French Menus

I am in heaven. All my cooking geek sensors are going off.  I am deep into The French Menu Cookbook, by the late Richard Olney, just re-released by Ten Speed Press with a new introduction. The original book is from 1970, but there are parts of it that could have been written yesterday. The subtitle is: "The Food and Wine of France - Season by Delicious Season - in Beautifully Composed Menus for American Dining and Entertaining by an American Living in Paris and Provence".  One of my pet obsessions is creating menus and I don't know how I went so long without reading this book. To quote my friend, Joy, "I love, love, love" this book.

Now, if you are expecting a traditional cookbook you will be sorely disappointed. You actually have to *read* this book. I've read many a fine cookbook, but this is one of the best. Did you know there are three different cooking surface skimming types and techniques?

Olney has a wonderful section on French wines - making them accessible to the un-initiated. The turns of phrase he summons make me almost giddy, "...it is difficult to touch with words the soul of a wine" (p. 39).  Maybe one day I'll figure out this writing thing and come within 1/32 of the quality of his work.

Now the menu and recipe portion of the book will throw you back to the 1970s and before.  It reads like a delightful history book and evokes a time when cooking was about the food and less about artistic interpretation. Imagine yourself living in New York trying to impress your friends with your knowledge and skill of French cooking - these are the menus you might have tried to make.  A warning - they are not easy menus if you are looking to lift one for your next dinner party, nor are they composed of dishes that find their way on to many menus today (e.g., stuffed calves' ears, organ meats of various animals -  lamb kidneys, beef tripe, etc.), but they are thought-provoking.  They make the micro/emulsion/sous vide (boiling-a-bag) trends seem positively space age.

If you're a cooking geek like me, this is an important book to have in your library.  It's a testament to the fact that cookbooks can be about much more than recipes and pictures.