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| Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking | 
 enlarge | Author: Anthony Bourdain
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Category: Book
List Price: $37.50
Buy New: $19.43
You Save: $18.07 (48%)
New (43) Used (18) Collectible (5) from $16.35
Avg. Customer Rating:  73 reviews
Sales Rank: 2337
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.5
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 7.4 x 1.5
ISBN: 158234180X
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5944
EAN: 9781582341804
ASIN: 158234180X
Publication Date: October 15, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
A truly wonderful gift March 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
After perusing the other reviews of this book, it is amazing that so many people think the exact same thing I was thinking. This book is a great gift. I recieved it for Christmas a year ago and believe it is the best present I have ever recieved on that particular holiday. The thing that makes Anthony Bourdain so fun to read and watch on TV is his laid back manner. It is like reading a cookbook that you yourself would write if you had the time and motivation. I have seen very few cookbooks with so many F-bombs, and this makes it unique as well as interesting. It makes you want to try the recipes, if only just to see what he will say next.
The tone is perfect for a book of recipes of French bistro cuisine. The very things that make that kind of food appealing, its simplicity, its quality and it's focus on available and fresh ingredients are the same things that make it so much of a treat to read or to cook a recipe from. It is honest and forthright, fresh, and sometimes hilarious. It keeps you wanting to read through it more than once. You can also tell that even though he usually comes across as a smart aleck most of the time, that he truly does care about the quality and traditions that make French cooking so great.
well worth getting February 21, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I've probably cooked 80% of the meals in this book with no duds. Well written, funny, easy to follow cookbook written by Bourdain back in the days when he actually cared more about food than being a food celebrity.
Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles January 2, 2008
From the beginning of how to make stocks and demi glazes in lieu of purchasing them to the recipes the author has a way explaining each one differently and sometimes funny.
Owning a restaurant for many years and never indulging in Bistro Cooking this book will be a big help. Thank you Anthony for writing it.
 French food, New York Attitude December 28, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
The official cook book of Les Halles, a french style Bistro in New York City where Bourdaine served as executive chef. As Bourdaine proudly declares these are the recipies, scaled down in size, that keep people lined up in the street waiting for a table. Not the fancy haut cuisine as much as the more rustic comfort food of France. Then what's the fuss? The author is the fuss. His attiude as a New Yorker, his view on food and contempt for needless pretention pours out from the page. And so he invites the reader to take up a knife and give it a try.
Boudain like the BBC's "Two Fat Ladies" of a decade ago is a working chef who has little patience for pretention and froo- froo prima donnas. His recipies are littered with his comments on the food, how it's prepared and how things can go wrong. Unlike the English ladies though, he does not use gentle terms. Bourdain is a New Yorker and a lot of his language can be a little raw. For example he explains that if the lid on the bender is not secure when making some soups, it will hurt like #$%^&*#.(Only bourdaine does not edit the words. He limits the four letter words but still is somewhat commanding in his phrasing as if daring the reader to try the food.
From the very begining Bourdain declares that this book will not teach you how to cook, but then he does just that, telling you the importance of preparing mentally and physically and how to approach dishes for the best effect. What is of note is that Bourdain goes to such length to tear down myths, "Think the real chefs do this? of course not, we don't have time," that when he does stress something is important, you listen. Which is probably what he intended form the start.
Any decent cook book will have interesting recipies, easily laid out and explained so the average home cook can attempt them.
Good cook books will demystify dishes that sound insanely complex and give you the confidence to try them.
Great cook books will make you want to try these dishes. They will discribe or have pictures that coax you to want to see if you can recreate them.
Oustanding cook books will do all of the above and make you enjoy just reading them. Written by people with an eye for the real world and real people and not just ivory towers.
By that scale, THIS is an outstanding cookbook.
Bourdain makes the classics simple! December 19, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is one of the best cookbooks out there period. The veal stock recipe and step by step instruction alone is worth the price. Written in Anthony's classic Hunter Thompson-styled prose, classic recipes are well chosen throughout the book, perfectly explained with hint and side notes to answer those lingering "how-to" questions, and easy to complete thanks to Mr. Bourdain's long history of cranking out quality food for the hungry masses in NYC. Highly recommended!
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