Paul Bocuse’s French Cooking.

BOCUSE, Paul [Jean Vergnes].

$1,600.00

Item Number: 144607

New York: Pantheon Books, 1977.

First paperback edition in English of Bocuse’s classic work on French cuisine. Quarto, original pictorial wrappers. Translated from the French by Colette Rossant. Presentation copy, inscribed by Paul Bocuse on the title page, “A l’ami Jean Vergnes a mon ami… en sommelier du Cirque la plus belle cuisine de N.Y. 16.08.2008.” The recipient, Jean Vergnes, was a classically trained and highly acclaimed French chef, best-known as the co-founder of the famed Manhattan eatery Le Cirque, which opened in 1974. Vergnes had a major influence on American restaurant culture for more than four decades. He began his career working as a chef at various top restaurants in Paris during World War II, with a brief stop in Bermuda before moving to the United States in 1950. Classically trained in the French tradition, he was soon working in the kitchen of the Waldorf-Astoria, then as the youngest executive chef of the legendary Colony Restaurant, and finally as co-founder of Le Cirque, one of the most dazzling culinary jewels of New York since its opening in 1974. From 1986 to 1992, Daniel Boulud was executive chef of Le Cirque and in 1995, it was awarded the James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Restaurant. In very good condition. From the library of Jean Vergnes with his tabs containing annotations in his hand inserted throughout.

At the height of his career in the 1970s, Bocuse was at the forefront of Cuisine Nouvelle, a movement focusing on fresher ingredients and lighter fare, presented without pretension but with elegance, nonetheless. Bocuse’s appreciation for produce procured daily from the market was evident in this book’s original French title, La Cuisine du Marché—market cuisine—published by Flammarion in 1976. Paul Bocuse’s French Cooking debuted the following year in English and quickly became a highly prized resource. The book is dense with recipes, covering everything from ortolans baked in apples and finished with applejack and veal stock to Escoffier’s recipe for truffles basted with champagne brandy, wrapped in pork fat and cooked under burning embers. With sections on sauces, eggs, all varieties of fish and meat, vegetables, and impressive dessert coverage, Bocuse does a great service in educating the next generation of chefs.