Alexandre Gauthier: Chef, La Grenouillère Hardcover – September 9, 2014

Not an easy book... Not a book for a novice in the kitchen, not a book for someone who is looking for a recipe to do when coming back from work.BUT a great book if you want to be inspired, a book that tells you a story, a book so beautiful it hurts... a book to keep and read on and read on and try a few recipes just for the kick of it...ENJOY!!!!!!!!!

Yes, it's a book with LOTS of photos, each one of em has it's recipe and the recipes might not have the best "edit" work on em... though this book is very good, it gives an insight into a creative beast, theres so many dishes in this book that will spark ideas to the avid cook, recipes are not the best in terms of explaining step by step but with certain experience in a kitchen the whole thing can be worked out.

Beautifully photographed and amazing recipes. No other chef has such a level of brutality in his presentations, his visceral aesthetic seperate Alexandre Gauthier from other chefs. Highly recommended.

This book was sold out during it's initial printing in Oct. 2014, I had to wait until May 2015 to find a copy AT cover price anywhere. I am an avid collector of cookbooks, specifically those by professional chefs and about restaurant cooking. I enjoy reading different chef's philosophies about food and life. This book does not provide any such insight. There are less than 20 pages reading in the beginning, and less than 50 pages in the back of just standard format recipes without commentary. The book is wholly photography of the food, staff, and setting of the restaurant. If you're looking for a similar chef-written book about contemporary fine dining in France, buy Astrance by Pascal Barbot. There is a hundred times more reading material and as many photographs, with better printing quality too.

Great book

As a connoisseur of cookbooks, I can't stress how disappointed I was with this cookbook. First of all, it's more of a photo book or presentation book than a cookbook. The volume has about 333 pages, you don't actually encounter ANY recipes until you get to page 280. So, what do you get on those first 280 pages? Photos, page after page after page of, albeit pretty and well photographed, food photos. There's a couple hundred photos of dishes prepared for La Grenouillere. If you were just interested in a study of the artistry of food presentation, this in itself could be of interest. However, all the pages are all printed on plain paper stock leaving the photos flat, and dull in color. I would think a book with so much of its content devoted to food photography, they would have realized if you really wanted the primary content to shine, the quality of printing should have been much higher. After flipping through the photos, and you actually get to the recipes this is where the real interesting. As I said, I'm a connoisseur of cookbooks, I have everything from French Laundry, Fat Duck, Astrance, Alinea, the full 6 volume set of Modernist Cuisine, to the very hard to find 500 Años de fusion. I've made something out of every one of them at least two or three times and all contain some exotic or hard to find ingredients. that being said, there is ABSOLUTELY nothing I would make out of this book. This book presents you such creations as Squid with Pig's Blood, Cuttlefish Sheets, Monkfish and Fish Guts, Rabbit Kidneys in Bacon Ash and Cream, and my personal favorite Sea Water. Oh yes, Sea Water. With instructions as 'gather 500g of sea lettuce from the English Channel.' Yeah, NO! Also, of the 100 or so recipes included you get a very poorly formatted ingredients list and a single paragraph on preparation. Disappointment is an understatement.

As a professional chef i find the book really nice. More than 3/4 of it are only images. In the end you got all the recipes. Is not the first cookbok i own that is written like that. The problem is that each recipe is too light and not well explained. That make it a bit hard to reproduce. Overall beautifull matches of flavour that would inspire any passionate cook's. Reccomended.

Great book with some fantastic photography. Quite liked how the photos and history are followed by the recipe and small photo. Yet go and try any of the recipes but lots of nice ideas. As all the other reviews say the exposed spine is part of the design of the book. Do not be put off by the first review (one star) if they had bothered to read it they would have had a fine piece of work to show off on their coffee table.

Coffee table book rather than a useful cook book. Fantastic photography. A trend in cook books I think.

looks better in picture than in real life - bought for food photos and did not disappointthis is a chef's cookery book

This is amazing book great recipes pictures of dishes top marks