I’ve cooked a few things using this cookbook and I’ve found that the recipes here are easy to follow and quite good.  I also like the idea of an American chef living in Paris doing a cookbook on French food…an interesting perspective.  Beyond the recipes, one of the best things about this book are the anecdotes and advice.  I like the fact that the end of the book provides sourcing for the vast majority of ingredients used in the book.  If you are looking for a great introduction to French cuisine or if you, like me, look for French inspiration from time to time, the book is both a great starting point as well as a useful tool to learn and grow.

I made this French bread using a recipe from the book and it was great…it will definitely go into the bread rotation as a favorite of mine.  The bread uses whole wheat pastry flour, unbleached bread flour, pumpkin seeds and flax seeds among other things.  I’ll post the recipe in the coming days but here’s a picture of my final product.  I followed the recipe from the book pretty much exactly…well, not exactly as I omitted some seeds, but as close as I get to exactly.  That’s for sure!