French Countryside Cooking Review by Ruth Paget

French Countryside Cooking Review by Ruth Paget 

Michelin-star chef Daniel Galmiche writes about the mountain food of his native Haute-Saône region in the French Jura Mountains in his cookbook French Countryside Cooking. 

What stands out in this cookbook are delicious dishes made from root vegetables and offal, variety meat like kidneys and thymus glands. Not all of these items have been Michelin menu items in the past, but the following items in French Countryside Cooking may soon be changing this situation: 

-chicory and radish salad with vinaigrette dressing 

-swede (rutabaga) boulangère made with onions, cloves, and thyme 

-rabbit terrine with onion marmalade 

-lamb sweetbread and wild mushroom vol-au-vent (pastry encased lamb thymus glands with wild mushrooms) 

-heirloom beetroot tagliatelle 

-Jerusalem artichoke velouté with truffle oil and chive cream 

Root vegetables and variety meat are not terribly expensive which is an incentive to try making the dishes in French Countryside Cooking by Daniel Galmiche at home for adventurous cooks. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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French Cuisine and Status by Ruth Paget

French Cuisine and Status by Ruth Paget 

Maryann Tebben shows how the French have used their cuisine to establish itself as an elite nation in the world in her book Savoir-Faire: A History of Food in France. 

Tebben begins her book by writing that when King Louis XIV set up a royal printing press the first books he had published were cookbooks to be distributed throughout Europe to reflect the splendor of his court at Versailles. 

Reviewing restaurants that ensured travelers, especially businessmen and nobility, good meals promoted competition to provide high quality food that guaranteed a secure livelihood for inn and restaurant owners.  

Many French writers included significant scenes devoted to food in their books. Tebben provides samples of this kind of writing at the end of her chapters. Food becomes more than sustenance in this way be calling up emotion and making cultural references. 

Bourgeois homes in France eventually adopted the food system of the aristocracy and the royalty by planning marketing based on seasonal products. Once food was purchase at the market, bourgeois homes planned meals for the upcoming week and set up pantries or garde mangers Tebben writes. 

Discussing food and wine at the dinner table is a practice the French still keep alive, creating tomorrow’s gastronomes among youth. 

For a well-documented glimpse into the world of French cuisine, Savoir-Faire by Maryann Tebben is an informative and enjoyable read. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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