Books that inspire me, Part 2- the French Laundry Cookbook

Last time I discussed the Fat Duck Cookbook. The French Laundry Cookbook is wildly different to say the least.

In this book you won’t find a lot of abstract photography or even a lot of history about the French Laundry Restaurant, or the chef, Thomas Keller except for brief little paragraphs here and there explaining his choice of equipment and methodology or highlighting an important purveyor. Although I would have liked more background in the book, It really helps to focus on what’s important: the food and methodology.

If the French Laundry were to be placed in a category or genre, I suppose it would be classical French, but it goes beyond that in a way. The main reason I love this book is because of the solidly explained classical French techniques that back up his creative recipes, Because for me, it is not only important to understand how to cook things, but also important to understand the methodology and theory behind the actions. And really, once someone has a sound grasp of the basic methodologies of cooking and an understanding of how food works, they can cook and create almost anything their imagination desires.

And lastly, the food in the book is downright amazing. The photography is spot on, and almost all of the recipes have a picture. The recipes themselves are very in depth and often have a short paragraph about the best parts of the dish and how it was created. This is also a great book for beginners because of the included stock recipes, knife skill guides and other basic techniques.

All in all a great book that I think every cook should own.

 As always, thanks for reading!

-TIM