To Drink and to Eat Vol. 3: Treats and Tribulations from a French Kitchen

À boire et à manger #3

by Guillaume Long

Cooking blogs and comics come together in To Drink and To Eat Vol. 3, the newest and most unique cookbook to add to your kitchen shelf.

If you want to take your culinary skills from cook to master chef, you’ll need to know a few things. Where can you get not just good but the best wild garlic? What are the tried-and-true utensils every master chef’s kitchen should have? Which recipes should you have in your back pocket for preparing to perfection at a moment’s notice? What are the best wine pairings for your next dinner party? Aspiring chefs who need new tricks in the kitchen, you’re not alone. Guillaume Long has asked and answered all your culinary questions.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Food, Cooking, Bande Dessinée, Nonfiction, Comics

160 pages, Hardcover

First published May 21, 2015

Reviews

[kat · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love food! I love comics! To Drink and to Eat seemed like an obvious home run choice for me. But I did not enjoy this. I'm not sure how anyone could use this as a guide when cooking. I found it hard to follow even as a reader.

[Quoilire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comme à son habitude Guillaume Long nous balade dans différentes régions de France ou d’Europe pour découvrir des spécialités locales, des traditions culinaires, un savoir-faire ou une simple expérience gustative; et se découvrir lui dans ce vaste univers.

Comme à son habitude le livre se termine avec de superbes planches pour illustrer un thème de la cuisine comme ce fût avec la saisonnalité des fruits et légumes.

Donc, les fidèles de cette série retrouveront leurs marques avec de nouvelles aventures et seront à nouveau comblés.

Le plus gros reproche que je puisse faire dans ce troisième tome de A boire et à manger, est le recours à une certaine vulgarité et certains éléments scatologiques dont on se passerait volontairement dans ce genre de bande dessinée, quand bien même cela se veut pour l’humour.

[Camille · Rating 5 out of 5]

J'adore ! Il y a tout dans ce livre : de belles planches de BD, beaucoup d'humour et plein de superbes idées de recette ! En le lisant, je ris à gorge déployée ! À ne vraiment pas manquer, vive les suivants!

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

C'est toujours un plaisir de retrouver les aventures culinaires de Guillaume Long !

[Alison · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

I had high hopes based on the description of this book. I am sad to report all my hopes were dashed. There were several issues with this book. I will admit I did not read the previous 2 books in this series and after reading this one I have no will to. Since it is both a graphic novel and “cook” book you don’t have to read the whole thing or even in order, but I tried to so I could review it completely.

First issue was the font; there was no reason to go back and forth from print to cursive and back again. Pick 1! The cursive font itself was hard to read and I found myself often reading words and sentences over again to try to make sense of the scribble.

The conversations with Mr. Publisher, Joel Rebochon and the aruthor himself “the foodie” himself I found dry. Not funny at all, and no real helpful information most of the time. I also didn’t like that it often interrupted the actual recipes.

The recipes themselves were terrible. If, like the book suggests, you just have to like to cook, want to improve your cooking, this book is not very useful.

They didn’t give good directions or measurements. For example step 1 in Skate with Black Butter Sauce is to literally begin peeling carrot and onion and cutting them however and put into a stockpot or saucepan and add cold water???? I feel most recipes give a bit more guidance like 3 carrots or 1 large yellow onion…Then later in the same recipe it says add some drained caper and parsley into the pan, whatever quantity you want. !?!?! That's for the recipe to tell me. I realized cooking is very personal but I don't know what this is suppose to taste like, give me some guidance like, capers can be a bit salty so watch how much you use, try starting with x amount then taste it and if you need to adjust you can do it accordingly. This style is not for the beginner cook at all. The actual recipecs I didn’t think were standard or common recipes or ones I should keep in my back pocket like the book suggests. There is not a recipe in here I would want to even try to make even if they had better directions.

Also considering the book was titled To Drink and Eat I assumed there would be a recipe or 2 for a drink, smoothie or something refreshing. I was wrong. The only real mention of drinks was a few times he mentioned what he drank while traveling and eating out.

Overall I found this book to be falsely advertised. If you truly want a great graphic novel with an actual storyline, characters you like and want to know with recipes worth trying this is not the book for you.

[Leighton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Oni Press and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

To Drink and To Eat Vol. 3 by Guillaume Long is an innovative blend of graphic novel and cookbook. The book starts off with two pages of an illustrated poem where the author writes about what food he would be if he could be a food. Interspersed between humorous comics are cooking recipes that readers can try for themselves. One part of the humor is when an Oni Press (publishing) executive intrudes onto the pages in order to interject something that will make the book more marketable. The book is divided into several sections, which include meals that you can make during each season and culinary tips.

Overall, To Drink and To Eat Vol. 3 is a unique cookbook that combines humor comics with cooking recipes. I took off 1 star, because I didn't find many of the jokes funny. I took off another star because of the artwork in this graphic novel. I fully understand that the artist took a lot of time to create this book. In addition, the artwork reminded me of the comic art I've seen in newspapers, so it's pretty standard. However, for a book that is part cookbook, I expected the artwork of the food to be a bit more appealing. If the food looked better, it would have made me want to try out some of the recipes. If you're intrigued by the description or if you're a fan of unique cookbooks, you can check out this book when it comes out in February!

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Font choice for speech bubbles 1/5
Ability to give reader second hand embarrassment 5/5

I will say this is an oddity in every way. Like the idea of presenting a cookbook being presented in this oddly satirical memoir-isc style is hard to really jump into. Especially since this book doesn't feign from trying to make you die from second hand embarrassment early on.

The sheer level of discomfort I felt at times was a bit much, but you can tell that food is something that Long is truly passionate for and it shows on nearly every page.
I actually learned quite a bit while reading this, but I honestly can't imagine recommending this book to someone, let alone purchasing it for someone.

[Jennifer Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not many people "Read" cookbooks, but I do! I love when cookbook authors include anecdotes about making the recipe or why they like a recipe. This one is MOSTLY anecdotes about cooking and eating with some great recipes thrown in. It reads like a Graphic Novel so I feel like it would be great for a pre-teen just learning to cook, or a college student just out on their own trying to impress their friends as well as old cooks like me who have been at it for years but still look for new and unusual recipes. Thanks for the ARC Netgalley! Only giving it 4 stars as there aren't as many recipes as I would have liked, but this problem would be solved by just buying the previous versions!

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

'To Drink and to Eat Vol 3' with story and art by Guillaume Long is another outing in the world of a Parisian food columnist.

This time around the author has some fame, so there is quite a lot of self-referential humor, some things work better than others. The usual elements from the first two volumes are here like recipes and trips with friends and food.

I like this series, but I liked the first two volumes quite a bit more. Once the book settles in and stops making fun of itself, it got better, in my opinion.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Oni Press and NetGalley. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

[Jenn Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

To Drink and to Eat is a cookbook blog meets a comic book. I love themed cookbooks and cooks that have recipes tied to a story. This book was somewhere in between those. The recipes aren't labeled like a cookbook and there really isn't a continuous story. It does remind me a bit of the Science Comics. There is a lot of information. I feel like there isn't enough information to recreate the recipes, especially for someone like me who is not experienced with cooking. Maybe someone who enjoys cooking would enjoy this more.

[GONZA · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the second one better, there were more recipes and less stories, or at least that's how I remember it. As entertaining as this one is, it seems to lack something.

Il secondo mi era piaciuto di piú, c'erano piú ricette e meno storie o almeno cosí me lo ricordo io. Per quanto sia divertente anche questo, mi sembra gli manchi qualcosa.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

[Bozhena Levine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to the Oni Press and NetGalley for the advanced electronic copy of this book. This book combines a graphic novel and recipes that readers can try for themselves. I liked the idea of presenting a cookbook in a graphic novel format. However, because it is part cookbook, I expected the images of food to be more appealing. The writing style did. It appeal to me, this making this book difficult to read.

[Susanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to the author, Oni Press and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love cookbooks, and I also really enjoy graphic novels. This combination of the two is a bit uneven - I enjoyed the graphic novel part, i.e. the accounts of the author's travels, but did not find the recipes particularly well-done. As with Volume 2, the cover is fantastic, unfortunately the contents did not live up to my expectations.

[Melanie]

This is the first volume of To Drink and To Eat that I've had the pleasure of reading and it was absolutely enjoyable. The jokes are great, the recipes sound wonderful and the description of all of the ingredients is very educational. I would highly recommend To Drink and To Eat and can't wait to go back and read through volumes 1 and 2.

[Andréa]

Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a comic about food, a visual personal narrative, a cookbook and a book about food. It is all of that and none of that, which makes it interesting.

[Priya Sridhar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is made for foodies that wish to learn more. You have to love it, as Guilane takes us through some rather simple recipes and the history of food. What is there not to love?