The Bonne Femme Cookbook
Simple, Splendid Food that French Women Cook Every Day
Here is authentic French cooking without fuss or fear, the way real French families eat today. Now that the typical French woman, the bonne femme of the title, works outside of the home just like her American counterpart (and now that French men, like their American frères, are often in charge of getting dinner on the table), the emphasis is on easy techniques and speedy preparation.
Wini Moranville draws on years of traveling to and living in France and serves up a hip, user-friendly volume that brings a wealth of up-to-date French recipes and time-saving techniques seamlessly into the American kitchen. In a voice at once wise and lighthearted, Moranville offers 250 recipes that focus on simple, fresh ingredients prepared well.
Two main-dish chapters, “Sauté, Deglaze, Serve” and “Stew, Roast, Braise,” show readers how to turn out robust and delicious entrées in a genuine French style with ease. Soupes that range from the light to the substantial, salades from a simple Goat Cheese Salad Classique to a complex Swiss Chard with Roast Chicken, Apples, and Blue Cheese, and desserts from a foolproof little crème brulée to cakes and cookies and tartes and crêpes round out the picture. In her recipes, wine suggestions, tips and shortcuts, and sidebars brimming with local color, Moranville gives French cooking an accessible, friendly, and casual spin.
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Praise
“Wini Moranville approaches French cooking with the freshness of an outsider and the wisdom of an insider. Her conviction that French home cooking is accessible plays out winningly in recipes like Any-Day Chicken Sauté and Green-on-Green Avocado and Arugula Salad. But I will relish the book for enticing riffs like Olives with Fennel and Pernod, and for the fact that Moranville writes with such ease and intimacy, you feel you are in France with her, cooking by her side.”
—Amanda Hesser, cofounder of food52.com and author of The Essential New York Times Cookbook
“It’s les bonnes femmes who keep the culinary traditions of France alive. Cooking the simple classics and the daily meals that form the canon of the cuisine—onion soup and crisp-skinned roasted chicken, beef Bourguignon, gratin Dauphinois, and crème caramel—they draw family and friends to the table. Wini Moranville has given us everything we need to do the same, whether our table is in Paris or Peoria.”
—Dorie Greenspan, author of Around My French Table
“This culinary treasure is a must-have book for your kitchen shelf—an irresistible day-to-day, go-to book on how to get simple, delicious, heart-warming meals on the table. Wini Moranville makes the best French home cooking approachable.”
—Gale Gand, partner and pastry chef, Tru, Chicago, host of Food Network's "Sweet Dreams," and co-author of Butter Sugar Flour Eggs
