My first impressions of this book were of its sheer enormity. It's a monster. The biggest and heaviest book I've seen in years. Coffee tables need to be sound to cope with this beast, and those coffee tables will be in the homes of the minimalists where this belongs, or in the studios of photographers and food stylists. They'll love it.
Recently I've noticed with three-Michelin-starred chefs the-bigger-the-better mantra rules, and certainly style is absolute. Plated food has vanished, to be replaced by swooshes, dribbles, dots, blobs, test tubes, pipettes and chunks of wood - all glamorously backlit for the Tamaras and Tarquins of this world.
Alain Ducasse is enormously inspirational, his previous books are awesome and hugely informative, yet here, I feel, the Ian Schrager bug has engulfed him, catering purely for the A-list crowd. By that I mean I doubt whether this book will ever be used purely as a cookbook or be bought by many domestic cooks. It is more of a unique reference book and a collector's item (which is probably why it's being printed only as a limited edition).
The book breaks into sections covering soups, salads, Spoon moments (huh?), pastas, cereals and grains, eggs, sandwiches, fish, poultry, meat and desserts. Each section explores dishes from every continent, based on a French foundation, but Ducasse adds his own often unusual and unexpected twist.
Sifting through the book, the recipes that I found of most interest were from the meat chapter. Why? Because I felt that here there were some recipes that could be put to practical use.
I also came across ingredients I had never heard of, like cubeb, sacrechion and chayote (you will have to look them up, because I couldn't find them). Unfortunately, I think the book's text somewhat loses itself in translation. On many occasions I found that items were incorrectly interpreted, a problem which can often happen in the translation process of such a technical book.
Some of the culinary techniques in the Spoon Cook Book are top-drawer, though. For example, some of the slow cooking methods, the use of sous-vide, Ducasse's Pacojet work. And the ingredient lists showing what goes with what and when, based on the candid reflections of the world's finest chef, fascinated me. An example is his "After Eight" dinner mint, which consists of a frozen mint sorbet sandwiched between tempered chocolate sheets.
Spoon Cook Book chronicles the creative process of culinary composition and explores the architecture of flavour. If you dine at any Spoon around the world you will see many of these creations in practice.
One question kept popping into my mind, though: who is the book's target audience? I would suggest that this is a book for experimental epicures who are happy to escape tradition.
Anthony Demetre, chef-proprietor, Putney Bridge, London
Spoon Cook Book
Alain Ducasse
Editions d'Alain Ducasse
£125
ISBN 2-84844-003-1