Chez Jacques: Traditions and Rituals of a Cook

Of the 20-plus cookbooks Jacques Ppin has written, Chez Jacques is his most personal and engaging. Now starring in his tenth PBS series, Ppin ranks among Americas most beloved cooking teachers, and this book shows us why.

The books 100 recipesfor soups and appetizers, main courses, side dishes, and dessertsare Ppins own favorites among the thousands he has created over a lifetime of cooking. Using readily available ingredients and relying upon familiar techniques, these are the dishes he makes when preparing food at his Connecticut home. But Chez Jacques is more than a collection of well-liked recipes; its also a captivating sentimental journey. Each dish is introduced by a recollectionof picking dandelion greens for a spring salad, of buying fresh eggs from the local farmerthat invites readers to share in the traditions and rituals of Ppins most intimate circle.

This treasury of great food, lore, and memory is exquisitely illustrated with a sampling of Ppins paintings, as well as hundreds of color photographs of the finished dishes and of Ppin in all his natural habitatspitching boules with a group of friends, savoring a glass of chilled ros in the afternoon sun, painting landscapes, designing menus, and, of course, working in his kitchen.