OP: Astrance: A Cook's Book
Editions du Chêne, 2012. Two paperback volumes in slipcase. Very Good.
Pascal Barbot’s (1972– ) Michelin 3-starred restaurant L’Astrance is one of the most in-demand dining establishments in Paris today.
The restaurant’s cookbook, published in 2012, is an impressive statement of its success—two paperback volumes in a striking slipcase. The first volume presents the dishes themselves, devoting as much space to Barbot’s comments on the underlying creative process as it does to the actual recipes; the text is punctuated by dazzling hyper-real photographs of the food.
The second, smaller volume, also heavily illustrated, deals with the actual kitchen work—the techniques and procedures involved in producing the food.
Astrance is genuinely useful for Barbot’s professional colleagues, a magnificent souvenir for those who have dined from his kitchen, and a valued example of what is an enduring genre. Ours is the 2012 English edition, the two paperback volumes Very Good, showing creasing in the spine, otherwise in excellent condition. Demand for copies has not waned since going out of print.
