By Rudolph Chelminski
At all costs, don't read this book on an empty stomach. Its casual and humorous history of eating in France is punctuated with descriptions of meals and dishes that can cause terrible anguish to a hungry reader. The author claims that "great are the numbers of French men and women who still live to eat," and he joins them at the table every chance he gets. He is disdainful and funny about nouvelle cuisine, which he sees as "a terrific gimmick for a host of entrepreneurs who may not have known much about cooking, but recognized a great opportunity for profits when they saw one: minuscule portions of half-cooked food, with hardly any preparation involved beyond sculpting carrots into Japanese shapes, served on big plates and sold at prodigious prices." So there! Chelminski, a free-lance journalist (and former LIFE staffer and PEOPLE correspondent) stationed in Paris, sees the end of male dominance in French restaurant kitchens and devotes his last chapter to women chefs, especially those who developed at home the recipes that make French dining great. (Morrow, $15.95)
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