French from the Market - by Hillary Davis (Hardcover)

About the Book

Hillary Davis shows us in French from the Market that French food isn't always haute cuisine. Traditional, daily French cooking is provincial and farm-driven. It is also an art, that uses the freshest and finest ingredients available from gardens, markets, and local vendors to put nourishing meals on the table. And, as Davis point out, French home cooking is not hard. The 100 plus recipes for starters, soups, salads, fish, poultry, meats, vegetables, and desserts in this cookbook, along with detailed instructions and tips, prove her right.

Book Synopsis

★ "French from the Market is a seductive cookbook that will convert readers into Francophiles and inspire almost everyone else to start composing menus and market lists." --Foreword Reviews, Starred Review

This newest cookbook from Hillary Davis focuses on the best of traditional French cooking--provincial cuisine based on produce and foods fresh from the market, simply prepared, and delicious for everyday dining at home.

Hillary Davis shows us in French from the Market that French food isn't always haute cuisine. Traditional, daily French cooking is provincial and farm-driven. It is also an art, that uses the freshest and finest ingredients available from gardens, markets, and local vendors to put nourishing meals on the table. And, as Davis point out, French home cooking is not hard. The 100 plus recipes for starters, soups, salads, fish, poultry, meats, vegetables, and desserts in this cookbook, along with detailed instructions and tips, prove her right.

Embrace at-home cooking, French style, with these market-fresh recipes: Arugula Salad over Watermelon with Herbed Goat Cheese; Weeknight Halibut in Basil Cream with Cherry Tomatoes; Autumn Harvest Chicken with Grapes, Apples, and Figs; Broiled Lamb Chops with Warm Potato and Herb Salad; Fluffy Cauliflower and Cheese Quiche; and Fruity, Frosty Cantaloupe Sorbet.

More Accolades:

"[E]ncouraging instructions make even more complex dishes seem simple, including the...ingenious 'beef on a string with horseradish sauce.'...This accessible approach to everyday French fare will appeal to cooks at all skill levels."--Publishers Weekly

"A chicly styled, easily accessible guide to French home cooking."--Library Journal

"Directions are fairly uncomplicated, and color photographs portray finished dishes with a zing."--Booklist Magazine

Review Quotes

One could say there's no such thing as too many French cookbooks; some concentrate on a specific region, while others focus on the freshest ingredients and how best to parlay them. Still others streamline traditional recipes, like ratatouille and clafouti, making them easily accessible to any cook. This is Davis' fifth French cookbook, with previous books focusing on desserts, oven-baked dishes, Niçoise cuisine, and comfort food. Drawing from her experience living in Paris and the South of France, she aims to reinforce the ease, taste, and melding of flavors in these 100 French dishes. Without much preface, she spends her words introducing the provenance, flavor variations, and how the methods differ from traditional U.S. cooking. Recipes include root vegetable hummus, zucchini soup made with Laughing Cow cheese wedges, crunchy carrot salad, sausage-stuffed mussels, chicken chasseur, and cantaloupe sorbet. Directions are fairly uncomplicated, and color photographs portray finished dishes with a zing.--Barbara Jacobs "Booklist Magazine" (3/1/2024 12:00:00 AM)

Hillary Davis's French from the Market is a toothsome cookbook full of robust flavors, sun-dappled photographs, and vibrant recipe introductions.

Familiarity with and affection for a French lifestyle "centered on food and the cycle of the seasons" are evident throughout the book, whose emphasis is on provincial home cooking grounded in traditional French cuisine. Its cozy, inventive recipes riff on standards, too, incorporating lighter flavors and different ingredient combinations and techniques. Herein, hummus is made from parsnips and hazelnuts; artichokes are simmered with mushrooms, wine, and vegetables; and asparagus is napped in a vibrant blood orange Maltaise sauce. Though the freshest produce and top-quality ingredients are paramount throughout, some recipes embrace shortcuts like canned beans, store-bought Boursin, microwaves, and the Instant Pot without sacrificing flavor or texture.

Fruits and vegetables are at the heart of this breezy and engaging text. They feature in a riot of colorful salads and sides but also swirl through most of the meat and fish recipes. They dominate as starters, main dishes, and desserts--in Spring Vegetable Ragout with Preserved Lemon Sauce and in an array of saucy roasted and poached fruit desserts. The tempting spotlight on root vegetables and greens encourages slipping more of these less popular vegetables into one's market basket.

Sparkling photographs of prepared dishes, market scenes, landscapes, and beguiling bouquets of rhubarb and artichokes add to the allure. Davis's food memories and confident, encouraging recipe introductions turn up the volume to this siren song of a cookbook--an inviting sampler of regional cuisine, from Normandy pork chops sauteed with apples and Calvados to Mediterranean Setoise-style Sausage-Stuffed Mussels.

French from the Market is a seductive cookbook that will convert readers into Francophiles and inspire almost everyone else to start composing menus and market lists.--Rachel Jagareski "Foreword Reviews, STARRED REVIEW"

"A chicly styled, easily accessible guide to French home cooking."--John Charles "Library Journal" (1/1/2024 12:00:00 AM)

In this quick and approachable collection, Davis (French Comfort Food) draws on her 13 years in Paris and the South of France to present easy and affordable French home cooking. Her casual approach relies on shortcuts, such as a store-bought crust for fluffy cauliflower and cheese quiche, premade crepes for "last-minute" grand marnier crepes suzette, and Laughing Cow cheese to lend creaminess to Laughing Cow zucchini soup. Classic "haute cuisine" dishes are abridged and made less intimidating, including instant pot beef bourguignon, easy whole duck a l'orange (which still requires an overnight marinade), and coq au vin reimagined as a quick chicken bake with a stove-top wine sauce. Though traditionalists may balk, there's no denying Davis's efficiency. Her encouraging instructions make even more complex dishes seem simple, including the festive salad dubbed "A Wreath You Can Eat" and ingenious "beef on a string with horseradish sauce." Other quick takes include a one-pot salmon in parchment with capers and lemon and weeknight halibut in basil cream. This accessible approach to everyday French fare will appeal to cooks at all skill levels. (Mar.)-- "Publishers Weekly" (11/11/2023 12:00:00 AM)

About the Author

Hillary Davis has a degree in economics from Columbia University in New York and a graduate degree in international relations from Cambridge University in England. She is a cookbook author, contributing journalist, cooking instructor, and lecturer. She also has been a food and travel lecturer on Royal Caribbean and Celebrity cruise lines, as well as frequently judging cooking competitions. Davis also writes a popular weekly Substack newsletter called DestinationFood. She currently lives in the Hamptons, New York City, and spends several months a year in France.