Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2013. Hardcover. Very Good. Signed second printing.
The visual element of food and cooking is vital to its enjoyment. For the highly admired French illustrator Christophe Blain, the creativity of the brilliant chef Alain Passard was too good to be ignored.
Passard (1956– ) is himself an artist in almost every sense of the word. Getting his training and developing skills and credentials under such icons as Alain Senderens at L’Archestrate, he absorbed the importance of colors, shapes, aromas, and textures as essential to supporting taste. In 1986, Passard bought L’Archastrate from Senderens and changed its name to L’Arpège (“arpeggio”—to honor his own separate passion for music).
Blain’s graphic novel rendering provides an entertaining—but nonetheless rigorous—examination of Passard, his thinking, and his mode of working. From vegetable gardens to the kitchen and then to the table, he provides an honest, behind-the-scenes view of creativity translated into the real world of business. All of this is supported by fifteen of Passard’s recipes, their execution also illustrated.
First published in 2011 in France, the book was translated into English and issued by Chronicle in 2013. Our copy is that English edition, a second printing, signed by Passard to the title page. While the interior is clean and crisp, the corners are all crunched, particularly the fore corners. The upper fore corner damage has also impacted the latter half of the book block, but everything remains sturdy and intact.
