broder@magic.ARPA (06/27/85)
Madeleine Kamman's recent book, "From Madeleine's Kitchen", is one of the best cookbooks I know of. It is very original, there are very few recipes that can be found in any standard book, repeated for "convenience" (of whom?), and it is a very opinionated book, not afraid of stepping on the toes of famous gourmet gurus and of destroying cherished popular myths. (e.g. Cr`eme fraiche can not be made at home or anywhere else from pasteurized milk, but (horror!) American cream is quite usable for most sauces, corn and beef are much better in US than in France, Dijon mustard is made only in Dijon, some preparations are better by machine than by hand and some aren't, etc.) It is also refreshing to read a gourmet cookbook that keeps touch with the sad realities of availability and cost, both in terms of money and effort. This is the kind of considerations very much disdained by books like "Chez Panisse pasta, pizza, and calzone" , an otherwise excellent work, but which, for instance, never even mentions that one might buy ready-made fresh pasta with reasonable results. Another thing I like about Kamman's book is that it is written by a French-American author that really knows the American food market. Many of the translations from French require very difficult to find ingredients that add little to the final dish, and their American translators propose hare-brained substitutions for essential constituents. Yet another plus is the attempt to explain the chemistry of food preparation, although some explanations are more intuitive than rigurous. On the negative side, I agree that all the recipes are original, but there is no need to be told about it every other page. The instructions are very detailed. However this is not really a book for beginners. Some knowledge of basic techniques is assumed, and many of the recipes require a certain flair to get them right, because one can little rely on having tasted them before in a restaurant. A beginner can get some consolation and advice in M.K.'s first book, "The making of a cook", which is still in print. The book is very well written; Kamman read letters at Sorbonne and it shows. - Andrei Broder