Renowned chef Pierre Koffmann presents a very personal cookbook. Centered around his childhood in France where he grew up on a farm with parents and grandparents, Koffmann recalls this period and intersperses it with noteworthy food he enjoyed from this time. The result is a collection of good honest recipes based on the available produce from the farm; duck and chicken seem to predominate along with robust vegetables, with duck or goose fat frequently included in the list of ingredients.

This is a well produced book, printed on heavy stock and with the rough page edges lending a hand-made paper feel to it. Many, but far from all, of the recipes are illustrated in full-page full-colour photographs, not always on the same page as the recipes itself.

A very appealing cookbook, this is very much food for home cooking and enjoyment and not fancy restaurant recipes adapted for the domestic kitchen. ( )

Recipes and reminiscences of Pierre Koffmann who derives inspiration for his restaurant fare from the recipes of his Gascon grandmother in Saint Puy. A charming evocation of rural life and food in Gascony in the first half of the twentieth century. ( )