The French Menu Cookbook: The Food and Wine of France–Season by Delicious Season–In Beautifully Composed Menus for American Dining and Entertaining by an American Living in As those who knew him will attest, Francophile and food writer Richard Olney was one of a kind—a writerly cook who had a tremendous influence on American cooking via his well-worn cottage on a hillside in Provence. Born in the Midwest in 1927 and drawn to France at the tender age of twenty-four, Olney was unapologetically attracted to the style, flavors, and tastes of French cooking when most Americans were smitten by the wonders of the new prepared foods in their markets. With unrelenting passion and precision, Olney studied and explored the cuisine, carefully documenting all he had learned for future generations of chefs, cooks, and food lovers. His first of several landmark works, THE FRENCH MENU COOKBOOK was well ahead of its time with its authentic French recipes and then-unheard-of seasonal approach to cooking. Little did we know then that THE FRENCH MENU COOKBOOK would provide inspiration for Alice Waters and her compatriots as they built the groundwork for a culinary revolution in America. Brimming with the honest and enlightening explanations of how the French really cook and the 150-plus authentic recipes, this book is a masterful resource that is a must for every serious cook.
Customer Review: A great supplement to Simple French Food
This book is a great addition to Olney’s classic Simple French Food.
Customer Review: Possibly the most sophisticated cookbook in English
Looking back to 1970, the year this book was first published, puts its sophistications in context and underscores the enormity of its contributions. America was deep in culinary ignorance, eating out of cans and supplementing that metal-tinged blandness with gut-busting mountains of artificial ‘foods’. America was lost somehwere between the post-war meat-and-potatoes era and the chemical concoctions of the 80s and beyond. Small glimmers of possibility illuminated the occassional suburban cocktail party, when hostesses under the influence of Julia Child trotted out a few hotel-food hors d’oeuvres, and a few ethnic enclaves still held up a candle of flavor, but America was largely a culinary wasteland. Servings were large, everything was bland, and mealtime had become TV time. Without flavor or family, American meals were effectively dead.

It was into this lunar food landscape that Richard Olney introduced several revolutionary ideas at once in The French Menu Cookbook. I should say that he RE-introduced these ideas, because they had existed, with varying degrees of sophistication, for as long as people had eaten, but an industrial food system had interrupted that great cultural memory. This book’s structure is its message: the food is introduced not by category, but by course within menus, and the menus themselves are organized by season. For those of us who have heard the gospel of seasonality and regional availability and freshness from Alice Waters and Paul Bertolli, at al, it can be easy to forget that this idea is still, 36 years after The French Menu Cookbook, radical, and so against the grain of the industrial food complex as to be almost an act of treason. But Richard Olney’s way with food started that revolution at possibly the most inoportune moment in Americna history.

A sample menu says it all:

An Informal Spring Dinner

Hors d’oeuvre of Crudites
Shrimp Quiche
Coq au Vin
Steamed Potatoes
Wild Green Salad
Cheeses
Flamri with Raspberry Sauce

all of the above matched with appropriate wines.

Notice the careful development through the courses, the constant shifts of flavor to keep the palate alive, the seasonal ingredients… All of this was deeply shocking at the time.

But there’s one more big surprise: this book is every bit as good today as it was in 1970. It doesn’t feel even remotely dated, like Julia Child’s books do. Maybe, in hueing so faithfully to the principles of freshness, seasonality, and regional availability, Olney tapped into something timeless. And so this book was a classic the day it was published, and remains one of the most sophisticated, satisfying, and inspiring cookbooks ever published.

Very highly recommended.

Italian Wines 2007: A Guide to the World of Italian Wine for Experts and Wine Lovers (Italian Wines) The tenth edition of Italian Wines , published by Gambero Rosso and Slow Food Editore, a translation of the twentieth edition of the Italian version, is the world’s most complete guide to quality Italian wines. Richer and more complete than ever, its 960 pages assess over 2,200 wine producers and their labels. Over 16,000 wines are reviewed, selected by a team of more than 120 tasters under the direction of GR and SFE. Italian Wines 2007 , besides evaluating wines according to the classic categories of one, two or three glasses, also includes a useful series of appendixes about award-winning wines in the past and the best producers. The guide also pays special attention to wineries that are sensitive to the environment and to achieving naturalness in their products.
Customer Review: Not usable for assistance in buying Italian Wine
I purchased this book in an attempt to make more informed decisions on my Italian wine purchases. I live in a predominately Italian section of my city, and have access to a wide variety of Italian wines. However, it is nearly impossible to either find any wine in the book that matches up completely, or to look up wines that are available on the shelf to see what they may be like. I do not recommend this book for casual Italian wine drinker that is looking for assistance in buying retail.
Customer Review: Slow Food Book, Slow Reading
Not a bad review of Italian wines. Just so many of them and in minute detail. No highs and no lows, either. Reads like it was written and rewritten by a committee. Since I love most Italian wines, particularly the reds, I would like to have seen more personalized impressions.