OP: Le Bel Appetit de Monsieur de Balzac

Editions du Chêne, 1999. Hardcover. Very Good Plus.

Prolific French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) is celebrated for his realist’s approach to character and setting. Describing all of society’s extremes in his writing, Balzac also lived within pendulum swings of excess and austerity—a manic writing schedule fueled only by coffee, eggs, and toast, followed by bouts of hedonism. 

Descriptive menus show up in Balzac’s writing, signaling his own pleasures and indulgences at the table. Le Bel Appetit de Monsieur de Balzac (1999) draws recipes, developed by chef Jean Bardet, from Balzac’s fictional meals. The decadent dishes include:

• Warm asparagus mousse with lemon butter
• Grilled herring with a white wine and coffee sauce
• Roast leg of lamb with basil cream sauce
• Pain perdu, or French toast, with walnuts and figs

Le Bel Appétit de Monsieur de Balzac was never translated to English, so we offer it here in its original French. Very Good with minimal shelfwear.