PARIS CUISINE

Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Very Good in Good dust jacket. 1952. First Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. Contents clean and tight in original gray cloth binding decoratively stamped in blue and red and gilt lettering with image of a chef on front board; binding square, corners sharp. Original dustjacket (with price) dime size chip at base of spine, chipping and creasing along top edge, internally scraped along bottom edge; still attractive copy in mylar covered dustjacket. Pictorial endpapers in blue red and white displaying the menus of various Parisian restaurants. Wonderful colour frontispiece illustration depicting a chef in his toque overlayed with a pheasant and the Eiffel Tower on a dramatic black background, as well as drawings throughout by Vladimir Bobri, who also did the dustjacket design. "This is a spectacular book of cooking in the great French tradition. It is an exclusive collection of unique recipes, each a culinary masterpiece ... the specialites de la maison from chefs in restaurants where ... known to be consummately skilled individual artists. From L'Escargot, Chez Francoise, and Tour d'Argent ... from fashionable Maxim's to some humble bistro near a great marketplace ... from sixty of the best restaurants and finest chefs in the world ... here are two hundred recipes that have made their creators famous." James Beard (1903­-1985) was an American cookbook author, syndicated columnist, teacher, and television personality. Designated the "dean of American cookery" by the New York Times, Beard laid the foundations for generations of amateur and professional food enthusiasts. After publishing his first cookbook in 1940, Beard went on to host the NBC cooking show I Love to Eat. In 1955 he founded the James Beard Cooking School, where he taught for many years. Over the course of his career, Beard wrote countless cookbooks, including several seminal works, and he inspired and influenced chefs throughout the world. .