Alain Ducasse

This is a cookbook to read, and to borrow ideas from, but not really to use, and certainly not for a beginner.

Already reading this cookbook I was unhappy that the ingredients are listed separately (They are printed in a different colour in the body of the recipe.) In trying to use the cookbook I first discovered that there is no index. Then Mom saw a recipe for a pizza based on zucchini rather than tomatoes and I decided to try it.

Final verdict: The zucchini sauce as the basis for a pizza worked a lot better than you would think. I would make this again. However the cookbook itself is destined to not stay on my bookcase for long.

Many of the recipes call for rather exclusive ingredients - the 'simple' in the subtitle is as in 'simply the best'. If your local store or your wallet don't run to truffles, wild boar, special cheeses, chestnut flour,... you will find many of the recipes unusable. And because there is no index you can't even use it to look up what to do with them if you do get them.

The directions take a lot for granted, and amounts are somewhat funny. The pizza gets put into the oven, but I didn't find a temperature to heat that oven to. I guess it should have been warmer. This recipe was to serve 4-6. I made double the dough and used more or less the single amounts of everything else. Three of us had plenty to eat, but no leftovers. Another time I would use 3-4 times the amount of dough, double the amounts for the sauce, and the amounts called for for the toppings. That would balance better (I didn't manage to balance all the zucchini rounds on the pizza.) and leave some for breakfast the next morning.… (más)