French culinary king Franey (A Chef's Tale, p. 189, etc.) teams up with Flaste once again in this companion book to Franey's new 26-week public television series. Amassed here are a selection of classic specialities from each of 20 major gastronomic areas of the country, with information on cheeses, desserts, and drinks and how these ingredients have influenced the development of cuisine in places from Normandy (famous for cream, Calvados, and apple cider) to the Loire Valley (known for freshwater fish like sandre and trout) to Gascony (a major foie gras producer). The authors offer excellent recipes for simple, peasant fare; popular bistro foods; and sophisticated restaurant dishes. Unfortunately, French regional often means lots of meat and cream, and while this makes for great taste in everything tested, from the rich scallops sauteed with leeks and saffron to the hearty sauerkraut with pork, no one can indulge in such heavy meals often. Although there are many lighter recipes in this good cookbook (which will, in all likelihood, become a food bible for Francophiles), it could have been even better with the inclusion of variations for reducing fat. Franey presents easy-to-follow instructions, and even for the most spectacular dishes the preparation is manageable, though often requiring several steps (one of which may be a sauce). Delicious—but just because Franey asserts that the French have avoided current low-fat standards without suffering in ``health or looks'' doesn't mean we all can. (50 photos, 15 in full color, 20 maps, not seen) (First printing 50,000; Book-of-the-Month Club's Homestyle Book Club alternate selection)
Pub Date: Aug. 30, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-43157-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
From the national correspondent for PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour: a moving memoir of her youth in the Deep South and her role in desegregating the Univ. of Georgia. The eldest daughter of an army chaplain, Hunter-Gault was born in what she calls the ``first of many places that I would call `my place' ''—the small village of Due West, tucked away in a remote little corner of South Carolina. While her father served in Korea, Hunter-Gault and her mother moved first to Covington, Georgia, and then to Atlanta. In ``L.A.'' (lovely Atlanta), surrounded by her loving family and a close-knit black community, the author enjoyed a happy childhood participating in activities at church and at school, where her intellectual and leadership abilities soon were noticed by both faculty and peers. In high school, Hunter-Gault found herself studying the ``comic-strip character Brenda Starr as I might have studied a journalism textbook, had there been one.'' Determined to be a journalist, she applied to several colleges—all outside of Georgia, for ``to discourage the possibility that a black student would even think of applying to one of those white schools, the state provided money for black students'' to study out of state. Accepted at Michigan's Wayne State, the author was encouraged by local civil-rights leaders to apply, along with another classmate, to the Univ. of Georgia as well. Her application became a test of changing racial attitudes, as well as of the growing strength of the civil-rights movement in the South, and Gault became a national figure as she braved an onslaught of hostilities and harassment to become the first black woman to attend the university. A remarkably generous, fair-minded account of overcoming some of the biggest, and most intractable, obstacles ever deployed by southern racists. (Photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-374-17563-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1992
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
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