Ever since buying Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook a few years ago--the first cookbook I ever bought, incidentally--I wanted a grounding in classical French techniques. I wanted an understanding of the foundations of the dishes Bourdain's book introduced me to: coq au vin, boeuf bourguignon, duck a l'orange.
Recently, I stumbled across the work of some mad food bloggers. Men and women crazy enough to attempt to cook their way through books like Thomas Keller's French Laundry Cookbook and Fergus Henderson's Nose to Tail Eating: A Kind of British Cooking. An idea popped into my head. Not only did I want to educate myself--I wanted to share the experience. I thought about which book I should choose. I considered Escoffier's hefty tome, Le Guide Culinaire. But no. The book is lovely but it's dated. I briefly thought about working my way through Pepin's Complete Techniques. But no. Mostly, the techniques are presented in isolation. The book is useful but wasn't what I was after. There was only one book that would fit the bill. The Bible. Not the one with Jesus and all those other guys, the smiting and all that, but Larousse Gastronomique.
Cooking through Larousse Gastronomique wouldn't be easy. I knew that. There were plenty of easy recipes, to be sure, but there were lots of them. I'm yet to do or find an exact account of how many recipes the 2009 edition of Larousse Gastronomique has between its golden covers but let's put it this way: I'll be working on this for years to come.
The rules
Now, for context, I live in Australia. My edition of Larousse Gastronomique was printed in the UK. It was written for an audience that had access to some ingredients that I don't have access to. I will have to make substitutions. I will have to make concessions. My aim is to stay true to the intent of the recipes. I may have to adjust the ingredients based on what is avaliable locally. For example, in place of caribou I may use another strong-flavoured game meat such as kangaroo or venison. I can get lobster here, but what I know as a lobster is very different to what Larousse is talking about. Australian lobsters don't have giant, meaty claws. In place of lobster I may end up using a cheaper alternative like Moreton bay bugs. I've got no idea how I'll access certain ingredients--frog legs, raw foie gras--or how I'll substitute them. I'm open to suggestions.
I'm not following any particular order with regards to when I cook the recipes. I'm not working my way from the front cover to the back cover. If anything, I'm maybe tackling the easiest recipes first. The ones that don't require me to, say, bone out a saddle of lamb. Things that influence what I cook and when include my mood, my budget, the seasonal/geographical avaliability of ingredients and whether or not I need to have prepared two or three other time-consuming recipes in advance.
Some recipes in Larousse Gastronomique appear twice in the book. For example, 'chicken cooked in beer' is presented in the entries for 'beer' and 'chicken'. To me, this counts as a single recipe. I don't have to cookit twice.
Larousse Gastronomique is extensive but not without flaws. Some recipes are vague. Sometimes recipes ask for ingredients or techniques but don't explain them at all. If Larousse Gastronomique doesn't have enough information on a particular topic I'll turn to other resources including Le Guide Culinaire, Complete Techniques, Herb & Spice Notes, The Oxford Food Encyclopaedia and the internet.
