Grand Livre de Cuisine

By Alain Ducasse

Born in the culinary land-of-plenty of Southwestern France, mega-entrepreneur/chef Alain Ducasse has spent most of his life refining the culinary arts. By the age of sixteen, he excelled at cooking, working in such prestigious houses as Michel Guérard, Gaston Lenôtre, Roger Vergé and Alain Chapel. In 1987, The Société des Bains de Mer (S.B.M.) asked Ducasse to manage the Le Louis XV restaurant at the Hôtel de Paris in Monte-Carlo. Three years later, Le Louis XV became to first hotel restaurant to receive three Michelin stars: Ducasse was 33. Since 1990, numerous restaurants have opened around the world in his well-known name, including SPOON, Food & Wine in Paris, Alain Ducasse at the Essex House in New York City and Alain Ducasse at the Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Paris.

Throughout these years of traveling and experimenting with cuisine, Ducasse gathered thousands of recipes with the help of his chefs, Jean-François Piège, Didier Elena, Franck Cerutti, Patrick Ogheard and Benoît Witz. Seven hundred of these recipes comprise the first volume of the collection Le Grand Livre de Cuisine d'Alain Ducasse.

The encyclopedia, illustrated with 1,000 color photographs, is organized around 100 “basic” ingredients. From acacia to zucchini, they were selected to inspire professional chefs, as well as experienced home cooks. We find the explanations quite easy to follow, and we like the measurements being given both in ounces and grams. What we also appreciate are the "Finish & Presentation" instructions, if you follow them, you will certainly get a round of applause from your guests.

The great thing about reading through this heavy book—over ten pounds!—which deserves space in your library as well as your kitchen, is that you’ll feel, with very little experience, that you can actually succeed in recreating Ducasse's cuisine at home.

A sampling of venues from Ducasse's restaurant empire: