French Roots: Two Cooks, Two Countries, and the Beautiful Food along the Way [A Cookbook]

A narratively rich cookbook of French and Californian recipes from longtime Chez Panisse executive chef Jean-Pierre Moulle and his wife, Denise Moulle.

French Roots spans 60 years and two continents as it follows the lives of its authors–husband-and-wife team Jean-Pierre and Denise Moulle–through food, beginning with the dishes of old-world France, the couple’s birthplace, and focusing on the simple, pared-down preparations of French food common in the postwar period. The story then travels to the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970s, where Jean-Pierre was appointed executive chef at Chez Panisse when California cuisine was just emerging as a distinctive and important style, and where Denise began importing French wine. Finally, the journey returns to France, where Denise and Jean-Pierre revisit the classic dishes of their native country and forgotten skills of foraging, hunting, and preserving at their home in Bordeaux. So much more than a collection of 100 elegant recipes, French Roots is the story of an adventure of two people and two cuisines.