Pedaling Through Burgundy Cookbook

By Sarah Leah Chase

Book Overview

Rolling vineyards with world-famous names. A wave from the gardener tending her potager. Pan bagna in the village square for lunch, and the prospect of dinner at a three-star inn to get you through those last five uphill kilometers. Bicycling through France brings you into intimate contact with the land, the people, and the food-especially the food. It's an experience that Sarah Leah Chase, acclaimed cookbook author, gourmet food-shop owner, and, since college, bicycle tour guide for Butterfield & Robinson, celebrates in "Pedaling Through Burgundy." Illustrated in full color and peppered with anecdotes and travel writing, cooking tips and wine notes, the book is a personal cookbook with a select but dazzling collection of recipes. It evokes the famed land of big red wines with hearty food to match: a classic French Onion Soup Gratine, Boeuf Bourguignon with a twist-the meat is grilled- Venison Ragout with Whole cloves of Garlic and Dried Fruits, and desserts including Pinot Noir Gratine, Warm Chocolate Boules with Strawberry Beaujolais Sauce, and Colette's Lemon Tart.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1563053594
• ISBN13: 9781563053597
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Workman Publishing
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

As a travel guide to Burgundy, it's wonderful!

When I was looking for guidebooks for an upcoming trip to France, the librarian suggested this cookbook and, oh, what a wonderful suggestion it was! While the recipes were interesting looking and we learned much about the cuisine we would soon be tasting, it's value for us was the marvelous overview and incredible font of information it provided on the Burgundy region. It introduced us to the wines, the food, the villages and the little out-of-the-way places that made our trip so incredibly memorable. We used it constantly, met many of the people she wrote about and stopped in the restaurants, shops and sites she recommended. For anyone who is contemplating a visit to Burgundy, loves the French countryside or wants to experience it vicariously, this is just the book to do it with.

Great book for French cuisine rookies

I'm a 30-something single man who used to live in terror of trying to cook French cuisine. I found this book and have had wild success with several of Sarah's recipes. Yes, some of the sauces are "dumbed-down" north american versions of French sauces, but no one has complained about them yet! Straightforward recipes and very pleasing results make this is a great book for French cuisine rookies.

Nice Twists on Traditional French Recipes

Sarah Leah Chase is my favorite cookbook author, and while this isn't her best effort (Nantucket Open House Cookbook is *essential* for anyone who loves food), it contains plenty of excellent French provincial-inspired recipes while avoiding the stodginess of that traditional fare. Chase uses French cooking standbys, butter and cream, along with Burgundian ingredients like Dijon mustard, Chablis and red Burgundy wines. But she also spices things up with a liberal use of Creme de Cassis--the recipe for Candied Shallot and Walnut Croutes is worth the price of the book alone. Other outstanding recipes include one for Baked Oysters, a lovely Pain d'Epices and Potato Gratin Dijonnaise. If the book has a weakness, it's probably in the meat dishes. Most are pretty similar to recipes found in other French Bistro or Americanized French cookbooks. But this is still a very worthy, not to mention beautiful looking, cookbook that belongs on the pantry shelf of any serious cook or cookbook aficionado.

How much you like this depends on what you are looking for

I agree with the reviewer below: the author takes frequent liberties with traditional recipes. I, however, think this is a good thing. It's analogous to the difference between dining out at a traditional French bistro vs. a French inspired more nouvelle cuisine type of restaurant. They each have their place, they're just different.It's totally understandable to expect this book to have traditional Burgundian recipes and it largely doesn't. But this doesn't mean that it, and the companion Provence cookbook, are unworthy of spots on your cookbook shelf. The recipes are creative and come out consistently well, plus the book is a good read. I made the asparagus in aigrelette sauce last night and served it with seared salmon as the recipe suggested-- incredibly fast, easy, different, and delicious. You can't ask for much more in a cookbook, assuming you are not looking for 100% traditional recipes. There are are plenty of books with those, so kudos to Ms. Chase for providing us with something different and doing it very well.