Foodist: Cookbook Reviews

Ducasse: Flavors of France

By Alain Ducasse

Ducasse is a book that should be marketed with a photocopier. Because this is a book to leave out on a coffee table, open to a favorite recipe, a favorite photo. It is more than beautiful, this book. Simply open, it has the power to transform the nature of a room.

Taken in to the kitchen, the power is inherent in Ducasse to transform any meal well beyond the exemplary. But then there's the danger that a spill or greasy fingers might soil the pages, which would be tragic. And yet, this is not just another pretty book, something to thumb through and shrug off. Perhaps photocopying each recipe is the answer.

This is a book to take to heart, to start with the first recipe - Fennel "Marmalade" - and work on through Cocotte of Young Spring Vegetables, and Spiny Lobster with a Rhubarb-Ginger Chardonnay Sauce, and Baked Salmon Fillets with Endive "Marmalade", and Chicken Fricassee with Morels, and so on, and so on, until you end up with Coffee and Chocolate Parfait with Dark Chocolate Sauce. At which point, you are no longer the same person.

Alain Ducasse is the only chef with six Michelin stars to his credit. And he did it by using the best possible ingredients, treating each and every one with deserved respect. "In my kitchens," he says, "a dish always begins with a product, never the other way around…The product determines its own destiny." The rest is simple: Unlock the essence of each product and let it speak.

Let Ducasse take you into his own kitchens. Let him fill your own house with the smells of French cuisine as he describes it. It is a description of flavor, color, texture, aroma. Like so much about Alain Ducasse, it is a description of food that defies language. You will recognize it, though, turning these gorgeous pages, plotting the next dish you choose to master. The opportunity exists with Ducasse to gain a new kind of fluency.
Schuyler Ingle ...