Larousse Gastronomique

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 extraordinary people, mostly French cooks and critics.

Highly regarded as a French gourmand's Bible, I keep this book close to the kitchen as a culinary dictionary. Entries are organized alphabetically, and brief recipes are filed where appropriate. For example, if you want to find different ways to cook sole, look up "sole," and the entry will provide an explanation of the subject, tips on how to select and prepare the fish, then different recipes that focus on ingredients rather than step-by-step instructions such as "Turn the oven to 400 degrees...."

My edition is old, from the '60s or '70s, but it is still is useful to have around. Larousse Gastronomique is a companion to the kitchen and certainly not a replacement for a cookbook, as the recipes are there more for inspiration than direct show more instruction. show less

Not really a cookbook; more like 'fascinating facts about anything culinary.' I can waste hours and hours just opening pages at random. I especially enjoy all the historical information. Oh, what fun!

Beautiful book that provides extremely detailed definitions of ingredients and techniques as well as good overviews of various national cuisines. Recipes are interspersed among the entries.

This is THE reference for me that I run to whenever I need to look up an ingredient or cooking term. It's especially enjoyable for some of the obscure stuff. I did not know that bit about the unreliability of the recipes as I've never tried one.

Comprehensive coverage of French cuisine; obviously weaker elsewhere. Recipes are notoriously unreliable. Nice pictures.

The paperback edition has all the content of the hardcover, but fewer recipes (no loss given general unreliability of Larousse recipes). Suffers more from lacking the wonderful pictures which adorn the larger edition.