Cuisine Naturelle: French Classics Redefined

By Jean François Meteigner

A lot of people these days still cling to the notion that French Food is high in fat, rich in sauce and complicated in execution. Jean François Meteigner, chef and owner of La Cachette in Los Angles, will prove you wrong. His Cuisine Naturelle features more than 140 contemporary, simple updates of French family-style classics, with a fraction of the fat and easy to prepare for busy people who don't have time to slave at the stove for long.

Many of the recipes have been tested by regular folks in his Saturday morning classes and thus prove to be "home-chef friendly." Nothing too fancy---but sometimes we crave simple, easy, elegant dishes with a minimum of ingredients such as swordfish with garlic olive oil and fresh ginger, Belgian endive and Romaine salad with toasted walnuts and Roquefort, a rustic peach tart, Mama Meteigner's Sunday After Church Chicken, potato gratin with garlic and cream or salmon brochettes. The only drawback: the book has no photos, and we miss the kind of satisfaction we get after trying a recipe and finding that what we pull out of the oven matches its high-gloss cousin to the T. On the other hand, this is the kind of book that rests on the counter while you crack eggs and chop chives, the book that becomes a frequent companion and beloved even after a few greasy finger prints---as compared to the kind that looks good on the shelf.

Buy the book.

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