Apéritif: Cocktail Hour the French Way: A Recipe Book

by Rebekah Peppler

JAMES BEARD AWARD FINALIST • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY FOOD NETWORKGrab a light drink and a bite, and enjoy cocktail hour, the French way.For the French, the fleeting interlude between a long workday and the evening meal to come is not meant to be hectic or crazed. Instead, that time is a much needed chance to pause, take a breath, and reset with light drinks and snacks. Whether it's a quick affair before dashing out the door to your favorite Parisian bistro or a lead-up to a more lavish party, Apéritif is about kicking off the night, rousing the appetite, and doing so with the carefree spirit of connection and conviviality. Apéritif celebrates that easygoing lifestyle with simple yet stylish recipes for both classic and modern French apéritif-style cocktails, along with French-inspired bites and hors d'oeuvres. Keeping true to the apéritif tradition, you'll find cocktail recipes that use lighter, low-alcohol spirits, fortified wines, and bitter liqueurs. The impressive drinks have influences from both Old World and New, but are always low fuss and served barely embellished—an easy feat to pull off for the relaxed host at home. Apéritif also offers recipes for equally breezy bites, such as Radishes with Poppy Butter, Gougères, Ratatouille Dip, and Buckwheat-Sel Gris Crackers. For evenings that are all about ease and approachability without sacrificing style or flavor, Apéritif makes drinking and entertaining at home as effortless, fun, and effervescent as the offerings themselves Praise for Apéritif“With a dram of humor, Ms. Peppler provides a primer with the history and uses of various apéritifs.”—The New York Times, “19 Best Cookbooks of Fall 2018” “With witty and honest prose and stunning photography, this book is one to keep out on the coffee table (or bar cart).”—Food & Wine, “Best Cocktail Books of Fall 2018”“Step aside, Italian aperitivo. This book moves over into the equally stylish and luxurious territory of the French cocktail hour, providing recipes for classic and contemporary before-dinner French cocktails, along with light bites.”—Epicurious

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cocktails, Food and Drink, Cooking

224 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 16, 2018

About the author

REBEKAH PEPPLER is a Paris and Los Angeles-based food writer, stylist, and author. She is the author of the James Beard Award–nominated Apéritif: Cocktail Hour the French Way and Honey, a Short Stack Edition. She is a regular contributor to the New York Times. Her recipes and food writing appear widely, including in the Vanity Fair, Bon Appétit, Real Simple, Food Network, and more. When she’s not working, you can find Rebekah cooking, eating, and drinking with friends in the 18th arrondissement.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

A cocktail book that is more interested with assaulting the reader with political commentary and social virtue-signaling than promoting drinks. The author and editor are apparently more bitter than most of the liqueurs mentioned as ingredients.
To highlight just a few of the unwanted and unneeded opinions shared:
Immigrants (Yay)
White Immigrants (Boo)
Spectrums (Yay)
Straight Men (Boo)
If that's what you want in a cookbook, read away.
If like most you don't then mix a drink, just not from this author or publisher.

[Stuart · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a sucker for the modern cocktail book. They are gorgeous, they are well-designed, they typically discuss at great lengths the arcana of various ingredients and techniques (I love arcana) and they give you an insight into the lifestyle of whatever bartender actually sat down to write the thing. Modern cocktail books fall on a spectrum from the technical manifesto (Death and Co., Liquid Intelligence, Ryan Chetiyawardana) to the "we gave this instagram-friendly content producer a book deal and a travel budget" (Spritz, Amaro).

Part travelogue, part overgrown lifestyle blog, part coming-out affirmation, Apéritif represents the far end of the "hashtag book deal" modern cocktail book spectrum. Not that it's bad, Ms. Peppler is an extraordinary photographer and her systematic breakdown of vermouths at the beginning of the book is by itself worth the price of admission.

However, the book feels very try hard, very "Ooh I'm queer AND in Paris." Imagine how great this work could be is the author had gotten all that done back in college and had a decade to mature into it before writing a thoughtful book on the use of food and drink as a pivot between work and leisure in French culture. Apéritif is, sadly, not that book.

[Doris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't much care for the first part: she frequently invents cocktails with no respect to putatively French origins. In addition, many of the ingredients are not available to me, since I live in Turkey. (I can't even get sherry, forget about suze or Lillet.) Admittedly, that's my own problem, but I was expecting a slightly more accessible collection.

I liked the second part, about the nibblies and other food to accompany cocktails. I expect to try a few of them.

[Pixie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of cocktail recipes, divided by seasons, and some nibbles recipes. The first section, introducing the booze you might need for the recipes, could be better organized. Is this actually "cocktail hour the French way"? I can't tell from this book, which is almost all recipes, but probably not so much. But I did find two other books also titled Aperitif (reviews to come), so no prob.

[Jordan Hovis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise, informative, with simple recipes easily followed. I highly recommend mixing up an Expat Americano. I enjoyed the introductory section highlighting key ingredients for an audience likely unfamiliar with Lillet and other fortified wines.

[Arseniev · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had this book for a while and genuinely liked it, along with many recipes from it; however I just found this in the acknowledgment section, “ the images included in this book exist in a world there are no cis straight white men” Screw you, Rebekah. Not sure why it was needed. We got it you are a queer lady, whatever, it’s your life, but your hostility against straight and especially white men ( why specifically mention a race), anyway, go f..k yourself

[(a)lyss(a) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gives an overview of French drinks and how to make them.

It's broken down by weather/drink type (i.e. hot or cold) with a few food recipes at the end. There are some nice photos too. The book is nice but doesn't have anything an online search wouldn't turn up.

[Jamie]

Cute little book with some charming anecdotes and classic and modern recipes.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely book

[Lisa]

Scanned. Several interesting ideas, but more suited to spring, summer and fall drinks. Also, uses core items we don't own: red and white verjus, lillet, etc.