Listen free for 30 days
Listen with offer
-
Coquilles, Calva and Crème
- Exploring France's Culinary Heritage: A Love Affair wtih Real French Food
- Narrated by: Jean Brassard
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
£0.00 for first 30 days
Buy Now for £18.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Editor reviews
In France, eating is a cultural event, and G.Y. Dryansky's intelligent gastronomical travel story Coquilles, Calva, and Crème explores the minutia of French cooking with gusto. Quebec-born stage and screen actor Jean Brassard warmly narrates Dryansky's culinary memoir, giving a native French speaker's smooth pronunciation to the various places and cuisines. Covering ground from Paris and Alsace to Normandy and the Basque country, this award-winning audiobook introduces listeners to the traditions of French cuisine, as well as the challenges that come with modernity.
Summary
Winner of the 2012 Gourmand World Cookbook Award
A celebration and critique of the changes in the French culinary landscape and a gastronomical excursion across the French countryside in search of the unsung cooks who are still doing it right. A culinary memoir that brings to life some of the most fascinating, glamorous food years in France and reveals gastronomical treasures from gifted artisans of the French countryside. From small cafes in Paris to Normandy, Alsace, the Basque country, and beyond, Dryansky takes us on a sweeping sensory journey, with a voice as thoughtful as Kingsolver, as entertaining as Bourdain, and as cogent and critical as Pollan.
What listeners say about Coquilles, Calva and Crème
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- In Neverneverland
- 18-10-22
If you want to read about authentic good French food, don’t read this!
When trying to summarise the author’s message, what comes to mind is: everything in French culture, not just cuisine, but also fashion and manners, used to be more refined and expensive and therefore better. Why? He is not so clear on that.
The first 5 chapters are one long litany of his namedropping of the members of what he sees as the upper crust in post WWII 20th century France, (Dior, Chanel, Balenciaga to name a few) most of whom he (and his wife) knows personally, of course, and the fine wines and truffles they used to feed him (and his wife), plus a smattering of famous expensive restaurants that, in his exalted opinion, ‘did it right’.
If you want to learn about authentic French food at its finest, I recommend reading Elizabeth David. She will not praise and exalt as refined and cultured, someone who has 4 eggs boiled every morning just so he can open up and pick the one that is closest to their idea of egg-perfection, but instead she will teach you how to make real French food and tell you about its heritage and background. Or go to Julia Child. They will both also tell you about the ingredients, flavours and textures, the seasonality and terroir.
If you want to hear someone whine and winge about the much better than now old days, gossiping about French politicians (‘Mitterand never paid for any of the many meals he shared with…’), and attempting to make himself sound superimportant because they were wined and dined by so and so, and looking down on the rest of mankind in the process; look no further.
The reader does the work justice.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful