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

Patricia Well's love and appreciation for both France and good food is obvious. Her ability to create recipes that are easy to make, but appear to the contrary is unsurpassed. Interesting anecdotes precede the recipes and transport you to another place. Enticing color photos start your mouth watering and tempt you in to the kitchen. Her friendly recommendations for ways to substitute and "fudge" on ingredients make the reader feel they are talking to a confidant. Wine suggestions for each dish help to build the confidence of those treading new waters. Perfect for either the beginner, or experienced cook. Not only do I own a copy, but I have given copies to two friends (both of whom confided that it became bed-side reading and at times followed them through the house!) An easy and straightforward cookbook with ingredients that are easy to find in your local store. A must for any kitchen!

First, we love Patricia Wells writing, and used her books Food Lover's Guide to France and Food Lover's Guide to Paris as bibles on our many trips across the border. Bought this one for Father's Day 2012, and he loves it! First, he read it as you would read a book, reading out recipe title and ingredients with enormous enthusiasm. Then, we hit the grocery store, because there are so many of her recipes from this book that he wants to try. Tonight - French Pasta, with red peppers. Yummm.Patricia Wells books are readable, down to earth, and the recipes are doable and delicious. She knows France, and she knows the flavors of French cooking, and makes it possible for us to do the same. She is today's Julia Childs, bringing French flavor into American kitchens, with less fuss.

I wanted to add my raves to the others this book has received and point out three more outstanding recipes. Her Summer Pistou is the best version I have ever eaten. The Chicken with Tarragon and Sherry Vinegar is superb, my son's favorite dish that I have ever cooked for him he claims, and her Apricot Honey Almond Tart is the recipe I always go to when I want to impress without real effort. I'm ordering several of these as Christmas presents for the people who have loved this food at my house.

This is a solid cookbook but not essentially provençal--and that is the rub for me. There are many variations on certain dishes that are either italianized or americanized---so as somebody who lives, cooks and dines in Provence as well as in many other parts in Europe and the States ---- that is my negative point. Certain daubes are great but for me it does not contain enough classic provençal cuisine which is as varied from the Var to the Alpes Maritimes, from Marseilles to Aix en Provence to Nice, from the Vaucluse to Entrevaux. I miss extensive treatments of popular tians, braised and scalloped and gratin dishes, the petits farcies etc ...My point is, the recipes work, but if you pick it up because you want to prepare an authentic provençal feast you must look elsewhere and consult other materials. That makes me sad--for with such wonderful regional variety, what need was there to add pastas?--a cope out in my book, -- a few recipes with varieties on tapenade, pistous, tomatine and truffade as well as the beloved St Tropez white bean spread with truffle oil or bouillabaisse and aiolies and how to make persillades would have been welcome. Using honey, lavender, roses and violets in making/baking desserts would have added to the authenticity....

I have been very pleased with Thrift Books. The condition of the books are always as described or better. Patricia Wells is a favorite author and somehow I missed this wonderful book filled with excellent recipes and menu tips.

When I saw that Patricia Wells was having a new book published in Spring, I began, after several months of procrastinating, to review a series of her books, especially since the new book seems to overlap the book I am about to review in this MS.Wells is high in the pantheon of distaff culinary journalist / teachers, on a par with Ann Willen and somewhat less well known than the great Julia Child and Elizabeth David. This book on `home cooking' in the Provence region of France falls, it seems, at the end of a series headed by the book `Simply French' which expounds on the cuisine of Joel Robuchon. This volume covers the high-end `haute cuisine' end of the spectrum. A recent book, `The Paris Cookbook' covers the less Olympian subject of cooking by Paris bistros, restaurants, and purveyors. This is closer to Child's classic subject, `la cuisine Bourgeoisie'. The subject of this review reflects cooking done by Wells herself in Provence, based on the influence of local sources and her own invention. It is a combination of Curnonsky's `la cuisine Regionale', and `la cuisine Improvisee'.Since many, if not most of the insights into cooking in this book can be traced to the earlier book on Robuchon, it was harder to identify the value of this book in its own right. But, I think I can safely say that this volume stands on it's own two feet by combining the simplicity of home cooking with the healthy ingredients of the Mediterranean ingredients and the cachet of Provence, being an intersection of some of the best of both France and Italy.My strongest visceral reaction to these recipes is the wealth of things to do with common, inexpensive ingredients such as potatoes, celery, carrots, and tomatoes. My next delight was the variety of bread recipes. The star of this act was a version of brioche that is based on olive oil rather than butter. The reputation of butter has undergone something of a revival since this book was published in 1996, but if you have gotten into the habit of looking for ways to have olive oil to replace butter, this is a recipe for you.Like all of her other books, this volume's organization follows that most classic of orders, with chapters on:Appetizers, Salads, Soups, Vegetables, Pasta, Bread, Fish and Shellfish, Poultry and Game, Meat, Desserts, and Pantry.As the Wells homestead is a fair distance from the Mediterranean, the coverage of fish and shellfish is a bit light, but this shortfall is more than made up by other chapters, especially the chapters on vegetables and pasta, which broadens ones range defined by classic southern Italian cuisine. The most interesting seafood discovery is Wells' combining mint and crabmeat. My Baltimorean friends are rolling their eyes already.The star of the chapter on meats is the daube of either beef or lamb. This is a fascinating technique with a French name which, however, seems to be characteristic of northern Europe. German dishes like sauerbraten use the daube technique, but, to my knowledge, there is no daube style dish in any Italian cuisine. A daube is basically applied to a dish that has marinated for a long time, a day or more, in a sauer medium, either wine or vinegar. Browning and braising follows the marinade. The recipe may even call for a further day's resting to mix together the flavors.As with her other books, this volume includes recommendations for wine to serve with each savory dish. Unlike the very specific suggestions in `Simply French', these are fairly generic, simple enough for the least enlightened of liqueur store clerks to interpret. For those who live and die by the very best choices of wine, specifics are included with the general suggestions.As books on French provincial cooking go, this book is at the opposite end of the spectrum defined by Elizabeth David's classic in that all instructions and descriptions of ingredients are detailed and crystal clear. Virtually everything in all the dishes should be available at a good urban supermarket.My only complaint, which I bring up only because Ms. Wells is a culinary teacher as well as a journalist, is the inaccuracy of conversion between pounds and kilograms. A kilogram is 2.2 pounds, but Ms. Wells consistently treats the conversion as two (2) pounds to the kilogram. Fortunately, such approximations do not appear in the baking recipes, where she is extra contentious about the accuracy of her metric to English conversions of weights and volumes.I strongly recommend this book to anyone who loves French or Mediterranean cuisine and who needs a new source of recipes from these sources. I strongly recommend it to anyone who loves to read about food. I recommend it to anyone who cooks. There will be several simple recipes here for inexpensive ingredients that I know you will enjoy.

Aún no lo he podido acabar de leer, pero las recetas son muy sencillas, apetitosas. Apetece viajar a la Provenza mañana mismo.

Perfect

Full of very useful recipes. Get the hard cover, as you'll wear out the binding of the paperback.

Très bonne connaissance de la cuisine provençale utilisable et très facilement par nos californiens. La version française est aussi bonne.

Really tried to find something interesting and useable in this book.Not possible.Very American and ultimately patronizing.Out of date.