Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking

by Anthony Bourdain

Hardcover, 2004

Status

Available

Call number

641.5944

Collection

Publication

Bloomsbury USA (2004), Edition: Illustrated, 304 pages

Description

Bestselling author, TV host, and chef Anthony Bourdain reveals the hearty, delicious recipes of Les Halles, the classic New York City French bistro where he got his start. Before stunning the world with his bestselling Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain, host of the celebrated TV shows Parts Unknown and No Reservations, spent years serving some of the best French brasserie food in New York. With its no-nonsense, down-to-earth atmosphere, Les Halles matched Bourdain's style perfectly: a restaurant where you can dress down, talk loudly, drink a little too much wine, and have a good time with friends. Now, Bourdain brings you his Les Halles Cookbook, a cookbook like no other: candid, funny, audacious, full of his signature charm and bravado. Bourdain teaches you everything you need to know to prepare classic French bistro fare. While you're being guided, in simple steps, through recipes like roasted veal short ribs and steak frites, escargots aux noix and foie gras au pruneaux, you'll feel like he's in the kitchen beside you-reeling off a few insults when you've scorched the sauce, and then patting you on the back for finally getting the steak tartare right. As practical as it is entertaining, Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook is a can't-miss treat for cookbook lovers, aspiring chefs, and Bourdain fans everywhere.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Patrick311
If I were allowed to read only one cookbook (that's read, not necessarily make the recipes) this one would be it. Bourdain has that rare ability to condescend to you and motivate you to try something new at the same time. It's a mix found in the finest drill instructors, high school math teachers,
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and apparently, celebrity chefs. As a side note, I went to Les Halles in NYC in June of this year, and my meal SUCKED! My steak was tough, the fries, about which he rhapsodizes for page after page in this very book, were underwhelming, and the place had all the ambiance of a Denny's. I hear he isn't around there anymore. Too bad. Still one of the people I'd like to have a meal with.
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LibraryThing member nemoman
This is the best French bistro cookbook I have found. The recipes work; they taste authentic. There are no difficult-to-find ingredients and the instructions are straightforward. All the classics (e.g., coq au vin) are covered.
LibraryThing member BrianDewey
Great! This is the cookbook that got me to make stock for the first time. I love the attitude it imparts and the emphasis on technique. It shows that good food doesn't need to be stuffy.
LibraryThing member janemarieprice
I barely made it past the introduction. Bourdain is an insufferably arrogant human being and tragically it comes across in his cookbook. Some of the recipes are interjected with annoying little phrases like “Now we are ready to begin the actual cooking. Right? You’ve got everything? Assemble
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your prepped ingredients in an organized fashion.” For someone who refers back to recipes constantly while cooking, I don’t need self-righteous little asides when I’m trying to figure out what to do next. The recipes are classic French bistro fare which can be found in any number of other cookbooks – find one of those.
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LibraryThing member millypenny
Love this book it has some great recipes especially the onglet salad (one of the nicest "salads" ever!)
LibraryThing member debs913
Cooking techniques make fascinating reading, but oftentimes the materials and tools are beyond the reach of the everyday cook. Still, this was an interesting book to peruse and offers Bourdain's typical high energy style and back kitchen prose.
LibraryThing member KendraFitz
A great cookbook for someone wishing to learn how to cook French food the proper way. If I had the time I would dig into this text and pull every dish I could out of it. But I don't have the time to do it properly. Maybe in a few years, when I've settled down and graduated my master's program.
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Maybe then.
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Language

Original language

English

Physical description

304 p.; 9.72 inches

ISBN

9781582341804
Page: 0.1622 seconds