Cooking with Pomiane

by Edouard de Pomiane, Peggie Benton (Translator), Elizabeth David (Introduction)

First published in France in the 1930s, Cooking with Pomiane continues to inspire today's chefs with its inventive simplicity. Edouard de Pomiane turned classic French cuisine on its head, stripping away complicated sauces and arcane techniques to reveal the essence of pure, unadorned good cooking. A food scientist, he offers lucid explanations for why food behaves as it does. Read him and the cream in your gratin dauphinois will never separate, your pot au feu will never be stringy, and your choux pastry will puff to astonishing proportions. Pomiane's great accomplishment was to restore confidence to the cook, and joy to the kitchen. Cooking with Pomiane spills over with amusing stories and more than three hundred superb and streamlined recipes; it is as much a delight to read as it is to cook from. This Modern Library edition is published with an Introduction by the renowned food writer Elizabeth David.

Genres: Cooking, Food, Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Food Writing, France

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

As a dietician and a professor at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, Edouard de Pomiane acquired a profound knowledge of the nutritive and medical values of food, and of its history. He made a study of the chemistry of cooking and explained the reasons behind the methods, enabling his followers to understand just why certain ingredients behaved as they did, to avoid culinary mistakes, wherever humanly possible, and to put things right where, in spite of care, they had gone wrong. Yet his attitude was light-hearted, his delight in good food infectious, and his approach to cookery charmingly carefree.

Reviews

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is much, much more than a cook book, it is a delightful tale of cooking amidst the cookbook.

Edouard de Pomiane has produced one of those cook books that can be read for shear enjoyment apart from ever stepping foot in the kitchen, though his recipes are fabulous too.

He talks to you about being not just a good host or hostess but a good guest too, because that also requires skill and grace: "As soon as one is seated at table between fellow guests, one is torn by conflicting feelings- a desire to enjoy the meal to the full whilst respecting the claims of good manners, and a reluctance to ruin one's digestion." And, "Don't make a bloomer on arrival. If the house is luxurious, let your coat fall carelessly into the hands of a waiting servant, pull off your gloves and make your enteé. If the household is a modest on your hostess will greet you in the hall, which is much more cozy. In this case, have the courage to..."

de Pomiane takes the mystery out of cooking so that the actual cooking will not be a mystery and you can proceed with confidence even while not following a recipe exactly.

His recipes are very European: Choux Pastry Gnocchi, Tourte au Mouton, Platée de Pommes, Tarte Pâtissiere.

I just love his comments throughout, "When the first garden strawberries of the year make their timid appearance they are still small and terribly expensive. How is one to eat them? With cream and a trace of cognac or Maraschino? No, one must savor to the full the flavor of these first fruits of early summer. I like to sprinkle them with pure white sugar and add nothing else to distract from their own fresh fragrance."

It is clear to me why Ruth Reichl chose this book in her Modern Library Food series.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Pomiane" refers to the author, Edouard de Pomiane and this book was first published in France in the 1930s. It's a cookbook but it has enough narrative in it that it feels like a book with recipes. Pomiane got me in his introduction with "The Duties of a Host". He says that,
"...there are three kinds of guests: 1. Those one is fond of. 2. Those with whom one is obliged to mix. 3. Those whom one detests. For these three very different occasions one would prepare, respectfully, an excellent dinner, a banal meal, or nothing at all, since in the latter case one would buy something ready cooked."

The whole book is filled with humor and written with simplicity. It is part of the Modern Library Food Series with Ruth Reichl as editor, and has an introduction by Elizabeth David. I'll be adding this one to my personal collection.

[Justin Cormack · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite cookery books. Perhaps the favourite.

[Anne Haack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable to read his observations woven through his recipes, 100 years after the fact. I jotted a few down to try at home. His understanding of food made with love is heartwarming.

[Pippin · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE French cookbook, that taught your grandmother mayonnaise and prawn cocktail back when they were something rare and wonderful.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly charming.