Provence: The Cookbook: Recipes from the French Mediterranean

by Caroline Rimbert Craig, Susan Bell (Photographer)

Overview

Provence is the fruit and vegetable garden of France, where much of its most beautiful produce is grown. These ingredients, combined with Provence’s unique identity, position, and history have resulted in a cuisine full of heart, balance, and soul—a cuisine that showcases its peoples’ reverence for the produce, the changing seasons, and the land.
Caroline Rimbert Craig’s maternal family comes from the southern foothills of Mont Ventoux, where the sun beats hard and dry, but aromatic herbs, vines, and fruit trees prosper. This is her guide to cooking the Provençal way, for those who want to eat simply but well, who love to cook dishes that rhyme with the seasons, and who want to recreate the flavors of the Mediterranean at home, wherever that may be.
With stunning color photographs to accompany the recipes, the book is also interspersed with shots of Provence’s beautiful landscapes, reflecting the region’s rich culinary culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623717889
Publisher:	Interlink Publishing Group, Incorporated
Publication date:	04/04/2023
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	508,078
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Caroline Rimbert Craig hails from generations of fruit farmers in Provence, where her great grandfather co-founded the wine cooperative in her family’s native village, Mormoiron. She was educated at the French Lycée in London and studied anthropology at university. She has an instinctive approach to Provençal ingredients and flavors, inherited from her French family. Caroline is co-author of The Little Book of Lunch, The Cornershop Cookbook, and The Little Book of Brunch. She writes the lunchbox column for the Guardian newspaper with Sophie Missing.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. The Provençal Larder
2. Spring
3. Summer
4. Autumn
5. Winter
6. Christmas

Editorial Reviews

"This charming cookbook shares recipes from generations of one family and explores the customs and dishes of the French Mediterranean ' In Provence, Caroline Rimbert Craig's first solo cookbook, she plumbs her own family history in the French Mediterranean, showcasing the food and flavors of Provençal cooking. Beyond offering a collection of recipes, Craig weaves together the history of Provence's landscape, kitchen staples and stories from her generations of family who have foraged, gardened and cooked thereall accompanied by charming photographs of food and the Provence countryside taken by Susan Bell."

"If you love French food and France, this book deserves a place on your kitchen counter but would be equally at home on your coffee table or even your bedside table as a book that will whisk you away to Provence with the turn of a page. A lovely read with classic Provençal recipes and stories."

"Forget the elaborate preparations so often associated with French cuisine. Provence native Craig shows how the simple love of olive oil and garlic, infused in ingredients like eggplant and tomatoes, reduces time in the kitchen to a half hour or less ' Color photographs of the south of France, by themselves, beckon; coupled with the 100-plus recipes and Craig's memorable family stories this collective will rank among reader favorites."

From the Publisher

03/01/2023

Craig (The Little Book of Brunch) explores her family's history and the cuisine of the beautiful Southern France region of Provence in her first solo cookbook, previously released in the UK. Simple and fresh ingredients drive the seasonal layout and inform the chapters. Those who have visited will recognize the warmth in the environmental photography and unique French Mediterranean setting and ingredients. Newcomers will delight in the charming family stories and lore that are sprinkled throughout as they uncover the history of the local fare. Some authentic ingredients may require seeking out a specialty shop for readers in the States, but there are plenty of delicious recipes that are easy enough to accomplish with a trip to the farmer's market. Caroline shares a wealth of additional knowledge—including Christmas menus and customs, along with how to ferment red-wine vinegar—that will interest a variety of home chefs. VERDICT A charming and beautiful reflection on days gone by and the food history of a family and a region; will be appreciated by readers looking for the warmth of the French Mediterranean sun on the library shelf.—Sarah Tansley

Library Journal

09/02/2019

Craig (coauthor, The Little Book of Lunch), who descended from generations of farmers in Provence, arranges time-tested Provençal standards by season in this unfussy cookbook. Nothing nouvelle here: recipes include sandwiches of roast chicken and mayonnaise on baguette, green beans tossed in garlic butter, and tapenade made with a mortar and pestle. “Pizzas,” created by arranging tomato sauce and mozzarella on sliced day-old baguettes and baking them, are as out-of-the-box as the proceedings get. The author’s prose is often elegiac: one mini-essay describes the thrifty practice of eating broth followed by a second course of the vegetables used to make it, and a breakdown of the intense work behind a grape harvest strongly sets the mood. Recipes for dishes such as ratatouille and chicken liver pâté are sensible and detailed, as are those for everyday sweets, such as the simple yogurt cake used to teach millions of French children to bake. This languidly paced book culminates in menus for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, along with an overview of the ritual of arranging a display of 13 sweets (representing the 12 apostles and Jesus) including nougat, a sweet, orange blossom–flavored bread, and quince cheese. This is a pleasant, albeit familiar, paean to tradition. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"Forget the elaborate preparations so often associated with French cuisine. Provence native Craig shows how the simple love of olive oil and garlic, infused in ingredients like eggplant and tomatoes, reduces time in the kitchen to a half hour or less ' Color photographs of the south of France, by themselves, beckon; coupled with the 100-plus recipes and Craig's memorable family stories this collective will rank among reader favorites."

Booklist

"This charming cookbook shares recipes from generations of one family and explores the customs and dishes of the French Mediterranean ' In Provence, Caroline Rimbert Craig's first solo cookbook, she plumbs her own family history in the French Mediterranean, showcasing the food and flavors of Provençal cooking. Beyond offering a collection of recipes, Craig weaves together the history of Provence's landscape, kitchen staples and stories from her generations of family who have foraged, gardened and cooked thereall accompanied by charming photographs of food and the Provence countryside taken by Susan Bell."

Shelf Awareness

"If you love French food and France, this book deserves a place on your kitchen counter but would be equally at home on your coffee table or even your bedside table as a book that will whisk you away to Provence with the turn of a page. A lovely read with classic Provençal recipes and stories."

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