Book Review: At my French Table

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

I read widely and voraciously. I love fantasy and sci-fi, but also relationships, non-fiction, romance, historical fiction, and classics.
I spend a lot of time reading, so I thought I'd share some of my finds with you.
As with my tea reviews, feel free to ask me to review a book in the comments! <3

At my French Table: Food, family and joie de vivre in a corner of Normandy
by Jane Webster

source

initial thoughts: Oh my goodness is this book beautiful. The photography, the food, the pages, even the font! It all makes for an amazing reading experience. The colours and the words that Webster uses to describe the food and the places she visits just make me breathe a huge sigh of happiness.

story: This book centres around the author and her decision (along with her husband and four kids) to head on over to Normandy in France and set up a cooking course of sorts. The story mainly revolves around learning how to adopt the French way of life, and the efforts on the family's half of restoring their chateau - a five floor beauty.

my opinion: This book was a breeze to read, and I found myself physically relaxing into the story (strange image, sorry about that!). I could pour of the photography for hours, and the story is so beautiful and tantalising that I really enjoyed reading this. I initially just borrowed it to look through the pictures (as I can't really eat the food!), but I ended up reading it cover to cover. This book has had some amazing reviews, and a few less amazing ones. I think the problem that many of the latter readers are having is that they bought or borrowed the book for it's recipes. Don't get me wrong, the recipes are amazing, but there aren't very many of them. The thing is, I don't think that's the right way of going about it with this one. This is not a cookbook, really, but a sharing of experiences and joys in food. One should pick it up and read it as such. If you feel called to cook one or two (or all!) of the meals, go for it! But the story is as succulent as the recipes, so don't discount it for having a small number of recipes.

Overall rating: 4 out of 5 bookmarks. If you take this book as it is, and don't attach any expectations of it being a five-star cookbook with multiple recipes bursting at the seams, you will truly enjoy it. The photography alone is amazing!