Lulu's Provencal Table: The Exuberant Food and Wine from Domaine Tempier Vineyard

The reviewers above are eloquent and complete in their opinions of this cookbook. I will add that this is my favorite of all my well-loved cookbooks. I have never been to Provence - maybe someday. My life is not the same as Lulu's. I have three very young children and live outside of New York City, but I, too, like to cook because I like to eat! Richard Olney has written this book for those of us who cook without recipes, who like to change a dish according to what is on hand or what mood strikes us, and who still find that the simplest recipes can taste divine. Lulu's chicken with apples is a case in point. She turns off the oven after a half hour (if I remember correctly) to have time to spend outside; I set the oven-timer to turn off so that the recipe is done when I return with the kids after my daughter's gymnastics class. The day-to-day life is different, but the desire to have lovingly prepared food for our family and friends is not. I hope that you will buy this cookbook and treasure it as I have.

`Lulu's Provencal Table' by renowned culinary writer and editor, Richard Olney is one of the best works in the very select genre of what might be called `culinary anthropology'. The works I know in this field are few in number but very high in quality and in the rewards for interested readers. The leading work in this field is certainly `Honey from a Weed' by Patience Gray. Other notable titles are `The Cook and the Gardener' by Amanda Hesser and `The Tuscan Year' by Elizabeth Romer. Befitting Olney's influence, almost all of John Thorne's essays also belong to this tribe of writing. Also befitting this influence, it is Thorne who writes the new introduction to this very substantial work. In this piece, Thorne cites Madeleine Kamman's `When French Women Cook' as another member of this select tribe. I cite this in deference to Thorne's expertise in the area and I hope to review it very soon. Like my reviewing of `Honey from a Weed', I owned the book for almost a year before I opened it up and I deeply regret my delay, as this is a vicarious culinary pleasure of the first order. The subject / cook / interviewee of the book is Lucie Tempier Peyraud, known to all as `Lulu', the wife of the important French vintner, Lucian Peyraud and co-owner of Domaine Tempier, a vineyard and dwelling `nestled in the hillsides outside the neighboring fishing ports of Bandol and Sanary, some ten miles from Toulon and thirty miles from Marseilles.' Author Olney became friends with the Peyrauds shortly after purchasing a very run-down cottage near Domaine Tempier, before he was the renowned culinary writer he was to become with his books on French cuisine and his editorship of the Time-Life series of books on world cuisines. Olney was talked into doing this book by another Peyraud friend, Alice Waters, whose Chez Panisse has been a buyer of Peyraud wines for many years. The inspiration for the book is Lulu's great cooking experienced by Olney for decades, and experienced by Waters during frequent trips to Provence on wine testing and purchasing expeditions. In fact, according to Thorne, it was Waters who initiated the project and talked Olney into carrying it to publication. On the surface, the book may appear to be just another Provencal cookbook, similar to several titles from the likes of Patricia Wells and Lydie Marshall. And, it can be used in this way, but it is much, much more. The book was built out of interviews by Olney of Lulu as she prepared her various dishes. As Lulu was the consummately instinctive cook, she rarely knew on a conscious level exactly how much of a particular ingredient she uses for most recipes. As one reads Olney's asides on this archeological aspect of the interviews, one senses they are reading the captured essences of an ephemeral form of cooking which arises out of a great love of the art and the ingredients to the cooking. This is also what makes this such a great `reading' cookbook, yet it is not a culinary memoir with recipes

I love this book. I read this 'cookbook' when I want to run away from home. Sure, there are recipes, but I can get recipes off the web. I prefer learning about Richard's life with Lulu and Lucien, it's like living better my own self. Bon Voyage and Bon Apetit!

This is simply the finest cookbook in my library, and one above all others that I could simply not do without. It is both a pleasure to read and a goldmine of authentic, simple, provencale cuisine that allows the reader a clear understanding of what this food is really about. It is moe than a cookbook, it is a window into a world that makes one want to pack his bags and move to Provence.

I own 120 cookbooks, and I read others whenever I get a chance. I cook French, Indian, Chinese, Italian, and Mexican. And, yes, I'm a fool for good restaurants. This is one of the cookbooks I would least like to do without. It gives a good idea of what Provencal cuisine is like, and the recipes are detailed and complete. And the results are delicious. I hope it gets reprinted.