T.Keller & M.Ruhlman - The French Laundry Cookbook - 9

[Darb]

The French Laundry Cookbook, by Thomas Keller & Michael Ruhlman

The easiest way to put this book into it's unique perspective is with an amusing metaphor. This is the sort of book that hardcore foodies and regular line chefs alike read in the same way that a horny teenage boy will oogle a drop-dead gorgeous penthouse centerfold ... the essential experience is one of vicarious (but indirect) communion with impractical & unnattainable perfection.

The recipes that Thomas Keller creates & serves at The French Laundry in Napa Valley California (which is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest restaurant experiences in America) are generally too labor intensive to be made at home, and are even impractical for many restaurants without the aid of a full up "brigade system" of supporting chefs, along with a commitment to using the best and freshest of high-end seasonal ingredients, without regard to labor or cost.

The average chef, hardcore or not, simply doesnt keep (for example) a speed rack of multiple varieties of freshly made herb oils, freshly made and perfectly clarified and reduced demi-glaces of assorted wild game, veal, beef, and lobster on hand ... and that's just for sauce bases and garnishes. Even the simpler recipes with relatively few ingredients are all fairly intensive, because the ingredients required aren't commonly available (or are of hard to attain quality/freshness), and require skills and/or time commitments that are quite a stretch for most solo cooks. Most solo home cooks would probably be obliged to devote most of an evening to just making 1 dish from this book ... sometimes more than 1 evening, if one must first make any requisite glaces called for.

Generally speaking, from the vantage point of a home cook, this is a book that you read because you want to commune, in some small way, with the mindset and spirit of the man who authored it ... and Thomas Keller is all about the quest for brief moments of sublime perfection. That's the essence of "amuse bouche" (small 1-3 bite appetizers).

It's a humbling experience to buy and avariciously savor, from cover to cover, an entire cookbook, and STILL know that it's unlikey that you'd ever be able to do justice to even a small handful of the recipes described within.

[Darb]

Just visited the site of an enthusiastic and entertaining Blogger who's chronicling her adventure of cooking her way through Keller's book, cover to cover.

The French Laundry at Home

Recommended.