Provence: The Beautiful Cookbook

by Richard Olney

The Beautiful Cookbook [Hardcover]

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, France, Travel, Food, Photography, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 24, 1993

About the author

Richard Olney was an American painter, cook, food writer, editor, and memoirist, best known for known for his books of French country cooking.

Olney lived in a house above the village of Solliès-Toucas in Provence, France, for most of his adult life, where he wrote many classic and influential cookbooks of French country cooking. He had first moved to France in 1951, to Paris, where he was close friends with (and painted many of) the American and English bohemian expatriate set, including James Baldwin, filmmaker Kenneth Anger, painter John Craxton, poet John Ashbery, and composer Ned Rorem.

He was also friends with Elizabeth David.

Reviews

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those of you who don't know about this series of books, they're really more combination cooking/travel/photography coffee table books than they are typical cookbooks; they're oversized and, thus, are rather cumbersome in the kitchen. The books are divided into sections by region, and each section includes writeups about the area and the local cuisine there, stunning photography and great recipes.

I'm honestly a bit weird in that I love reading cookbooks, but rarely try to make anything in them, so I haven't actually tried any of the recipes included here (though they look delicious). If you're hoping for a traditional cookbook on French or Provençal cuisine, you should probably look elsewhere, as the size and arrangement of this book will make it difficult to use practically in the kitchen. But if you're someone who loves travel writing, food and great photography, you won't be disappointed.

[Redsteve · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is only the second of the “BEAUTIFUL COOKBOOK” series that I’ve read (I still love my copy of THAILAND THE BEAUTIFUL COOKBOOK). These books include recipes along with regional foodways, and beautiful photographs of dishes, landscapes, and neighborhoods/markets. So basically, what you’re getting is a combination cookbook-coffee table book-collection of travel photographs. In some ways these books are like the CULINARIA series, but they are organized differently: although both series break down the countries into regions, CULINARIA groups the food by region and this series groups the dishes separately by type. Neither series is especially easy to handle while cooking; CULINARIA books are heavy as hell and, while the BEAUTIFUL series is slimmer (usually only about 250 pages each), their books are really tall (14” and almost as wide). So essentially your options in the kitchen are either wrangling a phone book or a art gallery catalog. Your choice. One advantage of the BEAUTFUL series over CULINARIA is that their recipes go into more detail, which is helpful for less experienced cooks. I did enjoy PROVENCE THE BEAUTIFUL COOKBOOK but I feel like the recipes are less “me” than the Thai ones. Many of the dishes are fairly simple and rely more on herbs than spices (and I DO like my spices). On the other hand, emphasis on fresh herbs, olives, garlic, anchovies, and olive oil are always close to my heart, so we’ll have to see how this goes when I make some of these dishes. 3.5 stars (possibly increase to four later).

[Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I joyfully stumbled on this book in a free little library in Boulder CO. Yes, it is cumbersome, but also easy to read because of its size. The photos are stunning and the writings on the regions of Provence (which you can easily ignore if preferred) are evocative and helpful should you decide to visit or even move there.
I love hauling this out of my cupboard and making a recipe here and there. The recipe ingredients are affordable, simple, healthy (save the heavy cream), and delicious. Tonight we are having the polenta dish. Two nights ago we had Bouillabaisse Borgne. The eggplant dishes are coming next.
In a this day of tech and online data overload, this beautiful book feels like grounding and a return to something tangible and sacred.

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is as much travelogue and coffee table book as cookbook, but it manages to be quite useful. Linny and I have been cooking out of it for quite a while, and we come back to it despite it's massive size that frustrates our kitchen bookshelf.

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

beautiful, but not practical for everyday use unless you have lots of money and time. Does have a handy glossary and lots of french words. uh la la.