Prosper Montagné (1865–1948)

I had this book on the shelf for years, and supposed it to be snooty and French. It is - and terrific stuff, too.
Handling a roadkill just after Christmas I browsed the book for venison recipes and discovered one (see Roebuck) attributed to Christian Dior, of all people. To my slight surprise it read well - it had, I imagine, a sort of New Look simplicity. And it was a triumph.
Now I browse the great tome occasionally, finding all sorts of treasures, including little biographies of show more extraordinary people, mostly French cooks and critics. show less

Slightly clunky translation of a book that's stuffy, old-fashioned, and very very French. Recommended as a fun cultural artefact, or as a reference when deciphering older French recipes. (That's for the 1986 edition, anyway. I hear rumours that later editions grudgingly admit the existence of lesser cuisines practised in countries that have the misfortune not to be France.)

This is the red one. It's the one I took with me when I lived in Portugal for a little while. I read it cover to cover, believe it or not. I recommend the experience.

At the time I only had a tiny kitchen that had a two-burner propane range with an oven the size of a microwave oven. There was no refridgerator. The only cookware I had was a sheet pan, two speckleware wok-shaped pots of different sizes, one bowl, a spoon, a slotted spoon, a whisk and my knives.

Every day I went shopping at the show more markets for fresh ingredients. I let the season dictate what I'd eat. The produce (in the broad sense) in Portugal in the spring and summer of 1989 was magic.

The food that my little, inconvenient kitchen put out was some of the best I've ever cooked. I didn't use that many actual recipes from the Larousse, but it informed everything I prepared in a sort of parallel way. show less

This will never be "read" :)

Much like the The Silver Spoon (but even heavier) it's an impossibly complete and exhaustive encyclopædia of everything related to cooking, and the level at which you cook doesn't really matter, as even the simplest of concepts (and also the most complex one) is explained.