Rating: 
Summary: Great addition to a delightful Genre. A foodie must read.
Review: 'The Cook and the Gardner' by the young culinary journalist who has added a thoroughly enjoyable chronicle of seasonal cooking and gardening to that very small niche of books joining horticulture with gastronomy. The only other recent volume in this very small corner of culinary writing is 'The Arrows Cookbook', a work dealing with the vegetable and herb garden attached to a three season Maine restaurant.Like some other recent books on French life, this book develops a picture of a disappearing phenomenon, the chateau kitchen garden in rural France, tended by a dedicated gardener living on the premises. The chateau and garden is in Burgundy, owned by the renowned Anne Willen, the culinary schoolmistress of La Varenne Pratique. Oddly enough, Madame Willen never appears in this story and her works are cited less frequently than authors with a more historical bent, led by references to works by Elizabeth David. Willen appears primarily as the author's employer. The author's mentor, rather, is the Italian culinary authority, Nancy Harmon Jenkins. It is completely fitting with the antiquity of the context that most references in the book's exceptional bibliography are to works in French and Italian which were published in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The cook of the book's title is the author, herself. The gardener of the book is the garrulous, elderly (mid seventies) Monsieur Milbert who, with his wife, occupies the chateau's gatehouse and who works the chateau's traditional walled garden which appears to be a square of 50 meters or more to a side. The author's story begins in early spring and spans four full seasons at the Burgundy chateau kitchen where her 'day job' is responsibility for meals served at the chateau for up to sixteen people at a sitting. Monsieur Milbert on the face of it is a stock Hollywood movie character. He is very slow to warm to the young American interloper, in spite of the fact that they are colleagues in the employ of the same house. Eventually, of course, he begins working with Ms. Hesser and shares with her his thinkings on horticultural matters as she helps him with various tasks to work her way into his good graces. Unlike the Hollywood character, Monsieur Milbert never really breaks from his very, very provincial mindset. The gardener's horticultural practice is the oddest mix of superstition and practical experience. Almost every aspect of planting is governed by phases of the moon. Almost every expectation about future weather is based on a totally unscientific observation of unconnected phenomena. On the other hand, planting, pruning, weeding, and cultivating is based on sound wisdom gained from personal observation and hundreds of years of accumulated experience. The culinary material in the book is ordered entirely by the season and by the location. In spite of the culinary pedigree of the landlord, the style of cooking appears to be derived less from 'haute cuisine' than from 'la cuisine Regionale'. The first clue is that there are very few references to drinking wine in the book. The only references to wine are as traditional ingredients to soups and braises. A sure sign that we are in Burgundy and not Provence is the fact that there are simply no recipes or even any references to eggplant. Each season has its own section and introduction. For each season, there are recipes that are distinctive of the entire season. One of the most novel sets of recipes within this schema is the four seasonal recipes for stock. Spring opens with a stock based on beef bones. Summer contributes a vegetable stock. Autumn weighs in with a poultry stock (with a strict warning to not mix duck parts with other fowl). Winter completes the year with a return to a stock based on beef bones. On the matter of stocks, I am really happy to see Ms. Hesser rail against the stockpot as garbage collector for any odd piece of leftover gristle. Within each season are three chapters on the three months in that season. Each month is represented by about a dozen recipes. Appropriate to the garden at the center of the story, most recipes are vegetarian and many meat dishes are based on chicken, game fowl, and rabbit. There are virtually no recipes for seafood, although there is some North African influence in the appearance of salt preserved lemons. The chapters also spend a lot of time with the kind of culinary work you would expect in a rural farm kitchen. A lot of space is dedicated to making preserves, pickles, and comfits. True to the very provincial environment, space is also dedicated to unusual fruits such as medlar and persimmon. This is a culinary work which is meant to be read from cover to cover. If you have your own kitchen garden in US horticultural zones four through seven, you are bound to find the suggestions doubly enriching. If you are tied to a city apartment, you will still find plenty to enjoy. There is much to learn about cooking, but the real gold is in the battle between the French gardener and his neophyte cook comrade against the elements, to harvest truly magnificent seasonal vegetables. A classic culinary read. Some advanced methods, but lots to learn from.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointing
Review: After all the best-book-of-the-year lists this one was on, I was expecting something really special, perhaps a cross between A Year in Provance and Julia Child. Instead, we are given a few not unpleasant ruminations about gardens and some recipes. The recipies could only have been written by a woman too young to care about calories. So much butter, so much cream, so little imagination. All of those fresh vegetables and herbs, surely she might have come up with something more original, or at least the occasional vegetable dish without butterfat. If the recipeis were nothing special, neither was the writing and neither was the story line.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite cook book
Review: Amanda Hesser's "The Cook and the Gardener" is more than the sum of its parts. There is an excellent story, a really compelling travelogue, and some of the best recipes I have ever tried. Hesser's prose is crisp and well written, a real pleasure to read. For those lucky enough to be familiar with her work in the NY Times, you probably already know this: Hesser has a way of using food to tell a story that is both charming and revealing. It is hard to not fall under her spell. The relationship that Hesser develops with the elderly gardener is the soul of this book. As M. Milbert slowly learns to like this young American, it becomes difficult for the reader not to like him, too. He starts off as an irritable old man, and by the end of the book he seems more like a favorite grandfather: quirky and loving. Hesser paints an idealized portrait of her surroundings in the French countryside. As each season passes, you have a really strong sense of what it looks like, feels like, and even how it smells. And of course, you know what there is to eat. The recipes are outstanding. None are too complicated, and so far I have been able to find ingredients and understand the technique to pull it off. Because the recipes are arranged by season, it is really easy to follow along with Hesser and live vicariously in Burgundy.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Book
Review: Amanda Hesser's "The Cook and the Gardener" is more than the sum of its parts. There is an excellent story, a really compelling travelogue, and some of the best recipes I have ever tried. Hesser's prose is crisp and well written, a real pleasure to read. For those lucky enough to be familiar with her work in the NY Times, you probably already know this: Hesser has a way of using food to tell a story that is both charming and revealing. It is hard to not fall under her spell. The relationship that Hesser develops with the elderly gardener is the soul of this book. As M. Milbert slowly learns to like this young American, it becomes difficult for the reader not to like him, too. He starts off as an irritable old man, and by the end of the book he seems more like a favorite grandfather: quirky and loving. Hesser paints an idealized portrait of her surroundings in the French countryside. As each season passes, you have a really strong sense of what it looks like, feels like, and even how it smells. And of course, you know what there is to eat. The recipes are outstanding. None are too complicated, and so far I have been able to find ingredients and understand the technique to pull it off. Because the recipes are arranged by season, it is really easy to follow along with Hesser and live vicariously in Burgundy.
Rating:
Summary: A privileged glimpse of a private world
Review: As an apprentice of the noteworthy Anne Willan of Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne fame, Amanda Hesser spent a year at Willan's chateau in southern France, cooking and learning how to penetrate the defenses of Monsieur Milbert, the curmudgeony gardener at the estate. Her careful work and excellent writing gives us an insight into the primary building blocks of French cuisine.
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Summary: My favorite cook book
Review: Every recipe I have cooked from this book has been excellent! The recipes are not complicated yet the flavor is complex and outstanding and takes complete advantage of fresh vegetables and fruit from the garden (in our case the local farmer's market). The book is organized by seasons and months and the meal suggestions (entree and side dishes) correspond perfectly to the weather outside. The structure of the book also makes it easy to decide what to have for dinner. I am buying several more books to give away as gifts this year!
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Summary: A Cookbook for the Cook, the Gardener, and the Reader.
Review: I can't remember a work like this that I have thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish. As a gardener first and a cook of the treasures my labors produce - this book is truly a prize. I guard my garden secrets as msr. milbert and love the seasonally directed recipes produced by ms. hesser. Her sidebars for selection, cleaning and preparation are to the point. Each recipe reflects the ease of fresh ingredient preparation producing the excellence of simplicity in Nature. This is a book that I recommend and give as gifts.
Rating: 
Summary: moderately dull
Review: I love narrative cookbooks, and I looked forward to reading this one. However, it is rather dull, and the writing is sometimes strained. There is a lot of description, but not always very interesting. .
Rating:
Summary: heart warming and mouth watering
Review: I loved the way Amanda paints her world in words. The intricate way the garden and the kitchen dance with the seasons. I lived in Europe and consider my creative outlet my cooking and learned in Europe that shopping is a daily thing to be looked forward to. Only then will you know what will be on the dinner table. Nowadays you can get anything anytime. If you do this you lose the rhythm of the season and the foods. And the anticipation that comes with waiting until your favorite veggies appear in their newness. So in winter it's roots and herbs that last the seasons, and slow braising of meats. Spring is the bright sprightly asapargus and new greens. The soul soars. Ok I'm going overboard. But if you love to cook and feel the rhythms of life this book is for you.
Rating:
Summary: A Joy of a Book!
Review: I've been a longtime fan of Amanda Hesser's work. Her columns for the New York Times are always illuminating and her Food Diary is a "seek-out" joy in the Magazine every other Sunday. Now I've finally found her book and had a chance to read the story of a season's worth of living and cooking. Its a joy on every page. Hesser has a way of illuminating food and cooking that reminds me of MFK Fisher. There's a clarity to her writing that gives one a clear visual of the meal and the participants in its journey to the table. Most importantly, Hesser's way of enterlacing descriptions of seasons and food with the stories of the characters make for an enjoyable read and a reminder of the importance of being grounded in local foods and fresh produce. I hope this is the first of many books for Hesser. American cooking and eating can only benefit from her work. For now, I'm left to clipping out every recipe and writ from the New York Times and place them in my binder marker "Hesser." If you're looking for one the best new books on the culture of cooking and dining, this is a great start. If you're looking for a great read by one of the leading writers of the new school of cooking, Hesser's book is a fabulous choice.
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