“Gastronomy, and not just the Eiffel Tower, has always lured some travelers to France. Adrienne Zausner…(was) among those gastronomes, dining at Michelin three-star restaurants the way safarigoers checked the “Big Five” off their lists. Ms. Zausner went beyond exquisite dinners by befriending chefs, cooking with them and serving their recipes at home.” Florence Fabricant, Food and Wine Critic, New York Times. Cooking with Adrienne is a cookbook and the amazing, often hilarious, story of a woman who became the American doyenne of French cuisine during the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties. Her recipes were based on the food coming out of the kitchens of Alain Chapel, Frdy Girardet, Michel Gurard, Jean and Pierre Troisgros, Roger Verge and others who were creating the New French Cuisine. She helped pave the way for many of these chefs to bring their New Cuisine to America. “My husband and I cooked together for the first time in years last weekend - Pesto with Pasta and Seafood from ‘‘Cooking with Adrienne’’. The meal was delicious, the real thing and so much better because we did it together. Your book is wonderful beyond words, combining Adrienne’’s recipes with stories and photos of her smiling, laughing, embracing others and life! I didn’’t realize how much I’’ve missed cooking, and my vibrant friend and mentor, Adrienne. I’’m back in the kitchen, albeit feeling a bit wobbly, but hoping to continue rubbing elbows with my husband, guided by Adrienne.” Helen + Ian, NYC Adrienne began cooking in Paris with Simone Beck, co-author, with Julia Child, of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She became an accomplished home cook who believed that all food was good food if prepared properly. The book reveals the mysteries of making a sauce, from a simple jus to beurre blanc and hollandaise, as well as the basics of stock and vinaigrette. The recipes run the gamut from Jean Troisgros’’ Steak with Spinach and Vinegar dressing, Adrienne’’s own Squab with Morels, Frdy Girardet’’s Passion Fruit Souffl to the simpler, but no less delicious, Tomate Provenal, Pasta with Pesto and Scallops, and Moussaka. “Few people, if any, knew the intimate details of some of the most famous restaurants in France and Switzerland the way Adrienne did. This collection of recipes provides unique insight into culinary history. Adrienne documented every meal, knew each of these chefs personally and cooked these recipes at home. Cooking with Adrienne provides enthusiastic cooks with a rare look at the fine points of understanding, appreciating and replicating the cuisine of these masters. Their legacy has a direct link to contemporary cooking around the world.” Michael Anthony, Executive Chef, Gramercy Tavern “Adrienne’’s passion for cooking comes through so powerfully in this book. I loved seeing the menus she hand-wrote for special dinners, many recorded here, and I’’m amused and moved remembering the adventures with Jean Troisgros in Napa Valley.” Gael Greene, InsatiableCritic.com Joan shares with us Adrienne’’s favorite recipes from some of the greatest chefs of the twentieth century, as well as her own original dishes, carefully explained with the French terms and fancy kitchen jargon laid bare. Alongside the recipes are the equally delicious stories from Adrienne’’s culinary travels: the month she spent cooking under the direction of three-star chef Jean Troisgros when he was a guest in their house in Mougin; She and her husband were the first Americans to visit Alain Chapel’’s restaurant in Mionnay; sitting next to Julia Child and her husband in Michel Gurard’’s Paris restaurant, Pot au Feu, and many, many more. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to The AFTD to fund research into Primary Progressive Aphasia which is the dementia Adrienne suffers from and which prevents her from being able to cook or indeed communicate in any way.
