| | |  | Cook Books | Home » » Grand Livre de Cuisine: Alain Ducasse's Culinary Encyclopedia | | | | | | | Description: | | A true master class in haute cuisine by a true master
Features 700 recipes with ingredients from anchovies to zucchini
An extensive appendix offers a complete description, including the choosing and buying, of the 100 basic ingredients used in the recipes
World-renowned French chef Alain Ducasse has built a reputation on meticulously selecting and preparing ingredients. Grand Livre de Cuisine: Alain Ducasse’s Culinary Encyclopedia brought his 25 years of culinary expertise to kitchens nationwide when it hit bookshelves two years ago. Now, with the release of the first paperback edition, this comprehensive culinary resource has become enticingly affordable for professional chefs and experienced home cooks alike.
Featuring 700 recipes culled from the best of French and Mediterranean cuisine, and more than 1,000 photographs and original drawings, Grand Livre de Cuisine is an invaluable tool for reviewing or perfecting one’s knowledge of culinary fundamentals. The recipes, organized alphabetically by main ingredient—from a thin-crusted anchovy tart to zucchini blossom fritters—are clear and concise, with a special emphasis on finish and presentation. The book also includes a glossary of 100 basic ingredients, as well as a primer on recipes such as stocks and sauces.
As proprietor of four first-rate restaurants and founder of a professional-level cooking school, Ducasse is a natural teacher who can demystify the most complex of recipes. In writing Grand Livre de Cuisine, he has created an impressive guide to appreciating and practicing the art of French cooking. It is sure to teach and inspire cooks of every level. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Alain Ducasse | | Hardcover:
| 1080 pages | | Publisher:
| Ducasse Books | | Publication Date:
| December 01, 2007 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 2848440384 | | Package Length:
| 9.7 inches | | Package Width:
| 7.9 inches | | Package Height:
| 2.5 inches | | Package Weight:
| 6.0 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 20 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 20 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
45 of 46 found the following review helpful:
 A shrunken reprintNov 20, 2007
By musiclover
This book IS what I thought it would be, and it is NOT what I thought it would be. It IS Alain Ducasse's Culinary Encyclopedia, but it is NOT the original version. This is the shrunken version. Literally. The original is large and lush, with beautiful photography and high quality glossy paper. That book measures 12 x 9.4 inches, weighs 12 lbs. and costs a lot of money.
This version is 9.6 x 8 inches, is printed on inferior paper, and the photography doesn't reproduce well at that size. It costs a third of what the original does.
On the plus side, it IS a complete reprint, which means that exactly the same information is in the book. Every page is exact, just smaller.
This type of book (the original, that is) is generally for the collector or professional chef. Any cookbook over a hundred bucks has a pretty rarified market. At the very least, this reprint makes the recipes and the techniques of one of the world's greatest chefs accessible to a wider audience. Just don't expect it to be the big, lush volume you hoped it was. You get what you pay for.
Five stars for the information, one star for the presentation, three overall.
24 of 26 found the following review helpful:
Brilliant, if bulkyFeb 27, 2006
By Christopher F. Orman
High priced absurdity? Hardly. Compared to Adria's or Pierre Gagnaire's texts, Ducasse's tome reminds me of a blown up, bulky version of the French Laundry. There are no foams. There are no overtly experimental techniques; save the odd sous vide recipe.
What it does include is classical french cuisine, refined and recontextualized. I completely disagree with the reviewer who chastised the release, discussing elements which simply are not present in this text. Truthfully, there is nothing here but material to elucidate cooking. Likewise apropos the translation, the ingredients, proportions, and techniques are perfect. Certainly there are some problematic semantic turns(words out of place, or occassional misspellings), but in general it is rather lucid.
As a whole, I can only say the size and weight of the book decreases my star rating. It would have been far more manageable and clearer if broken into several volumes. None the less the photography and the depth of these recipes(which include cleaning and butchering techniques) make up for it. I would wager that years from now, this volume will be viewed as the 21st centuries answer to the grand Escoffier tome.
76 of 92 found the following review helpful:
 High Priced BaloneyMar 11, 2005
By Peter Hartjens
In theory, this is a wonderful book. However, unless you know
French and have been cooking for a hundred years, you might want to think twice before shelling out this kind of money. The translation is AWFUL, with some recipe cmponents being translated two ways in two different places. There are hundreds of instances where the translation is simply WRONG. If you read French, you can sometimes puzzle it out.
The index is also inadequate. There are multiple components to many dishes that really could/should be stand-alone recipes. Yet in this encyclopedia, it is impossible to find these components without having memorized the main dish's title.
The pictures are wonderful. There are lots and lots of wonderful recipes in here, but somebody should have turned this over to some English speaking chefs and recipe writers before letting it hit the streets.
Big disappointment, and for what is probably the most expensive cookbook ever, it shouldn't be.
Buyer beware.
26 of 31 found the following review helpful:
 Serious cooks only need apply -Apr 21, 2005
By A. Cox
"Artist, Musician, Physicist and Cook"
First and foremost this is a cookbook for serious cooks/chefs. No compromise in the ingredients or the techniques required executing the dishes. The recipes are very detailed and very complicated, and, as with many chef cookbooks, it assumes you know how to cook! Don't be in a hurry to produce the dishes, read many times, absorb the essence/idea of the dish and then you should go!
I've just started 'wading' through it and expect to be checking out the ideas here for a many weeks (I read most cookbooks in a day!). I have been waiting for this book for over a year (when the English translation was supposed to be published), and expect it be my new cooking/ideas reference.
For someone seriously into cooking this book is worth every cent (dollar?), especially with the amazon price! There are some translation/execution errors but to be honest anyone who knows how to cook and is used to Haute Cuisine style cookbooks can work the problems out fairly easily. And it is more usable than the more expensive (though interesting) Adria's El Bulli book.
I give would probably have given it 4 1/2 stars if it was an option, but it gets 5 for the shear quantity and quality of ideas, and the photography is superb.
9 of 10 found the following review helpful:
A Great and Professional WorkJan 03, 2008
By A Serious Cook
This is actually much more useful than the original because it is a reasonable size and can be flipped through and really used. It is a tremendous resource because it explains exactly how the dishes are prepared in Ducasse's very serious and perfectionist restaurants with professional equipment, sous-vide, salamanders, etc. If you read French the small edition of the original is probably even more useful.
See all 20 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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