Ordering this book immediately. I love reading menus, and lists of ingredients; it’s so soothing. Is that weird? My favorite Richard Olney volumes are his books arranged by precise meal plans —specifically,The French Menu Cookbook: The Food and Wine of France—Season by Delicious Season—in Beautifully Composed Menus and Ten Vineyard Lunches. I can’t even count how many times I’ve referred to its pages for inspirations for dinner parties and other events. I love thinking about the sequencing of a great meal as being similar to a tracks on a record or chapters in a book. Why should a meal be assembled haphazardly, when it could be composed as a linear, thoughtful event? Oh, and this Patricia Curtan book inspires me to host a Grand Aïoli of my own, too.
[via the Paris Review]
you should definitely pay a visit to chez panisse if you’re ever in california. it’s worth it.
siiigh… i totally want to! i lived in berkeley for an entire summer and never made it over there because i was so broke. will definitely need to make a trip at some point in my life…
i hear you – i went once since a dear friend took me out and it was truly a memorable dinner. upon reflection, i’m now salivating.
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