Anne Willan: The Country Cooking of France

By JULIETTE ROSSANT Super Chef wondered why Anne Willan's The Country Cooking of France won two James Beard Awards this year. The competition was tough for best international cookbook, including Lidia's Italy by Lidia Bastianich (see Super Chef review) and Two Meatballs in the Italian Kitchen by Pino Luongo and Mark Strausman. The book also won for best photography for France Ruffenach, defeating Crust with photographs by Jean Cazals and Egg with photographs by Grant Symon. Can you say that a whole book is robust? The Country Cooking of France is full of photographs of animals, vistas, barnyards and dishes that are both rustic and stunningly beautiful. Anne savors and appreciates the classical dishes that might be called peasant fare in France, but are nonetheless refined and tasty. Here is Anne in the Introduction: I was raised in the countryside (in Yorkshire, not in France) and grew up with fresh farm produce and the habit of snapping up the best in the nearby outdoor market. None of that prepares me for the riches of rural France, the sights, the smells, the relish with which everyone enjoys the diversity of ingredients that change with the seasons. Her book is focused on recettes du terroir, the very local, authentic recipes that make up French country cooking and tie a recipe, family, people to a specific place and its products. The recipes start with soup, as most French in the countryside start their evening meal with a good soup. A recipe good for the coming summer months (just as soon as the current salmonella scare is behind us) is Le Thourin (Tomato and Garlic Soup) (p. 20). You'll need some goose fat saved from your Christmas goose, some great tomatoes, and plenty of garlic. Anne has essays of different foods and regions throughout the book. She describes the custom of drinking an aperitif before a meal and a digestif after one (p. 23) or a profile of Gascony: The Good Life (p. 28) in which she reminisces about her favorite Gascoigne ingredients. These essays enrich the book, giving insight into each of area and cuisine, and underline the fact that French country cuisine is the cuisine of many pays, small areas that each grow different ingredients, and each have a different character in their cooking. There is a whole chapter on Frogs and Snails (p. 31), which includes a photograph of succulent Escargots Sure Un Champ Vert (Snails on a Green Field of Parsely) (p.34-5) followed by a photograph of a garden table (p. 37) that suggests that it might be a good place to find those snails after a warm rain. Anne Willan passion for France and French cuisine shines through all her books (see Super Chef's review of Anne's previous book), but the breadth of her knowledge of these classics come through most strongly in this book. Flip through it, try the recipes, and gaze at the photographs, and you could take a surreptitious trip to France this summer. Previous articles: Anne Willan: The Good Cook [Cookbook Reviews - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging, Anne Willan --> back to Super Chef