Le Livre Blanc Author: Visit Amazon's Anne-Sophie Pic Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1909342114 | Format: PDF
Le Livre Blanc Description
Review
"Let’s face it—when most of us think about cooking, we don’t imagine filling a bowl of frothy green tea broth with artfully arranged boiled leeks, marinated anchovies, and wafer-thin coins of caviar-topped melba toast. Most readers will never cook from this title, but browsing its visually breathtaking contents, they will understand why Pic, the fourth female chef ever to win three Michelin stars, deserves her reputation. Some haute cuisine cookbooks have explicit instructions; this one does not. The recipes at the back of the book assume considerable knowledge and skill. VERDICT Highly recommended for professional collections and aspirational cooks interested in elegant plating and presentation." - Library Journal
About the Author
Anne-Sophie Pic comes from a long line of illustrious chefs and began her career in the kitchen in 1997. Today she is the only woman in France with three Michelin stars. Her restaurants include Maison Pic in Valence, Bistrot le 7; Scook, a cooking school for amateurs and professionals alike and the twostar Beau Rivage Palace in Lausanne. Her most recent venture, La Dame de Pic, opened in Paris in 2012.
- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: Jacqui Small LLP; Slp edition (September 1, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1909342114
- ISBN-13: 978-1909342118
- Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.4 x 1.3 inches
- Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
The french book Le livre blanc and the english book having the same title from Anne-Sophie Pic are EXACTLY the same book! Images, texts, page layout, recipes are EXACTLY identical. Even pages match with one another. So all comments, reviews, evaluations for both books on all sites of amazon are equally valuable.
This review is in fact NOT a "culinary" evaluation of the book (you can find my evaluation of the book on the site amazon.ca). This review is only showing the numerous but MINOR differences in the translation of the original book:
- the french book is the original book published in november 2012 by Hachette, Paris, France, the other has been translated and published by Jacqui Small LLP, London, England in september 2013 for the UK and US markets
- the translation reflects perfectly the spirit of the original book
- the translation seems to be more adapted for the UK market by:
- = the way the equipment is named: moulds, cling film
- = the way the ingredients are named: corn flower, caster sugar, single cream and certainly by
- = the units of measurement used
- the translation brings sometimes nice but little enhancements in the codification of the recipes
- very, very few errors/flaws/typos in the translation are found in the recipes:
- = turbinez au Pacojet becomes break it up (is it churn?) in the Pacojet (recipe 06)
- = plongez dans l'huile froide becomes plunge ... into iced water (is this a correction?) (recipe 06)
- = pesez 100 g, puis ajouter 1 feuille de gélatine becomes Weigh out 10g/0.24oz and add a leaf of gelatine (is this a correction?) (recipe 31)
- = coulez cet appareil dans des moules becomes pour (is it sieve and pour?
I waited a long time for Chef Pic's book to be published, to try to cook the way she cooks, and most importantly, to taste an approximation of what she creates. It's a gift I have spent quite a few hours on.
This is not a cook book for beginners, nor is it quite a coffee table book of beautiful photos, either. The white book with the title and name pressed into the cover, rather than printed on is a wonderfully presentation, inside a separate firm white slipcase/binder. The book's pages are silvered on the outer edges, and 4 ribbons for place-keeping are nice. The design is truly stunning...then one opens the book.
It's discombobulated. There are six groupings of the 50 or so recipes, on three pages. Then the first 150 pages or so are pretty photos of her food. Not one photo has a identifying title or description. The photos are broken up by two page listings that give the name and a page of the 8-10 or so dishes for each of the six groupings, which are- Earth and Sea, Acid Yellow & Pale Pink, Contemporary Memories, The Lightness of Air, Traditional Eccentricity, and the Edge of Frontiers. OK, sure, whatever.
Only at the back of the book are the 50 recipes clustered together. No photos there. The large number at the top of each recipe has no relationship to quickly finding the dish's photo in the earlier 150 pages! Super confusing-seems like the layout designer had a look-at-how-clever-I-am conceited way to craft a book to win some prize for unnecessary eccentricity. Fine, you win the prize. Purchasers get a book organized as if the designer was on LSD.
That aside, I am happy to see the actual recipes.
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