Patricia Wells at Home in Provence: Recipes Inspired By Her Farmhouse In France

by Patricia Wells, Robert Freson (Photographer)

For the past fifteen years, Patricia Wells has been carrying on a love affair with a region of France, a centuries-old farmhouse, and a cuisine. Provence is uniquely blessed with natural beauty as well as some of the world's most appealing foods and liveliest wines Wells's culinary skills have transformed the signature ingredients of this quintessential French countryside into recipes so satisfying and so exciting that they will instantly become part of your daily repertoire.

Here are over 175 recipes from Wells's farmhouse kitchen, including whole chapters on salads, vegetables, pasta, and bread There are simple but imaginative “palate openers,” such as Tuna Tapenade and Curried Zucchini Blossoms, and soul-satisfying soups, with such delights as Monkfish Bouillabaisse with Aroli, Wells's own brilliant interpretation of a Provencal classic. When it comes to meat and poultry, Wells offers earthy daubes, the slow-simmered stews so beloved by the French, and such melt-in-your-mouth delicacies as Butter-Roasted Herbed Chicken You will savor Wells's fish and shellfish creations with recipes like Seared Pancetta-Wrapped Cod. And no meal would be complete without a delight from the treasure trove of desserts here, including Cherry-Almond Tart and Winemaker's Grape Cake.

Illustrated with famed photographer Robert Fréson's captivating pictures, Patricia Wells at Home in Provence is a book you'll want to revisit time and again.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, France, Food, Travel

368 pages, Paperback

First published October 7, 1996

About the author

Patricia Wells (born 5 November 1946 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is a cookbook author and teacher who divides her time between Paris and Provence. Her book Patricia Wells at Home in Provence (1996) won the James Beard Award for Best International Cookbook. Wells is the only American and the only woman to be a restaurant critic for a major French publication, L'Express (1988–1991). She was also a restaurant critic for the International Herald Tribune from 1980 until 2007.

Reviews

[Anna]

The recipes in this book are actually stellar-- some of the best of their kind. However, I have docked Wells two stars for being such an intractable ass in her commentary. Someone loves herself a leeeetle too much.

[notgettingenough]

There are a couple of rather lovely desserts in this book, and, as others have observed, easy at that.

But...there is a recipe for a crisp apple thing. Sorry, book not to hand so thing it is. The idea that this recipe could result in something crisp is beyond me. The night I made it I happened to have two highly educated cooks to dinner and neither of them understood either. So I wrote to her. That was about ten years ago. Still waiting....

Personally I've never found anything useful in the rest of the book.

[Aubery]

I'm french (from Provence ) and this book is one of my favorite provençal's cookbook ( along Richard Olney 's "Lulu 's provençal's table. ) I bought this book in french and i decided to bought one copy for my mother :)

[Elizabeth]

After savouring a public library copy of the hard cover version of this lovely cookbook, we ordered our own copy: the paperback version.

The paperback is very very different. The words appear to be the same. But the beautiful photographs that went with almost every page are not there! There are two inserts of many of the photos. But it's just not the same.

When I'm reading about how to make Gratin Dauphinois, I want to see the delectable picture of the gratin on the facing page. Likewise with Barcelona Grilled Artichokes. In the paperback, there aren't even references in the text to where the photos can be seen. If the photo is there at all! Several are missing from the paperback version. All of the lovely market pictures have been left out. And those of Wells in her kitchen are also omitted.

But here's the really upsetting thing. As I was leafing through our brand new paperback (and I wasn't being rough!), the spine broke! Already! Yet the much older public library copy of the hardcover version has been read and thumbed through by many people many times. The binding still seems quite secure. They JUST don't make things the way they used to!

Recommendation: Pay the extra and get the hardcover version. Do get this book if you don't already have it. It's wonderful.

particularly fabulous: Preserved Lemons, Harissa

[Stephanie]

I just returned from a two week trip to St. Remy de Provence where I picked up this little book. I know enough to interpret the language. The recipes are fantastic and quite simple to make. She has numerous books in english as well.

[MC]

I judge cookbooks solely on their pictures.

[Laura]

Everything in this book delicious and intelligently explained. Pretty simple too. The desserts and breads are my favorite part.

[Jeremy]

A simple, fresh cookbook that gets me drooling. Come on over, dinner is served.

[Helene Gallaway]

I want to make everything in this book. Really....everything.