Plats du Jour

There is more than a slight malaise in the air these days about French food and cooking. While the rest of the world delights in the intricacies of molecular gastronomy, in France the years of worship at the temple of the great god Michelin seem to have blinded them to change and evolution. What is it about the French that causes them to think so narrowly about their food? William Black explores the highways and byways of French cooking in an attempt to answer that question. Taking as his starting point the great tradition of French food, William tackles years of received wisdom and parochial food snobbery head on, with his mind (and his mouth) firmly open. He eats tête de veau and fried cow’s udder with his French wife’s family. He samples the dubious (and illegal) delights of ortolan and has the most painfully disappointing gastronomic experience of his life. He combs the beaches of Brittany for seafood and is chased away from a festival by an enraged Basque villager. His dedication to the culinary cause knows few bounds. Perhaps not a book that the French will like very much, it's a highly entertaining and irreverent look at the world's greatest culinary tradition.