French Cook

Soufflés are light and airy, flavored baked dishes with a creamy texture. Greg Patent has been baking them for decades. Through soufflé basics, a lesson on beating egg whites, and a review of sauce bases, Patent develops the home cook's skills and confidence in creating a wide array of hot and cold, savory and sweet, molded and unmolded show-off dishes following basic French culinary techniques. Savory recipes include Leek and Pancetta, Fennel, Salmon and cheese soufflés. Sweet recipes begin with some classic hot renditions of Chocolate, Vanilla Bean, Fresh Strawberry, and Grand Marnier Soufflé, then move into scrumptious cold recipes of Passion Fruit, Ste. Germaine Lime, Almond and Praline Soufflé Floating Islands!

The second book in The French Cook series, following The French Cook: Sauces, classically French trained author Holly Herrick dips into the marvelously versatile world of choux pastry, or pâte à choux. The buttery, nutty, even-flavor of this dough invites myriad flavors, in both sweet and savory categories and in many shapes - cream puffs, éclairs, rings, and more. Whether it be a savory petit éclair filled with an avocado mousse layered with bacon and tomatoes, choux "gnocchi" with a buttered herb sauce, three cheese gougères with black pepper, a sweet Dreamsicle orange cream puff with a dark chocolate sauce, a salted caramel macadamia ice cream filled profiterole with a warm caramel sauce, an Almond Joy cream puff, or a hot-from-the-fryer beignet with a cool, fresh raspberry sauce, taste delights are found all along the way. Holly also provides tips and recipes for assembling classic cream puff cakes such as the croquembouche and Gâteau St. Honoré. Holly dedicates the front of the book to the art of demystifying the "puff," making choux pastry an easy and accessible medium for every cook, novice, professional or anyone in-between. There is a chapter on sweet sauces to go along with the sweet cream puffs and éclairs and expert tips on piping, baking and garnishing these uniquely French delights.

Master the art of classic French sauces. The French Cook: Sauces is the first in a series of French cookbooks that will simplify and demystify French cuisine for all of those who love it and would like to bring it home to their American kitchens without traveling outside their homes. In her latest book, Holly Herrick creates a kind of French cooking course all about sauces, filled with beautiful how-to photography and step-by-step technqiques that will have you making sauces like a pro. The book focuses on the five mother sauces of French cuisine: béchamel, veloutés, hollandaise, espagnol and brown sauces, and les sauces tomates. In addition, Herrick devotes chapters to fonds, or stocks, the base of so many sauces, and mayonnaises, a simple, versatile sauce so widely used in classical French cuisine. In addition to the sauces, the book integrates main course ingredients, such as steak or roasted chicken, something more than to be dressed with a sauce, but also something that helped to shape the sauce itself. With myriad variations and derivatives on each basic sauce, this book will help turn your next meal into a veritable French feast. Holly Herrick is a graduate of Boston College and recipient of Le Grande Diplome in Cuisine and Pastry from Le Cordon Bleu, Paris, France. A long-time resident of Charleston South Carolina and multi-awarded restaurant critic and food writer, she is the author of five cookbooks, including Southern Farmers Market Cookbook, The Charleston Chef's Table Cookbook, Tart Love -Sassy, Savory and Sweet, and The Food Lovers' Guide to Charleston and Savannah. Look for the second installment of this new French cookbook series, The French Cook: Cream Puffs and Eclairs in Fall, 2013 (Gibbs Smith).

Holly Herrick loves France and French cooking. And in this cookbook ( her third in The French Cook series), she jumps into bowl after bowl of glorious French soups with inspired abandon and a generous dose of classical technique. Le Cordon Bleu trained chef and former resident of France focuses on the nuances and techniques for expertly layered flavors. Beginning with stocks, she continues with cold soups, classic soups and stews, creamy soups, and consommes in ensuing chapters, each one as delicious as the next. Similar to sauces (Herrick also penned The French Cook: Sauces), soups are the ideal conduit for creating maximum texture and flavor. Only, with soups and stews, the cooking canvas is much broader and there is a precise yet playful emphasis on presentation and garnishes. Whether a sumptuous French Onion Soup topped with croutons and bubbling Gruyere, or a riff on a classic sauce in the creamy, velvety Soup Soubise topped with fried shallots, all you need to know about making perfect French soups is neatly tucked between 128 beautiful pages.