Yes, I know - the year isn't yet over. But I have no doubt whatsoever that my award for book of the year will go to '
The Complete Robuchon', which I've been working my way through, during the past few weeks. A lifetime's experience distilled into one authoritative volume. No-nonsense, spare, intelligent, and all-round excellent. There are no pictures - so not something for the coffee-table audience - and the recipes are well-structured and efficiently written. This is the sort of 'bible' to be compared with, say, Madame de Sante-Ange....and, dare I say it, it shows how far we've moved on since the late great Julia first published '
Mastering the Art...'. Just off the top of my head, new discoveries for me from Robuchon have been a splendid tart of tomato and red pepper - light and exquisite - a recipe for red mullet in saffron cream; a version of
scaloppine alla milanese, in which prosciutto and cheese are sandwiched between the scaloppine; rabbit, roast in a mustard poultice; a cornichon sauce for pork chops; a different method for
pintade au chou; porcini with broad beans....the list goes on, and I'm still only a third of the way through the book!
For anybody thinking what to give themselves as an early Christmas present, I can't recommend this one highly enough!
Tonight's dinner:
Will be up at Brancoli, so I don't know what it will be; although I will be making an
apricot and cinnamon cake to take as a guest-offering. And then, tomorrow we leave for Venice for a couple of days, so dinner will be the responsibility variously of
Vini da Gigio and
Fiaschetteria Toscana.
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