Plats du Jour

Description

An irreverent and controversial exploration of the highways and byways of French cookery There is more than a slight malaise in the air these days about French food and cooking. While the rest of the world delights in the intricacies of molecular gastronomy and even Britain is revelling in a culinary renaissance, in France the years of worship at the temple of the great god Michelin seem to have blinded them to change and evolution. Why is this? What is it about the French that causes them to be so blinkered about their food? Plats du Jour is an attempt to answer that question, as William Black explores the highways and byways of French cooking. Taking as his starting point the great tradition of French food, William tackles years of received wisdom and parochial food snobbery head on, though with his mind (and his mouth) firmly open... He eats tate de veau and fried cow's udder with his French wife's family near Orleans. He samples the dubious (and illegal) delights of ortolan in the south west and has the most painfully disappointing gastronomic experience of his life. He combs the beaches of Brittany for seafood and is chased away from a festival by an enraged Basque villager. His dedication to the culinary cause knows few bounds. Plats du Jour is a book which the French aren't going to like very much. That said, it's a highly entertaining and irreverent look at the world's greatest culinary tradition which will be required reading for anyone with an interest in food and cooking...

William Black is the author of Al Dente and The Land That Thyme Forgot, and the co-author with Sophie Grigson of several bestselling travel books- Fish, Organic and Travels la Carte. He has sourced ingredients (fish in particular) for many of the UK's finest restaurants and he lives in Oxfordshire.

William Black... writes in an attractive, light-hearted and amusing style which belies the extensive and intensive research which must have gone into the writing * Tribune * This is a must read book... Quite simply incredible * Fresh * A wonderful travel guide ... A must for Francophiles. * Sainsburys Magazine * The author is a veteran of the eat-your-way across the map genre, and this book about France is witty and thoughtful, redolent with garlic and goose fat. It extemporises at length on the specialities of each area. * The Times *