Synopses & Reviews
For top chef Ludo Lefebvre, cooking is a sensual process that involves all five senses at every stage of preparation. In
Crave, Lefebvre offers more than one hundred original, elegant, and unbelievably delicious recipes that teach us the joy and skill of cooking with the senses.
In dishes such as his signature Glazed Langoustines with Ceylon Cinnamon, he shows that through our senses we can bring creativity and a sense of playfulness to cooking while still preserving the great traditions behind cuisine. Lefebvre brings a whole new level to the sense of taste with groundbreaking techniques for contrasting and balancing spices; he shows how to choose meat and produce and how to test food through touch; he teaches the difference between the sound of butter and oil that's ready for cooking and the sound of burning; he offers visual cues that can enhance technique and presentation; and he introduces recipes that tantalize the powerful sense of smell to heighten both the flavor and experience of a dish.
Along with his desire to put delightful recipes into the hands of the home chef, Lefebvre wants us to expand our perception and understanding of the cooking process. "I want people to cook with love. I want them to be aware of what they're doing," says Lefebvre. "The act of cooking can be as much of a pleasure as eating, and if you really cook with your senses, you begin to find that cooking isn't work it's play."
These inspiring recipes will encourage you to slow down and become fully absorbed as you learn to cook with and for all five senses. With Lefebvre's highly original interpretation of French cuisine and his sensual, almost spiritual, approach to every culinary endeavor, Crave invites us to make home cooking a rich, sensual, and rewarding experience.
Review
2nd Place, Special Trade-Cookbook Category, New York Book Show No Source
Review
"Compelling. . . . Each time I tried a recipe, I craved more." --L.A. Times
Synopsis
For chef Ludovic Lefebvre, cooking is a sensual process that involves all five senses at every stage of preparation. In this lushly photographed cookbook, Lefebvre offers original, elegant, and easy-to-prepare recipes that teach us the joy and skill of cooking with the senses. He brings a whole new level to the sense of taste with groundbreaking techniques for balancing spices; he shows how to choose meat and produce and test food through touch; he distinguishes the sound of butter and oil that's ready for cooking from the sound of burning; he offers visual cues that can enhance technique and presentation; and he introduces recipes that use the powerful sense of smell to heighten the flavor and experience of a dish.
The Feast of the Five Senses offers more than 100 innovative dishes, and will forever change the way we cook and eat.
About the Author
Ludo Lefebvre trained at Restaurant L'Espérance, Restaurant Pierre Gagnaire, Restaurant L'Arpège, and Le Grande Véfour -- all of them bearers of three Michelin stars -- before coming to Los Angeles to work at L'Orangerie in 1996. A year later, at the age of twenty-four, he was promoted to head chef, and he went on to make L'Orangerie one of the top-rated restaurants in California. Lefebvre was recently appointed executive chef at Bastide, "perhaps the city's premiere restaurant" (Los Angeles Times). He was nominated for the James Beard Foundation's 2001 Rising Star Chef award and has appeared on E! and the Food Network. He lives in Studio City, California, with his wife.