French cooking has always seemed a bridge too far when you are cooking. Too many pans, too many techniques and often too much effort for a weeknight dinner.
That is what makes Stéphane Reynaud’s Bistro Food: Fast French One-Pot so appealing.
The premise is simple: 160 French recipes cooked in one pot, pan or tray, with as little fuss as possible. There are vegetables, fish, beef, lamb, pork and poultry, along with roasts and desserts.
But this is not fine-dining French food.
If you are looking for intricate sauces and precise restaurant presentation, this probably isn’t the book.
If your idea of French cooking is a casserole bubbling away, something roasting in the oven and a generous dish put in the middle of the table, then it is.
The recipes lean towards hearty comfort food. Braises, casseroles, roasts and familiar French classics dominate, with Reynaud taking much of the intimidation out of cooking them.
There are still ingredients that may not be sitting in the average New Zealand fridge, including rabbit, veal and some French cheeses, so the occasional substitution will be needed.
It is also worth noting that Bistro Food closely follows Reynaud’s earlier One Knife, One Pot, One Dish, first published by Murdoch Books in 2017, which also featured 160 one-pot French recipes.
This is an approachable way into French cooking. Not cordon bleu. More French country kitchen. And that may be exactly its appeal.
