Wednesday, December 19, 2007



THE FRENCH CAFÉ COOKBOOK
Simon Wright Godwit $100

I have long coveted this book, have almost bought it on several occasions at Unity Books, UBS Canterbury, Matakana Village Bookshop, Dear Reader and several other wonderful independent booksellers but never quite got around to forking out the hundred bucks.
Then last night at a family Christmas party, being held early because we are off to NYC on Thursday, my beautiful daughter gave me a copy. Helluva risk giving the old man a book for Christmas but she took that risk and now there is one very happy, totally spoilt dad !! Thank you darling.

This is a very special piece of publishing by Godwit, French folds for the cover, always a sign of great care and attention by the publisher, and the contents by the co-owner-chef of one of a handful of truly international-standard NZ restaurants, is also almost out of this world. Glorious photography by Charlie Smith of Wright’s exceptional dishes.
Wow, wow, wow !!

The recipes range from the very straightforward to the highly ambitious. As soon as we are back from holiday I'm going to attempt some of the more basic dishes and then on the first special occasion that comes along plan to book a table at The French Cafe to try the real thing.



This dish is Avocado, mango & coriander salsa, poached crayfish and crisp bread to be found on the double page spread pp 46 - 47. Yummy!
The photography in the book is of a much higher standard of course than I can achieve here on the blog but the pic will at least give you a feel for the sumptuous dishes





4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bookman Beattie you are such a bloody enthusiast for books, I nominate you as the NZ Book Trade Personality of the Year!

Anonymous said...

i'm with you Wally but I would prefer to see his honour called NZ Bookman of the Year.
This would be a most deserving reward for him because I know he spends many hours every day, totally unpaid, promoting books and sharing book news from around the world which keeps us booksellers informed and saves us hours of precious time through not having to do the resaerch ourselves.
Bookman Beattie we salute you and thank you from the bottom of our hearts. I see you are off to New York, I hope you have a wonderful white Christmas and find lots of good books to tell us about in some of those wonderful NY bookstores.
And by the way while I'm here I'll nominate The French Cafe Cookbook as the cookbook of the year. And next time I'm in Auckland I plan to make my first visit there for a meal, it is a clearly a fabulous restaurant.
Merry Christmas

Kebabette said...

Hear hear. Gosh that crayfish looks good, lucky I have a chocolate in my mouth or I'd be salivating all over the keyboard.

Merry Christmas and thanks for doing such sterling work

Anonymous said...

Obviously a wonderful book and I shall head into town tomorrow to check it out. Might save the problem I have for one last gift.
May I also add my thanks to you Bookman for your truly wonderful blog. Reading it makes my day. You are a hero, and a special person in our house.Thank you and Merry Christmas.