I am taken by the quality of the photos that are an exceedingly important part of the book. It therefore becomes a joy to read because of those excellently selected and arranged photos. Beyond the visual is of course the substance of the book with its collection of recipes-the body of which are not the usual ones found in collections of French cooking.My wife and I have tried a large example of them and they have proved to be easily cookable and extremely tasty and we anticipate further culinary discoveries as the weeks go by.
This marvelous cookbook is as good as it is, I believe, because the grandmother of Joanne Harris cooked many of these country dishes after they had been passed to her from her grandmothers. The French Kitchen has a decidedly country kitchen take on French cooking and believe me, the book does not suffer because of it.
I loved reading every word in this wonderful book and also loved looking at the inspired photographs and thought all the while that the people at Doubleday who designed such a beautiful book deserve a large bonus for assembling such a delightful book.