I'd like to have those too. Try not to bite any fingers off while reading them.

LOL Gina..

I felt like that a few weeks ago I got Tylers Ultimate and Nigella's Fast Express at the same time! It was hard deciding which one to open and read first!

I'm using two recipes from Nigellas and one from Tylers for Easter.

Do you disappear after you make the recipe!?!

I can't wait to hear how everything turns out!

AM
The Dinner Chronicles

I wasn't going to get either one because I don't think I'll ever cook anything from either one. And I have lots of cookbooks for reading that I still haven't gotten to. But about a year ago my favorite store for used cookbooks had them together in a beautiful sleeve that's a photo of a whole fish, it goes around the whole sleeve, mouth to tail and I couldn't resist. (The clerk said they had just put the set on the shelf that morning, glad I didn't hesitate. I've never found another set.)

I have read about 1/3 of FL and a bit of Bouchon and looked at the photos several times. They are wonderful. But I'm not going to do any real cooking out of them although they do inspire some nice combinations.

Granjan, Dad once told me that if he wanted to keep me occupied for several hours he'd just give me $5 and take me to a used book store. A used cookbook store would be even better!

Annie

Hmmm, all the books on my bedside table are cookbooks...

When is dinner, Gina.

Gina, tell me what you ate at Bouchon. My sister lives in Las Vegas and the next time I go to visit her I'm gonna splurge on a meal there.

Anthony Bourdain wrote a review of Bouchon in Gourmet a couple of years ago, and he raved about it.

Oh, and Gina, most foodies have the habit of reading about food: within 5 feet of my bedside are James Beard's Theory and Practice of Good Cooking, and Anne Willan's La Varenne Pratique.

Now if you like lushly illustrated foodie stuff, check out this link. Be forewarned that it is the most seductively photographed food porn I have ever seen. Enjoy.

Here is a link that might be useful: fx cuisine

Already bookmarked that! Jessica, we'll see - but there's an awful lot of recipes that call for lardons, LOL!

Arley, email me from here and I'll reply with a longish review I sent to someone else.

Oh fun! We have both books and the French Laundry is actually worn now from use. We have made nearly half the recipes. They are fun but VERY time consuming. The deconstructed Caesar salad is a favorite. We are going to Vegas in May for a conference and have reservations at Bouchon so I can't wait. We did in fact dine at the French Laundry on a Monday night at 5:00 in July of 2003, and for us, it was everything we'd ever hoped and dreamed for. I even asked for things from the book such as anglotti and they just happened to have some. It was an 11+ course meal and was SO great. We talked so much about the book that our waiter took us down to meet Keller. We stood at the edge of the kitchen and he came and talked with us, briefly, and then signed our menu. I had it professionally framed with the two laundry pins floating between glass and the "laundry tag" sticking out the side behind the menu with the price respectably hidden!

We make the caramelized onions from Bouchon a lot, and with that technique, they are on the stove for hours and hours and turn out like candy. We use them in French Onion soup of course and for pizzas and many other things. And the roast chicken from that book is the only way we'll do chicken now. Rain down salt and thyme and blast it in a hot oven to seal in the juices. Divine!

I read recently they are making a movie out of Julie and Julia starring Meryl Streep as Julia Child of all people. If anyone can pull that off, she can. That was as of a week or two ago on imdb.

Enjoy your books!

Sigh, problem is I currently have a 30-minute-meals type of life, and much of the nice technique in these books is slow food-ish, you know, do this and strain it 2 times and let it set for 2 days, LOL. I would have to plan carefully to do it.

A trip to Napa and a reservation at French Laundry is definitely on my list of to-do's.

A tip: even if you can't get a reservation at the French Laundry, check with the restaurant on the day you're there. A friend of mine snagged a cancellation and was able to walk right in!