Paul Bocuse Kitchen Essentials for Home Cooking

We fell in love with Paul Bocuse in Lyon, where we spent 3 weeks eating near daily at one of his Brasseries. We came home with the Brasseries Bocuse cookbook. After we returned, pining for divine French cuisine, which is largely unavailable in our home city, we started researching and collecting French cookbooks. Inexplicably, I ended with collecting Bocuse, when I really should have started with his books! What was I thinking! There is a reason that he was the first chef to receive 3 stars from the Guide Michelin.I have now bought both Paul Bocuse in Your Kitchen, and Bocuse's Regional French Cooking, to add to my Brasseries Bocuse cookbook. A few of the recipe names are similar or the same, but the recipes are different in PBinYK and BRFC.PBinYK provides recipes for classic divine recipes, with incredibly easy, clear instructions, and uses ingredients which are whole foods, not processed! (My Middle-School aged daughter can make the dishes!) I LOVE this book! My only complaint is that Paul Bocuse does not include how to make the sausages he uses in his recipes. But, he only includes 4 sausage recipes, 2 for Boudin (blood sausage which I avoid--he says that Bratwurst may be substituted!), 1 for Andouille, and 1 for Saucisses in which he calls for pure pork sausages. For sausage recipes, I go to Jacques Pepin and Bruce Aidells. Jacques has a different saucisson recipe in just about every one of his cookbooks that I own. But, we also like a non-Pepin recipe from the internet, which includes garlic and pistachios. Fresh sausage may be made using food processors (process meat 1 lb at a time) and using parchment paper in lieu of casings. But this lack of sausage recipes in PBinYK is a small flaw, and could be because the book was published in 1982 before food processors became prevalent. Bocuse's recipes are incredibly simple to put together, so he might have thought that it would be too burdensome to make the sausage from scratch (in the days without food processors).PBinYK has few photos, but I do not feel that it is any less a masterpiece for that. Where you need a photo, like to see the fanned-out apple slice tarte, the photo is provided. Same with the Baked Potatoes with Tomatoes presented in slices in a casserole dish, and the low-tapped vinegar crock--you need a non-reactive container with low access to add wine and remove vinegar without disturbing the Vinegar Mother. The photo of the big crock of Onion Soup made my eyes pop. I had never seen a recipe-sized crock, only individual servings. The pears in wine sauce photo was also lovely. The recipe in this book is for spiced pears.I like to make my foods from scratch, and Bocuse has included some from-scratch recipes that made me happy, like how to make homemade red wine vinegar which he says is much healthier and more delicious than the industrially made vinegars. He also includes how to make Lyon-style Farmers' Cheese! The recipe is delicious! I make my own yogurt and creme fraiche, and have for decades, so have made a lot of drained cheeses, which we often season for spreads. But, Bocuse's Lyon-style Farmers' Cheese is a lot more luscious and delicious! Made with low or non-fat creme fraiche, the farmers' cheese is guilt-free. (Bocuse often calls for creme fraiche, and allows a choice between creme fraiche or heavy cream. Creme Fraiche as I make it is simply organic milk (I use either Non-fat, or 1% Fat) boiled, cooled to warm, cultured with organic buttermilk, then left to develop in an off oven with oven light on. Although much like Yogurt in the making and taste, Creme Fraiche can be heated without curdling, unlike Yogurt.)The recipes in PBinYK yield dishes better than the best that I have had in NYC, and in Paris (with 1 exception). Our Paris exception was the farmhouse chicken at La Butte Chaillot, which is 3-star chef Guy Savoy's cheaper restaurant. There, the simply prepared outstanding ingredients were to die for. But, I am not sure that we can obtain chickens like the Bresse chickens used by Guy Savoy and Paul Bocuse. Those chickens are produced like fine wines, and strictly regulated. Savoy simply uses French sea salt from the Gironde to season his Bresse chicken, and it is enough to make your eyes roll back. It also cost $50 for a serving of Savoy's Farmhouse Chicken and mashed potatoes!Your recipe outcomes will depend on the quality of ingredients used, as the recipes are not for tortured foods. These are recipes which let the quality of the ingredients shine through. Utterly delish! Food to feed the soul and the senses! But, be forewarned, if you are expecting towering fussy creations, this is not the book! I think that a later Bocuse cookbook covers tortured food, but not this one. This cookbook covers the best of French cuisine as the French have enjoyed it for at least the last century or two.