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Shut Out of the French Laundry
First it was Julie & Julia author Julie Powell, working her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Now another writer has taken a similar journey. Unable to get a reservation at the French Laundry, Carol has decided to conquer Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry Cookbook, one recipe at a time. You can follow the adventure on her blog, French Laundry at Home.
As Carol explains, “Anyone can cook from any cookbook out there, but it takes a special kind of nutjob to attempt every recipe in The French Laundry Cookbook.”
Happily for us, she’s a funny nutjob. Witness her comments on the following recipes:
Purée of English Pea Soup with White Truffle Oil and Parmesan Crisps
English Peas are only available for about 6 minutes in April … so when I saw them at Balducci’s, I knew I had to slide this dish into the schedule sooner rather than later. ‘Carol,’ you may ask, ‘do I really have to use English peas to make this soup, or can I just use regular peas instead?’
Don’t make me smack you.
“Candied Apple”: Crème de Farine with Poached Apples and Ice Cream
A little advice from me to you: do NOT try this dish if you are busy. Or not busy. Or have a life … you may look at the recipe, scrutinize the three pages it takes up in the book, and think, ‘well of course I can do this over three days, with just doing a little bit here and there like the book suggests.’ Yeah, I dare you.
Carol’s moving through the book at a good clip. Having originally planned for two years to complete the 100-recipe cookbook, she may now finish in 12 to 18 months. Maybe by then she’ll have been able to procure a reservation. Surely a celebratory dinner is in order for all her hard work.
Posted by | Wednesday, May 9, 2007 at 3:57pm | 3 comments
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Nifty. Anyone who wants to top this will have to cook through Escoffier or the Gastronomique.
Wow -- thanks, Tea! What a nice surprise -- you made my day.
Not a very original idea though. I'm sure Carol is aware of the Julie/Julia Project from a few years back where Julie Powell intends to cook each one of the more than 500 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 365 days. Julia Powell had a blog during this time and her endeavor became heavily publicized. A book of her blog posts and experiences was published.