniques at each stage through completion.

Publishers Weekly

Here is a mother lode of contemporary cooking: lessons from the famed French Cordon Bleu cooking school. Unlike other culinary academies, which train cooking professionals, Le Cordon Bleu strives to educate the home cook in time-honored techniques invented and perfected by the French. And those who master the strategies of roasting, poaching and so on in the book's first section, ``Getting Started,'' will ``become familiar with a rich and varied repertoire of dishes that will do them honor and rival the best home cooking in France.'' Accordingly, the volume is organized by skill level with lessons ranging from French country fare like mussels with wine and cream sauce to more sophisticated creations--scampi bisque and orange mousse--to recipes representing the best (and most contemporary) of French cuisine, e.g., salmon rillettes with buckwheat blini and rum savarin with kiwis and strawberries. While illustrated with four-color photographs of foods and tough-to-master techniques, this is no coffee-table effort. It will be highly useful to serious cooks and novices. Cointreau is president of Le Cordon Bleu. Photos not seen by PW. Advertising; author tour. (Oct.)

Library Journal

This impressive volume is the first collection in English of recipes from the renowned Paris cooking school. Ninety menus incorporating increasingly more difficult dishes are designed to replicate the nine-month course given at Le Cordon Bleu; in addition to color photographs of many dishes, there are 200 technique photos, and informative boxes explain classic preparations and methods. Jacques Pepin and Julia Child have, of course, covered much of this same ground, and some of the dishes are not exactly what most people would choose to serve today--but these are teaching recipes, chosen to demonstrate the essence of classic French cuisine. Recommended for most collections.

Book about: Souls in the Hands of a Tender God or Yin Yoga

Complete Book of Mexican Cooking

Author: Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz

"Beginning with the Corn Kitchen, the author takes up tortillas and follows through to tacos, tostadas and fillings for quesadillas. There's Green Chicken with Almonds, Red Stew with Mountain Chiles...Plus all of the classic desserts from Bunuelos (fritters) to Flan (caramel pudding). One chapter is devoted to Bebidas (drinks) including the Mexican grasshopper, Margarita and naturally, chocolate."