Customer Reviews:
 Great book March 17, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I will start by saying I have only given this book 4 stars due to the fact that I have given its bigger brother, The French Laundry cookbook, 5 stars. In my opinion TFL is a better cookbook for those, like me, who like intricate dishes. Having said that, Bouchon can be just as intricate with some dishes, and the result just as pleasing.
Thomas Keller's style comes through in this cookbook, much like TFL, and I agree with the previous reviewer that you will probably come back to this cook book more often than TFL. The book is well laid out, has fantastic photographs for nearly all the dishes on offer, and offers some invaluable tips on how to get the best from certain dishes or certain techniques.
My recommendation is to get the combo French Laundry and Bouchon cookbooks as a package (Available on Amazon) as the resulting cost for both is just marginally more expensive than the cost of a single book... two birds with one stone and all that.
Well worth it.
 Way more practical than its more glamorous sibling March 20, 2006
49 out of 51 found this review helpful
I only collect cookbooks that I want to use, and after leafing through Thomas Keller's French Laundry Cookbook I decided that, for all its glamour and fantastic imagination, it was no use to me, because I just can't afford to cook with things like lobster and foie gras. I spent my money on this instead, the cookbook for his relatively budget-priced brasserie Bouchon, and I haven't regretted it for a second. This is a big, fat, heavy, beautifully presented book about Keller's take on classic brasserie cuisine; essentially, it's the rich first cousin to Anthony Bourdain's equally swaggering Les Halles Cookbook. Keller is less gung-ho than Bourdain, and I could wish that somebody had seen fit to translate the recipe quantities from American into English (I hate juggling with "cups" of things), but these recipes work. My favourite so far is the inspired rethinking of the good old pig's trotter. 'Pieds de cochon aux sauce gribiche' may sound pretentious, and it takes at least two days to prepare, but every time I've served it to anyone, the same thing happens. At first they look dubious at the idea of eating pig's trotter. Then they taste it, their eyes roll back in their heads, and they start to make noises normally associated with films that have the word "ass", "slut" or "forbidden" in the title.The book is splendidly produced and relatively stainproof, which is essential when you're juggling with all that reduced stock and melted butter (this is not diet food, unless you still believe in Atkins). The French Laundry Cookbook may be the one to have if you want to show off, but you won't cook out of it very often. This is the one you'll come back to over and over again.
Beautiful Book May 17, 2005
11 out of 23 found this review helpful
I received this wonderful cookbook last week and already tried several recipes, there are wonderfull. The recipes are well written and easy to follow.
It's a Wonderful and fun book, A must have in your cookbook collection. I also bought Simple and Simply Delicious by Sylvie Rocher who also has many french recipes, with those 2 books I'm going to be the master of french cuisine :)
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