The Big Book of Cookbooks | Laurent Seminel Yves Camdeborde

Who knows if it is not with the cookbooks of the day before yesterday that we will invent the cuisine of the day after tomorrow.

"It was while tidying up ma bookcase that I realized the place that books occupy in ma life. Thanks to them, I often had the feeling of talking to Auguste Escoffier, Édouard Nignon, Édouard de Pomiane or Alain Chapel as well as to old friends who enlightened me about their inspiration, told me what they had done in the kitchen and how they had done it, told me how the gastronomes of their time had perceived their novelties. These books have given meaning to ma thoughts, have helped me to put my cooking skills in place and to dare to combine new flavours." Yves Camdeborde

Through a sentimental selection of 50 works, from the seventeenth century to the present day, Yves Camdeborde and Laurent Seminel give us a moving account of enthusiasts and collectors. Their complicit words, punctuated by 30 recipes made by Yves Camdeborde, allow us to understand that cooking is nothing but an eternal restart and that nouvelle cuisine will always be the classic of the next generation before returning to the front of the plate. Bibliophilic rarities, theoretical treatises or contemporary bestsellers, these books, witnesses of their time, are always savored with as much pleasure and tell us much more than recipes.