The Ethnic Paris Cookbook

by Charlotte Puckette, Olivia Kiang-Snaije

Brings together a selection of Parisian recipes for appetizers, soups, main courses and side dishes, and desserts, all inspired by the exotic culinary heritage of Southeast Asia, China, Japan, Lebanon, the Maghreb, and the former French West Africa and Congo that has influenced French cuisine.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 19, 2007

Reviews

[Ivana · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK - based on reading the intro and just flipping through it, I am going to give this one five stars. I don't cook much so I am not going to go through the recipes, but it is well written and beautifully illustrated - and gosh, what a great idea! It will also be a great accoutrement for that much dreamed about sabbatical in Paris...

[Angela Randall · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you you say you've *read* a cookbook exactly?


Anyway, I had a half-hour of perusing this lovely book and I've decided I need to spend a lot more time with it.

The book goes through several flavours of ethnic cuisine, including Vietnamese, Japanese, Moroccan and other types of African cuisine. The recipes are easy to understand and diagrams have been provided for tricky pastry folding and suchlike.

There's also snippets of background information on the dishes and ingredients: what sort of person would eat it (poor/rich) and when (festivals/everyday). It's quite interesting to read.

What's great from an English-person-in-France mentality is that it also has the French name of the recipe, plus many of the pictures have the French names for ingredients. This makes it much easier to try and find the more obscure ingredients! Also, they've helpfully suggested where you might be able to find some of the more difficult items.

From a traveller perspective, it also introduces a whole lot of Parisian restaurants you can't help but want to visit.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've really enjoyed cooking from these recipes. The tangine makes your kitchen smell so good and reheats well for meals later on. The ghoriba are delicious and were a hit at a wedding I attended.

I love the illustrations and the suggestions of where to purchase ingredients and dine while in Paris. The bits of cultural history are a great inclusion. The one thing I would have liked to see is a list of possible substitutions for hard to find ingredients. Overall a fantastic cookbook.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A view of the different food cultures in Paris. It's a shame that no one has done the same for London to my knowledge where there is even greater diversity.
Great recipes, very '60's/'70's reminiscent illustrations, a scattering of various fonts and details of appropriate restaurants, what's there not to like?
Praise by Jacques Pepin and Claudia Roden on the back cover !

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-done cookbook that tells the history about all the different ethnicities in Paris, as well restaurant and grocery stores available in the city. Yummy recipes too, and there is a bunch that I would like to try, especially from the Moroccan and Laotian sections.

[Doron Yam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice collection of ethnic recepies from all kinds of nations that lives in paris.

[Ginny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful resource for finding ingredients and restaurants in Paris.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even better than the recipes are the stories that go with them.