Biographical note:

Until his retirement in April 2012, JEAN-PIERRE MOULLE was the executive chef at Chez Panisse, where he began working in 1975. DENISE MOULLE comes from the Bordeaux wine-making empire of the Lurton family. She worked as a wine distributor in California for many years before starting Two Bordelais in 1987, which offers guided tours through France.

Country of final manufacture:

CN

Main description:

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.