[.uk] Haute Cuisine: How the French Invented the Culinary ... (ISBN 0812235533)

A fine survey of French food and culinary history.:
How did the French invent the culinary profession and rise to culinary heights? Haute Cuisine: How The French Invented The Culinary Profession charts the history of French cooking and French chefs, providing reviews of the pioneers of the field and their achievements. A fine survey of French food and culture, and how it influenced the world.

overly worshipful:
OK, the topic of the book is french cuisine. But Ms Trubek writes so simplistically worshipful that I think the book is not informative any more. She gives as a fact that until today french cuisine has been on top in every respect - and that's too narrow a view in the year 2000. The book should be displayed in every french cultural center and maybe in all the cooking schools mentioned which propagate french cooking - maybe that was the main motivation to write it anyway.

A delicious book!:
For readers interested in either France or cuisine of any kind, Haute Cuisine is a worthwhile and enjoyable read. Offering insight into the efforts of French chefs to establish their trade as a profession, the book explains how and why the French style of haute cuisine came to dominate within France and, more inportantly, far beyond its borders. The book studies the trade associations and journals of chefs, primarily in the 19th century. The rivalry between France and Britian in terms of culture and cuisine is discussed. It also describes the culinary expositions of the day. I highly recommend Haute Cuisinefor the casual reader as well as academics in history, anthropology, sociology, or cultural studies.