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Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook: Stategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking

Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook: Stategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking

List Price: $34.95
Your Price: $23.07
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Just get it.
Review: Although this man has a serious case of potty mouth, I suspect it isn't for effect but second nature to someone in the business. Plating efficiently and rapidly for service would even make a nun swear like a sailor.

Tourette's aside, this book is a genuine reflection of Bourdain's deep passion and respect for his craft. You mustn't miss the intro or little tidbits scattered throughout the book. It's great reading. I was alternately amused, offended, charmed, disgusted, and fascinated.

It speaks volumes about the chef and the recipes.

And the food in the book? It's all good. From the caul fat wrapped pate to the blood sausages (yes, made with real blood...what did you think?) to the great (dare I say perfect?) roast chicken...you owe it to yourself to try it all.


Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The real deal
Review: Any cookbook is always a collection of hit-or-miss items. This one so far has 100% hit rate for me. Everything I tried worked really well. The recepies are well-suited for home cooking and the food tastes like a real deal. And make no mistakes: these are restaurant-quality recepies. Bourdain's great writing is icing on the cake. Buy this book and use it in your kitchen, you won't regret it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The only cookbook I've ever read cover-to-cover... twice.
Review: Ever want a cookbook that was like a secret weapon? One that would really show you what it was all about, one that would help you make that next leap, even after you're pretty proud of your pasta carbonara and from-"scratch" mayo and hollandaise?

You know what I mean... something for when you're used to ignoring recipes and doing it your way?

This, for me, has been it. For the first time in a long time, I've been following the rules for once, nearly religiously.

There is so much I've been learning from this book. It's the only cookbook that I've ever read "nose to tail" not only once but twice. And I'm sure I might do it again.

Okay, so, by now you already know that I think it's great. You probably also know that the author is irreverent-- but you'd be wrong. In fact, he's extraordinarily /reverent/ toward food. :)

Buy this book. There's so much love and so much knowledge inside of it, that I can just about promise that if you are a "home cook" it can be a revelation for you-- it will make those other books and their recipes make sense. Do it Bourdain's way, and then do it yours. But empty your cup to taste this tea, because it's damn good.

Thanks, Tony, for teaching me so much. I promise that some day I'll make that recipe-- you know the one.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Bourdain brings bistro cooking home
Review: For the last several years, Bourdain has caused a furor in the culinary world by revealing secrets about what goes on behind the scenes in top kitchens around the world. His book, KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL, became the launch point for his nationally known career, as well as his hit Food Network series A COOK'S TOUR.

Now, Bourdain is opening up the secrets about his latest place of employment, Les Halles, a popular New York City bistro. And he doesn't disappoint.

Bourdain spends a few pages in the early part of the book describing his round about way of arriving at Les Halles, and how badly he wanted to work for this particular eatery. Then he goes over a few basics as handled in the kitchen at the bistro, including making stock, dealing with and choosing the right knives for the right job, and how to get the best ingredients for the dishes you'll be preparing.

The bulk of the book is devoted to recipes from Les Halles, covering the restaurant's basic French fare, albeit with the bistro's own twists (Escargots and Cassoulet, for example). Some of the recipes are pretty basic (Steak Au Poivre), but some of the others are a bit advanced and may be a little difficult for the average home cook (Vieu Viennois). But with a little time and effort, a more advanced home cook could make most of these delectable-sounding dishes with ease.

As usual, it's Bourdain's style that really makes the book. The chef has a way with words that some chefs simply do not have. His gift for writing basic recipes while still trying to be entertaining is not found often throughout the culinary world.

If you're into French fare, and want to give your kitchen a workout, as well as having the chance to try some of New York City's hottest dishes, then the Les Halles Cookbook is well worth the price, and worthy of a spot on your cookbook shelf.


Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great cookbook, but not for everyone for an avoidable reason
Review: I have been a long-time Bourdain fan. I have probably given 15 copies of Kitchen Confidential as gifts and I record every episode of A Cook's Tour on TiVo. You have probably read the other reviews praising the contents. I agree in general. However, after briefly skimming a few pages I assumed this book would be great so I ordered copies as holiday gifts for a number of clients. I read the entire book over Christmas and realized to my horror that Bourdadin simply and unnecessarily went overboard with his language. I am not squeamish about bad language but this was so bad that I will be replacing the gift with an apology note to my clients. If you can get beyond that distraction, this is a terrific cookbook. For future revisions, there are better ways of making a point - even as a "bad boy" - than regressing to such adolescent tactics.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Most Entertaining Cookbook I own ... and the food is great !
Review: I haven't read any of his previous books, so I wasn't a lifelong Anthony Bourdain fan, who was buying his cookbook because I liked his other stuff.

However having read his cookbook, I will now try and read his other stuff, because as many of the other reviewers have commented, I was laughing out loud while reading it.

Behind the Bourdain " attitude " there is a lot of common sense about how to prepare food for dinner parties, and find a network of food suppliers.

Having just found an incredible range of suppliers for meat, fish and seafood in local Butchers, Fishmongers, and Markets in Manchester UK, I was already putting the "network of food suppliers" thing into practice before I got the book.

It really struck a chord when I read this section in the book. Bourdain is 100% correct that if you show willing, and use the knowledge of these suppliers, that you can learn about getting the best ingredients, and find things that you thought were only available to top restaurants, and in Coffee Table Cookbook Fantasy Land.

I did have some sympathy for one reviewer who complained about the lack of availability of ingredients in his/her part of the USA. All I can say is that if you hunt around, I think you'll find that there are a lot of places hidden away in your locality, which you didn't know about.

Finding the ingredients used to be the part of cooking that I enjoyed the least. Now I get such a kick out of " scoring the good stuff " that I'm a bit addicted to it.

I own a lot of cookbooks, so having digested points from some of the more conventional top chefs, I can see that what Bourdain is saying makes complete sense. The bonus with this book is that he says it in such an entertaining, and approachable way, that you are more likely to go ahead and try and make a demi-glace, or some of the other techniques outlined in the book. He makes the whole subject come alive.

I already had several versions of the recipes included in the book, and this initially put me off buying it. The other Amazon reviews I read convinced me to give it a try, and I'm so glad they did.

Bourdain's deep knowledge of food shines through in the introductory sections, and in the recipes.

Only people who are not interested in cooking, or are offended by bad language should avoid this book.

I now understand what all the fuss with Anthony Bourdain is about.

This book combines the wisdom and guidance of an excellent chef, with a rare intelligence and wit. I can't think of any better way of recommending this book.






Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Christmas Gift to Keep
Review: I recieved Tony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook for Christmas from my husband. We're both fans of his previous books and Food Network Show. I have made Boeuf Bourguignon, Beef Stock(from the Veal Stock recipe, sorry, Tony) and tonight, Onion Soup Les Halles. C'est magnifique! The soup was marvelous, sweet, (credit the onions, of course, and the tomato paste used for the beef stock, and intensely flavorful. The cookbook is a hilarious read even if you don't cook. He writes like I talk, so I've enjoyed reading about recipes I have no intention of trying to make. He's right, though. You CAN make these French culinary treasures. Just follow his advice. I couldn't find the ugly brown crocks, so I got some from Le Gourmet Chef Store. They worked beautifully! Thanks for a great cookbook. Mussels are next!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A new standard in cooking
Review: This cook book is long overdue from the NY Bourdain. I've read some of his other books, but as his first real "cook book", this should be a standard in everyones kitchen. It doesn't offer any new haut cuisine recipes or techniques, only the very best of classic French bistro cooking. I'm finally making great dishes from basic ingredients and time honored techniques, something most books seem to overlook. Thanks Tony!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: many ingredients may be hard to find in suburbia
Review: This is a terrific cookbook written with great humor and flair. The recipes are authentically French, but are simple enough for an American home cook with middling skills.

However, authentic French cooking requires authentic French ingredients. It's no fault of the author's that many of us just don't have access to the proper ingredients. It's not produce or spices that are the problem so much as fish, meats and poultry. There is an entire chapter about cooking with fresh mussels, which are supposed to be purchase alive. The 6 recipes in the chapter Fish & Shellfish require: 2 skate wings, 1 whole red snapper (with head), whitebait or smelts, sea scallops, 2 live lobsters, 5 lb. of pike, 1 lb. of crawfish, 1 lb. of fish bones and 4 monkfish tails.

In order to procure these items, you are advised to cultivate a warm and cozy relationship with your butcher, your fishmonger and your other provisioners. You will be needing their assistance in finding the best quail, pheasant, duck and wild boar. Well, if you live the suburbs and shop at the supermarket, this just ain't gonna happen.

If you are able to obtain the variety and quality of ingredients for such fare, this book will help you with the classic French dishes, as well as educating you on technique (if you are an amateur).

If you are thinking twice about being able to obtain the ingredients, perhaps consider the Barefoot Contessa in Paris cookbook. It also has fairly simple French recipes with very good instructions, but with ingredients more widely available in American supermarkets.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good food. Bad attitude.
Review: Tony Bourdain styles himself as a culinary "bad boy"; a quintissentially New York kind of gastronome who spouts culinary invective (he's referred to Emeril Lagasse as a "fuzzy-headed troll") and proudly takes credit for putting a nation off restaurant seafood. He's full of himself, but luckily he's also a world-class chef, and after two other recipe-light food-related books he finally delivers a tome of good old-fashioned bistro cooking. While I've heard mixed reviews of Les Halles itself, the proverbial proof is in the pate - Bourdain does deliver the goods recipe-wise.

It's not for the squeamish, though. He has recipes for pates and sausages of the french kind - basically made from animal parts that americans often find horrible. If you can get past that, it's pretty rewarding. Also, the food is not everyday meal fare - it is often somewhat painstaking to prepare, and probably a bit rich for the average meal.

This is also the only cookbook I've ever read that periodically insults the reader. I don't mean it insults the reader's intelligence by oversimplifying or whatnot, it genuinely comes out and calls the reader names. Use boneless meat in a dish and you are a "poor deluded bastard." Of course he's trying to make a point, that there's a right way and a wrong way to do brasserie cooking, and the dumbed-down american-grocery way is the wrong way. It sometimes gets tedious, however, to read through the Bourdain 'tude to get the point. Hey Tony, show me how to truss a chicken without calling me an idiot for not already knowing. It's a tough call - the gruff bad-arse approach to cookbook writing is often quite funny and certainly a refreshing change from the often over-reverential tone of most cookbooks, but it can sometimes get in the way of clear instruction.

The food itself is wonderful, a rich sampling of classic dishes. From old-school forcemeats (the rillette, a wonderful slow-cooked pork and porkfat concotion) to still old-school (I think all bistro cooking is, really) but less well-known dishes like the fabulous chicken basquaise, you're not going to find a bad recipe in there. You'll just have to wade through Bourdain's self-righteousness, which may or may not be a problem for you.




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