“Though you may leave Paris, Paris never leaves you.” -Janice Macleod
For those who have visited Paris, they know one thing is for certain, at some point you must eventually stop into a quintessential Paris Cafe to enjoy either a breakfast before walking around the city, or a lunch after visiting the museums and shops. Most all Parisian cafes provide certain staple meals on their menus that most anyone would recognize by name.
At The Table In Paris is a simple yet refined cookbook that offers the reader recipes to some of the most common dishes found on the Parisian Cafe menu. Some of the recipes provided are French onion soup, steak tartar, soufflés, chocolate mousse and Croque Madame/Monsieur to name a few.
I picked up the cookbook on a Saturday afternoon and decided to make the recipe for Croque Madame on Sunday for lunch.
While many may make the argument that one can simply find any recipe they wish online, the cookbook provides the possibility of so much more than just recipes of a certain genre. They may provide finding a new recipe that one did not know existed and may even become a new favorite. There is also the ease of using a cookbook versus an online recipe. Often the recipes online are located on sites that can be littered with several ads as well as a lengthy backstory to scroll through before even finding the recipe.
The joy of the cookbook for me is its simplicity, the beautiful pictures, finding new recipes as mentioned above as well as the fact that it itself is a book and therefore I do not need to stare at a screen to use.
On Sunday morning I went to Whole Foods for the weekly grocery shop and picked up all of the ingredients that I would need for Croque Madame.
The recipe was simple enough to basically just put the sandwiches together, cook the eggs, use the same pan to toast the sandwiches and add the egg on top of each sandwich. The sandwich was simple and delicious, and the easy instructions made it a delight to prepare.
What I liked About At The Table In Paris:
-Beautiful Pictures of the food as well as Paris.
-Easy recipes, most of which that are made from simple ingredients.
-Dishes that one would be familiar with.
-The recipes are short and to the point.
The only drawback is that the measurements are presented in grams/ounces, so you will need either a scale or a conversion calculator if you use cups to measure ingredients.
As also mentioned above, the recipes are short and succinct, so you’ll not find any special tips or best practices listed anywhere.
Overall, the cookbook is a delightful addition to have in any home library and makes for a fun experience to learn some new, quick French recipes that are familiar and comforting.
Diane says
I so agree with online recipes being very overwhelming with ads and lots of words. I have made croquets madams in the past and I didn’t realize they were a cafe staple in Paris. I served mine with a sauce similar to hollandaise or raspberry preserves~
ThePetiteTresor says
That’s sounds so good to make a croquet with a hollandaise or preserves. I’ll need to try that next time. Thank you for sharing this yummy tip!