Review: Frenchie: New Bistro Cooking

Title: Frenchie: New Bistro Cooking
Author: Greg Marchand
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: April 8th 2014
Source: Netgalley & Artisan Books

★★★★★

Five stars.

Frenchie: New Bistro Cooking is a collection of recipes from French chef Greg Marchand. Raised in an orphanage and shaped by the culinary arts and food, Marchand worked all over the world in places like London and Spain before opening his own restaurant: Frenchie. Within this cookbook, he shares with you some of the most vibrant recipes with twists of flavor that represent not only his style, but reflect the steps he took along the way.

This book has the recipes divided by season, which I think is a great way to organize. It allows for maximizing the freshest, most available ingredients and to properly plan meals accordingly.

I'll talk about the recipes themselves in a moment, but I'd like to take a minute to talk about the images found in this collection. The photography is stunning. This cookbook is worth getting, even just to admire the pictures- and there are a lot of them. Of course, the recipes sound delicious and I think you should read it in its entirety, but I had to say it.

And then there's the recipes themselves. Chef Marchand offers helpful tips throughout the course of the book to help the home cook. Something that I appreciated in this assortment of recipes is that each recipe includes a wine pairing, and the back of the book contains sources on where to get each bottle. This makes it a lot easier to track down the perfect complement. The included recipes span from salads to desserts and everything in between. The recipes that I'm most eager to try are Chocolate and Passion Fruit Pots de Creme with Lychees and Candied Ginger, Wild Garlic Broth with Fresh Crabmeat, and Pork Braised in Milk with Marinated Fennel.

This is a great book for people looking to add an air of sophistication or that want to step their cooking. This is a bright collection that would be great to have handy in any kitchen. Thanks to Netgalley & Artisan Books for the chance to read this in exchange for an honest review.