OP: At the Crillon and at Home
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Flammarion, Paris, 2008. Hardcover. Near Fine. First English printing.
Regarded as one of the most consistently imaginative chefs working today, Jean-François Piège (1970– ) has taken the helm at some of the leading restaurants in France, collecting several Michelin stars along the way.
Before opening his eponymous restaurant in 2010 and, later, Clover and Grand Restaurant, Piège, a protege of Alain Ducasse, began to make a name for himself at Les Ambassadeurs, a restaurant at the palatial Hôtel de Crillon in Paris. While there, he modernized the restaurant’s traditional menu, rendering French cuisine au courant with the technique and trends emerging at that time in fine dining, particularly from Spain.
Published by Flammarion in French in 2007, then in English in 2008, At the Crillon and at Home is Piège’s first book of his own after collaborating with Ducasse. Drawing inspiration from seasonal ingredients, the chef is clearly playing with his audience’s expectations of traditional French cuisine.
One can sense his intentions in such dishes as a variation of tuna Niçoise salad, which is served deconstructed as four distinct units—marinated tuna, bruschetta, a romaine cup with anchovy mousse, and tuna granita.
Similarly, the paella consists of a rice compression topped with single bite-sized pieces of cockles, mussels, squid, lobster, crayfish, rabbit ribs, and chicken, garnished with a delicate saffron rice chip.
The latter half of the book, its recipes loosely corresponding to those in the first half, is introduced as “forty-one recipes for good food every day,” a somewhat improbable designation for the average home cook. Most of the dishes are still at a restaurant chef level and require serious ambition or professional expertise to comfortably execute at home.
At the Crillon and at Home was enthusiastically received when it appeared. We are pleased to be able to offer a Near Fine first English printing once again. The spine of the jacket is slightly sun bleached, otherwise, a very nice-looking copy.
