Description

RARE FIRST EDITION of this important southern cookery book.
Copy bearing the AUTHOR'S AUTOGRAPH SIGNATURE proving their authenticity.

Composed by Nîmes-based chef Charles Durand, Le Cusinier Durand is one of the first books devoted to regional cuisine: "We have two cuisines in France, that of the north and that of the south. The books that have been published to date deal little with the former. The south has been waiting for a book: it has finally appeared [...]"

It contains 885 recipes, including the recipe for his famous brandade de morue aux truffes, which helped to popularise the dish in France and gave it its name. The book also includes a dictionary and a few suggestions for setting the table.

This is not a collection of dishes borrowed from various cooks who throw vague information at the head of an ignorant scholar who arranges it as he sees fit. Here, the man himself has put down on paper the fruit of 50 years of experience and observation [...] Everything has been done with that awareness of perfection which alone can bring the products of art to that right point, to that pure, imperceptible precision, which constitutes the nec plus ultra of goodness. Be absolutely rigorous in your execution, you who wish to benefit from this work" (p vi).

Born in the Gard region of France in 1766, the young chef Charles Durand entered the service of the bishops of Alès and then Nîmes at the age of 13. He became the first head chef at the Hôtel Beauvau in Marseille, before taking over the Audibal restaurant in Nîmes. He is known as the "Lent of Provençal cuisine".

Complete with in-fine errata leaf.
The condition of the work - stains and spotting - suggests that the copy has not been kept quietly in a library, but has often found its way into busy kitchens. The fine modern Bradel binding gives it a more than acceptable appearance.

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