Earlier this week, I was in the city for work and running early for my afternoon meeting. With extra time on my hands, I decided to do some browsing of the stacks of books at Kitchen Arts & Letters on Lexington Ave. between 93rd and 94th Streets. As a side note, for those who love to cook or who love to read cook books, Kitchen Arts & Letters in New York City is an absolute treasure and I would highly recommend a visit. There is no other cook book store with such a comprehensive, diverse and unusual collection of domestic and international cook books. Moreover, the helpfulness and knowledge of the staff cannot be overstated - as will be evidenced later in my story.
While I was browsing at Kitchen Arts & Letters, I noticed a well used copy of Alain Ducasse's Grand Livre de Cuisine sitting high up on a shelf in a far corner of the store. In the back of my mind I had been planning (one of these days) to pick up a copy of Ducasse's hefty (12lbs.) compendium of French restaurant recipes, however I had never seen one on the shelves of any bookstore before. Moreover, I had heard that copies of the French language version of Grand Livre de Cuisine were nearly impossible to find in the US, especially affordable used copies. Delighted that I had made this unexpected find, I pulled the book down from the shelf and continued browsing for a while.
When I finally went to checkout, I placed the heavy book on the counter and timidly inquired with the store clerk about the possibility of a discount due to the book's rough condition. The clerk was very kind and stated that a discount would of course be in order. While he was leafing through the book to check it's condition and judge the magnitude of discount warranted, the clerk noticed an inscription from Alain Ducasse to Nach Waxman, the owner of Kitchen Arts & Letters. After some discussion with the store's manager, it was decided that, unfortunately, they could not sell this book to me given it's sentimental value to Mr. Waxman. The Store manager was exceptionally helpful and understanding of my disappointment, he explained to me that years ago Ducasse's restaurant in the city supplied the store with a limited number of copies of French version of Grand Livre de Cuisine, however they had stopped doing so a while ago and the supply had since run out. The manager also explained that the publisher in France was not inclined, for whatever reason, to send any copies of the book to their store. The manager suggested that I might go myself to the restaurant an inquire about any extra copies of the book that they would be willing to sell me, however this prospect was a little too intimidating for me. I left the store feeling somewhat dejected after all that excitement and went along to my afternoon meeting in Midtown. Thankfully, the story does not end here...
After finishing up my meeting and stepping out into the busy crowds of office workers heading for the #6 Subway to start their evening commute, I found that I was still feeling disappointed about having left the store empty-handed. I was torn between taking the subway one stop downtown to Grand Central and heading home early or making the slog all the way back uptown to Kitchen Arts & Letters to see if I could put my name on a list to be contacted should they ever come across another French copy of Grand Livre de Cuisine. Despite being completely convinced that it was a waste of time, I decided to head back up to the store. Upon entering the store for the second time that day, I greeted the store manager by apologizing for pestering him before proceeding to ask about the likelihood of finding another copy of the French version of the book . The manager's very honest reply was that there was pretty much no chance of another copy coming into the store since the restaurant supply had dried up and the French publisher was not sending them any books.
As I was about to leave and head back home, feeling even more dejected after suffering a second defeat in my attempt to obtain the book, I half-heartedly asked the manager if there was an English language version of the book in the store - so that I could head home with something more than an empty Metrocard to show for my efforts. After looking around the store for over 10 minutes, the manager submitted that he was unable to find any English copies of the book and acknowledged that even he was a little disappointed at the fruitlessness of the search. Just as he was about to give up and send me on my way, the manager decided to take one last look through the store's basement. Somehow, during this final last-ditch effort to search every inch of the store, the amazing discovery of a French version of the book in excellent condition was made. Neither the manager nor the store clerk knew of the existence of this mysterious copy of the book in the store's basement. Needlessly to say, I was delighted and felt completely vindicated that my persistence had paid off. I waited breathlessly for the manager to check the book for an inscription to the store's owner, which would have rendered it unsaleable, just like the first copy I had found. In a final stroke of luck for the day, the copy of the book turned out to be inscribed to someone other than the store's owner and was therefore determined to be suitable for selling to me. I left the store and headed home feeling very grateful to have found such a beautiful used copy of the French version of Grand Livre de Cuisine which I was able to buy at a very nice discount.
Rewards of persistence - my recently found copy of the French edition of Grand Livre de Cuisine and the inscription page signed by Alain Ducasse with his regards to some person who's name is unintelligible.
Having already savored the novelty of finding this wonderful book under such fortuitous circumstances, it is time to move on to savoring some of the recipes within. Some critics and reviewers of Alain Ducasse's book consider it to be poorly written, poorly photographed and generally not well thought-out in terms of it's objective or target audience - as compared to Julia Child's meticulously researched and extensively tested (by her) Mastering the Art of French Cooking. For example, while Ducasse's book has many wonderful recipes, a great many of them call for ingredients, preparation time and cooking steps that are not practical for the home cook. Of course, none of this matters to me as I love the book and the classic, if not challenging, French recipes that it contains.
One of the first recipes in the book that caught my eye is Foie gras de canard des Landes. This simple recipe rests upon the quality of the ingredients that it calls for, primarily high quality duck foie gras and duck fat from ducks raised in the Landes region of France, where, coincidentally M. Ducasse was born. So fundamental is this dish to French culture and French life that it is listed as the chosen dish for a theoretical final meal at Senderens in Paris by this blogger...
The recipe for Foie gras de canard des Landes in Grand Livre de Cuisine. The recipe includes notes for the proper cooking of foie gras as well as the final presentation of the dish in aluminum foil. The foil does double duty as part of the final heating step of the dish as well as the presentation piece.
Another recipe in the book which is worth mentioning is the ambitious Côte de bœuf du Charolais poêlée, palets de céleri-rave et échalotes confites, châtaignes, jus gras de braisage d’une queue de bœuf. If the title of the recipe itself, a real mouthful, is not intimidating enough, the ingredients and preparations that it calls for should give even the adventurous home cook reason for concern. Assuming you are lucky enough to find the meat that the recipe requires - beef chops from a Charolais cattle (an almost pure white coated breed of cattle originating from the Charolais area in the Burgundy region of France, but now also raised in the US and Australia), you have only just begun the challenge of completing this recipe. Luckily, a very skilled cook has posted this simplified version of the recipe which makes it a tractable dish for any resourceful home cook.
The recipe for Côte de bœuf du Charolais poêlée, palets de céleri-rave et échalotes confites, châtaignes, jus gras de braisage d’une queue de bœuf with detailed instructions for bringing out the flavor in the beef and beef juices - yum!!!
The next exciting cookbook on the horizon for me is the formidable Modernist Cuisine. I will write about that book just as soon as my reserved copy arrives.
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