OP: The Dione Lucas Book of French Cooking
Little, Brown and Company, 1973. Hardcover. Very Good Plus in a VG jacket. First printing.
Julia Child’s energy and charisma helped refine and popularize America’s “gourmet” revolution, but there is no denying that Dione Lucas (1909–1971) was there first.
British-born Lucas trained in the 1930s at the Cordon Bleu in Paris and was its first female graduate. In 1942, she came to New York, opening her own Cordon Bleu restaurant and school, actively preaching the doctrine of fine French cuisine in a country where it had been previously of very little interest.
Her television cooking show debuted in 1947, one of the first such series anywhere, accompanied by her debut book, The Cordon Bleu Cook Book. A number of other works followed, but it was the posthumously published, 900-page The Dione Lucas Book of French Cooking (1973), written with her pupil Marion Gorman and which we offer here, that was her most definitive work.
Expand your classic French repertoire with:
- Profiteroles aux crustacés—bite-sized pâte à choux sandwiches filled with a mix of crabmeat, whipped butter, tabasco, and garlic
- Jambon à la Saint-Germain—leftover ham repurposed in a brandy sauce, served over pea puree
- Crêpes Niçoise—filled with chicken and veloute, finished with Parmesan, butter, and breadcrumbs under a broiler
- Aubergines à la meunière—lightly fried eggplant with lemon and butter
Our copy is a first printing, Very Good Plus in a VG jacket, showing only modest shelfwear. Tempting and illuminating.