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Dinner in French: My Recipes by Way of France: A Cookbook Kindle Edition

by Melissa Clark (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.7 1,102 ratings

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The beloved author of Dinner in an Instant breaks down the new French classics with 150 recipes that reflect a modern yet distinctly French sensibility.

“Melissa Clark’s contemporary eye is just what the chef ordered. Her recipes are traditional yet fresh, her writing is informative yet playful, and the whole package is achingly chic.”—Yotam Ottolenghi

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • Delish • Library Journal

Just as Julia Child brought French cooking to twentieth-century America, so now Melissa Clark brings French cooking into the twenty-first century. She first fell in love with France and French food as a child; her parents spent their August vacations traversing the country in search of the best meals with Melissa and her sister in tow. Near to her heart, France is where Melissa's family learned to cook and eat. And as her own culinary identity blossomed, so too did her understanding of why French food is beloved by Americans.

Now, as one of the nation's favorite cookbook authors and food writers, Melissa updates classic French techniques and dishes to reflect how we cook, shop, and eat today. With recipes such as Salade Nicoise with Haricot Vert, Cornmeal and Harissa Soufflé, Scalloped Potato Gratin, Lamb Shank Cassoulet, Ratatouille Sheet-Pan Chicken, Campari Olive Oil Cake, and Apricot Tarte Tatin (to name a few), Dinner in French will quickly become a go-to resource and endure as an indispensable classic.

From the Publisher

Melissa Clark, french gifts, gifts for cooks, entertaining, paris cookbook, cooking gifts for women


Artichokes with Feta-Dill Dressing	Duck Fat-Roasted Potatoes with Anchovy Salsa Verde and Mayonnaise	Seared Steaks with Basil Béarnaise


French Baked Eggs with Smoked Salmon and Tarragon Cream	Lillett Fondue	Meyer Lemon Tart with Olive Oil and Fleur de Sel

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Dinner in French is an invitation to travel with Melissa to the country she knows well and loves deeply, and to cook with your heart. Her recipes toggle between high and homey—I love when she says she adds ‘a dose of Brooklyn moxie’ to France’s ‘buttery haute cuisine.’ But what I love most is what you get from this mix: Food you’ll want to cook and share all the time, anywhere you are.”—Dorie Greenspan

“Oozing with charm, enthusiasm, and deep-rooted expertise as only she has, Dinner in French may just be my favorite Melissa Clark cookbook of all! Her palpable adoration for French cooking and the intuitive way she adapts it to her Brooklyn life make each recipe more approachable and alluring than the next. No need for a plane ticket to France when you can get in the kitchen with Melissa and savor all of this glorious food! Vive la cuisine!”—Gail Simmons

“Dinner in French is a joy-filled love letter to France and a portrait of what it can do for a fledgling cook. Melissa Clark is never sentimental, though—her love is the result of a profound understanding of the French way with food, and a curious intelligence. There are classic recipes here but also plenty I was unaware of, and Melissa brings her own touches to many dishes. You’ll want to book a flight to Paris or Marseille, or at least spend a weekend in a pool of sunlight, reading every word. Moving as well as inspiring.”—Diana Henry

“If you have ever dreamed of spending a summer eating/cooking in France, Dinner in French is as close as you can get without traveling there. Every recipe brings French cooking alive.”—Tom Colicchio

“Dinner in French could also be called the dinner that you want to eat tonight, this Saturday, and this Sunday, and actually every week and every season. Clark has an uncanny facility to translate complex dishes into their straightforward essentials, and with enough hunger and longing that, like a spell, she makes you want to make them. The cookbook is so appealing it will drive you a little crazy.”—Bill Buford

“A superb addition to [Clark’s] cookbook repertoire. Whether they are classic French staples, such as Niçoise salad and scalloped potato gratin, or inspired twists on the classics, such as wine-braised chicken with orange and olives or crème fraîche caramels, each recipe is a hit. . . . Clark also provides dozens of helpful make-ahead tips. . . . Equally inviting are her introductions to each recipe, which are filled with fun anecdotes (“It took a long time for me to agree to taste a snail”) and even more helpful tips (“If tarragon isn’t your favorite herb, you can use chives”). This remarkable volume will entice avid home cooks to return to it time and again.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“The French canon, but make it Brooklyn. Dinner in French is the invigorating, mouthwatering best of two worlds that Melissa Clark brings together like no one else. I can’t wait to start cooking.”—Lauren Collins

“Whether you're craving bistro fare or a trip to Paris, you will love this joyful panoply of modern French recipes. Dinner in French reinvents the classics with Melissa Clark’s signature sparkle, clever cooking techniques, and fresh flavors. Finally, the secrets behind simple, spectacular, seasonal French home cooking are available to all of us every day.”—Ann Mah

About the Author

Melissa Clark is the author of Dinner, Dinner in an Instant, and Comfort in an Instant and is a staff writer for the New York Times Food section, where she writes their wildly popular food column, “A Good Appetite.” The winner of multiple James Beard and IACP awards, Melissa is the host of the “Weeknight Kitchen” podcast on The Splendid Table. Melissa earned an MFA in writing from Columbia, and her work has been selected for the Best American Food Writing. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

I can’t really speak French, but I cook in French. For years, I studied conjugations and the passé simple, practiced pronouncing yaourt and grenouille, but try as I might I just couldn’t seem to master it beyond the essentials like “deux pains au chocolat, s’il vous plaît.”

In the kitchen, however, I am fluent. The fistfuls of garlic and thyme, the pebbly feel of grey sel marin de Guérande between my fingers, and the lushness of an emulsifying sauce are now so ingrained, I can cook in French without thinking. The ethereal creaminess of a soufflé, the anchovy funk of a pissalardière, the caramelized depth of boeuf Bourguignon are as deeply part of me as the bagels and lox we ate in Brooklyn every Sunday.

That merging of classic French cuisine and the food I grew up eating in Brooklyn is the foundation of how I approach cooking—and the raison d’étre of this book. To me, the cuisines are not two distinct things, but seamlessly intertwined into a glorious whole, because I learned about them at the same time. Yes, we waited in line for Di Fara’s pizza, Lundy’s clams, and chicken feet and tripe at our favorite dim sum palace. And we also spent countless weekends fussing over Julia Child’s terrines and Jacques Pépin’s coq au vin, which my mother might slather on leftover challah, and my dad might spike with soy sauce (sorry, Jacques). It wasn’t irreverence so much as an intense culinary curiosity, a playful exploration of the delicious. All of these influences are so essential to the way I think about food that they’re the touchstones of every recipe I create. I might start by asking myself, would adding chicken schmaltz to ratatouille be a good thing? The full answer is on page 176. The short answer is: Yes!

None of this would have happened if my Great-Aunt Martha and Uncle Jack hadn’t dragged my parents on their first trip to Europe—seven countries in twenty-five days—after medical school in 1960. My dad, whose ideal vacation up until then was fishing in the Catskills, didn’t want to go. But they went and fell hard for France, getting hooked on escargot, extra crispy frites, and the high culture of Monet-filled museums and Gothic cathedrals, all so astoundingly ancient and different from the Yeshiva-centric Brooklyn they grew up in. My parents went back every year, first by themselves, then with my sister and me in tow.

The planning began in January. At first my parents rented houses. But at some point they started house exchanging to economize. Less money spent on lodging meant more on the Michelin-starred meals my parents mapped into their own stellar universe. The year began with the arrival of a thick catalog in the mail: HomeAway, bursting with options. We swapped our old wood-framed Victorian in Flatbush for stone-walled farmhouses in Burgundy, cabins in the Dordogne, stucco split-levels near Nîmes. It was the 1980s, and it was still the custom for a psychiatrist to take off the entire month of August.

This was back before the internet, back before cell phones, even before fax machines. My parents typed letters on blue onionskin paper, then sent them via airmail. There was no way to look up references and no background checks from the HomeAway company. We packed our valuables into a locked closet, printed out instructions for the care of the cats, and caught a cheap charter flight to Paris, hoping for the best. It always worked out, though some years better than others. There were the lifelong friends we made with the people whose homes we exchanged for ours, like the Lamontagnes, gourmets to the core, whose pantry filled with jars of homemade quince jam and pork rillettes was rival to our own.

On the other end of the spectrum were the shady characters who used our Brooklyn house and Volkswagen Rabbit while we got their marbleclad apartment in Nice, their white Mercedes convertible, and their National Front pamphlets next to a loaded gun in their bedside table. We came home to find the odometer of the car disconnected, the wineglasses broken, and the cat gone. We never did figure out what happened, but always wondered if the mezuzahs on our doors sparked the sabotage.

Meanwhile, behind all the closed doors of our house exchanges, my mother, an incorrigible snoop, opened high cupboards and poked around closets, hoping for menorahs, seder plates, yarmulkes—looking for a clue, any indication of kindred spirits. Sometimes a bookshelf revealed a volume of translated Philip Roth or Saul Bellow, which led to speculation and a little spark.

Our true connection to the French was through our mutual obsession with the food—learning about it, exploring it, and preparing lavish feasts with it. When we weren’t cooking, we were planning the next meal, chasing the daily markets from small town to even smaller town, reveling in the figs, the sausages, the incredible cheeses we couldn’t get at home.

We also went to fancy restaurants. It was my dad’s quest to eat in every Michelin-starred restaurant in France, and he came pretty close, despite getting lost along the way. Pre-GPS, losing our way on tiny country roads was just a normal part of the journey to a meal. When my kindergarten teacher asked me what I did with my parents every August in France, I said, “First we get lost, then we have lunch.”

That cute reply was the original title for this book. But as I cooked and wrote down my recipes, I realized that I wasn’t lost anymore. I knew where I was going with every recipe. They’re quirky and personal, streamlined and practical, seasoned with a dose of Brooklyn moxie to augment all that buttery haute cuisine. Yes, there are times I might meander down a seemingly dead end of harissa gougères only to end up with a buoyant soufflé (page 34). I always find my way because, really, I’m not going very far. It’s all right there, rooted in my New York–Jewish–Francophile DNA. And my cooking ends up playfully and unmistakably French. At our house, the conversation might be in English, but dinner’s in French.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07T3XGTTZ
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Clarkson Potter (March 10, 2020)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 10, 2020
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 439137 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 331 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #285,241 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #17 in Provence Travel Guides
- #41 in Gourmet Cooking (Kindle Store)
- #57 in French Cooking

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4.7 1,102 ratings

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Melissa Clark

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Food writer and cookbook author Melissa Clark is staff reporter for the New York Times Food section, where she writes the popular column “A Good Appetite” and appears in a weekly cooking video series.

Melissa has written 42 cookbooks, including her latest, Dinner: Changing the Game, published by Clarkson Potter. Other books include collaborations with some of New York City’s most celebrated chefs, including Daniel Boulud (Braise), David Bouley (East of Paris), Andrew Feinberg (Franny’s), Claudia Fleming (The Last Course), Bruce and Eric Bromberg (Blue Ribbon Cookbook), and former White House pastry chef Bill Yosses (The Perfect Finish).

Her work has been honored with awards by the James Beard Foundation and IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals), and has been selected for the Best Food Writing series. Melissa is a regular guest on the Today show and Rachael Ray. She has also been a judge on Iron Chef America. She’s been a frequent guest host on the NPR radio show The Splendid Table and is a regular guest on The Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Melissa lives there with her husband and daughter. She loves anchovies, radishes, chicken feet, and lox but not in that order.

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Curious Epicure

Melissa Clark does France, and it's wonderful

Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2023

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I bought this book after going to no less than three parties/dinners where an asparagus and goat cheese tart was the most talked about dish on the table. Every single time, the host or hostess cited Melissa Clark as the source of the recipe. It's not only delicious, but easy! And it turns out that the rest of the book largely follows suit.

Sure, there are always going to be those who turn up their noses at frozen puff pastry (sacre bleu!), and a soufflé of cornmeal and harissa (ooh la la!) and the fact that Clark is not French (mon dieu!) even though she has spent more time there than most, but to do that is to miss some really wonderful food.

Yes, there are some bona fide French classics - "Classic Brandade" being an incredibly delicious one, and the Pissaladiere, a yummy tart-type thing with anchovies, onions and Niçoise olives (I made it with the alt puff pastry and it was great) for another - but where this book shines is that it takes French recipes to new, and often easier, heights. After all, the book is subtitled "My Recipes by Way of France" for a reason.

I have also made:
Croques Monsieur Casserole for a pot-luck brunch and it was demolished in no time
Savory Gruyere Bread with ham - super easy and really good
Vegetable Soup au Pistou - a great version
Gazpacho by Way of Provence - my new favorite version of gazpacho
Sautéed Cabbage with Gruyere and Jalapeños - I could have eaten the whole of it myself

There are so many more on my list to try, especially the Olive Oil Campari Cake in the very appealing Dessert section.

I love what I have made so far and continue to believe that Melissa Clark is where I will most often turn went I want a foolproof meal. Her Dinner in One book has been an outlier for me, but every other book has recipes that hit it out of the park like no other.

I bought this after I had Ina Garten's Paris book and I thought "Do I really need another French-ish cookbook?" The answer is "Yes, yes, I absolutely do," with zero regrets.

Highly recommend this book!

12 people found this helpful

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Mary C.

The torch that passed from Julia to Patricia and Dorie is now Melissa’s

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2020

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With this magnificent cookbook, esteemed New York Times food writer and cookbook author Melissa Clark carries on the storied traditions of Julia Child, Patricia Wells, and Dorie Greenspan, all of whom came to love to live and cook in France and, back in America, became (and, for Patricia and Dorie, still are) icons of “French dinners” in America. I love the book!

In her childhood, Ms. Clark and her family spent a month every summer in France, creating her lifelong love of French food and of France. The book is beautifully photographed, and almost every recipe has a rustic color photo. The headnotes are inviting and tell us how a dish is traditionally served in France, suggestions for serving the author’s version, some family recollections, or perhaps also valuable tips and techniques.

Every recipe has a much-appreciated “Thinking Ahead” paragraph. The author is a working Mom: she tells us what we can make ahead and exactly how to do it. For example, “Twice-Baked Cheese Soufflés:” make them the day before and bake for brunch “even when you’re not fully caffeinated.” Most of the recipes are straightforward and could work for a weeknight supper. If “for a special dinner,” the author warns us. For example, “Fish and Mussel Soup with Rouille.” I thank the editors for permitting the author to take 3 pages + 1 photo page so that we may understand precisely how the author hopes that we’ll see and smell and taste her dish! The same is true of several other dishes. Thank you!

Ingredients are very accessible. If I, with my itty-bitty grocery store in the inland middle of nowhere, can easily obtain the vast majority of ingredients, so can you. For me, the possible exceptions would be only fresh cherries, frisée, and some cheeses. However, substitutions (for example, olive oil may be substituted for duck fat) are frequently suggested, and usually where most needed. And, although my access to reasonably-fresh seafood is limited, I can probably get almost everything (not sure about mussels and calamari, and no rainbow trout for me) at one time or another. This is not a criticism: this is a French cookbook, so, of course it has mouth-watering dishes made with fresh seafood. I’m actually astonished that almost all of the seafood is so accessible even to me. For some meats such as duck, oxtail, and marrowbones, I think some readers would appreciate knowing whether frozen will do. However, I counted only 4 recipes using those ingredients, so I’m not missing out.

What a magnificent cookbook. Such a worthy addition to my collection of beloved cookbooks from Julia, Patricia, and Dorie!

134 people found this helpful

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reb

We made Pork Loin with Crackling Skin. It was delicious!

Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2024

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My daughter (age 17), who loves cooking decided to make Pork Loin with Crackling Skin from the cookbook "Dinner in French: My Recipes By Way of France" by Melissa Clark. It turned out great! We're looking forward to cooking our way through the book.

One person found this helpful

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setsuo fukuma

newest french cook book

Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2022

Verified Purchase

All of my french cooking recipe book is old. This is newest with picture.
Size of book is ideal, easy to use. Always open at seeing page.
It is difficult to find history of publication.

3 people found this helpful

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CLM

Beautiful but multiple fresh herbs needed per recipe

Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2023

Verified Purchase

I got this as a gift and it is a beautiful cookbook! My only issue is that there are multiple fresh herbs called for in every recipe. I personally wouldn’t make any of them due to that. That said, I’m keeping it since it is a really gorgeous cookbook and will make for a nice gift.

One person found this helpful

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CC

Very easy to follow the recipe. A good colorful cookbook

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2024

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Very easy to follow the recipe. Very good recipe. Great guide with colorful pictures. To me it looks like an American-French cookbook.

One person found this helpful

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PMH

Dinner in French Cookbook

Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2024

Verified Purchase

This is a great cookbook with doable recipes. Pictures of the dishes are also very nicely presented. It makes a perfect gift for those who like to try their hand at French cooking or simply collect cookbooks.

One person found this helpful

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Jerilynn Visocky

Oui oui

Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2024

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My son loves to cook and he is enjoying these recipes.

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Top reviews from other countries

T. Lapointe

Absolutely love this book.

Reviewed in Canada on July 28, 2023

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This is my go to book. Everything we’ve tried is excellent. Highly recommend.

ES

Fantastic book - well written, tested and all delish!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 18, 2020

Verified Purchase

I absolutely love this book. I have now tried around 10-15 of the recipes and they have all been great. I love that for each recipe there is a bit explaining which bits you can make beforehand which is great for when you are entertaining. I couldn’t recommend it more highly.

2 people found this helpful

Erika Y

Great cookbook

Reviewed in Canada on February 17, 2021

Verified Purchase

Gave this as a gift, has so many amazing recipes! Might buy one for myself! Only complaint would be that the bottom of the spine was a bit warped (probably due to shipping) when it arrived. Otherwise it arrived on time.

2 people found this helpful

Liza Debevec

Great recipes, easy to follow, and tasty results

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 19, 2021

Verified Purchase

What a lovely cook book, fully of great recipes, simple enough for an intermediary cook, nice ingredients, helpful instructions all very clear. I have cooked several recipes so far and hope to do many more

Yvonne McCoach

Fabulous good!

Reviewed in Canada on August 8, 2020

Verified Purchase

The recipes are great but I love the stories about her experiences in France. It’s worth reading just for that!

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From the Publisher

Artichokes with Feta-Dill Dressing

Duck Fat-Roasted Potatoes with Anchovy Salsa Verde and Mayonnaise

Seared Steaks with Basil Béarnaise

French Baked Eggs with Smoked Salmon and Tarragon Cream

Lillett Fondue

Meyer Lemon Tart with Olive Oil and Fleur de Sel

Editorial Reviews

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About the Author

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

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Melissa Clark

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