My Master Recipes

165 Recipes to Inspire Confidence in the Kitchen

 
 

“Superb…Wells shares master recipes from her classes to inspire confidence in home cooks… [Her] chapter on infusing is spectacular, including not only oils and butters but salts, cheeses, and sorbets…Immensely satisfying recipes…[A] welcome addition to her cookbook repertoire.”

— Publishers Weekly (starred review).

"Imagine you’re in France with a marvelous teacher, learning to turn artichokes, simmer soups, and poach perfect eggs. Renowned author and cooking instructor Wells (Bistro Cooking) calmly guides readers through essential techniques (e.g., blanching, steaming, braising) and offers illustrative “master recipes” to learn and reinterpret. Simple, seasonal dishes such as steamed cod with rosemary and seaweed butter, seared beef rib-eye steak with mint chimichurri, and individual rose and raspberry pavlovas will send gourmands to the kitchen for leisurely cooking. Don’t expect shortcuts; Wells’s recipes are fiercely precise and personal. If you’re missing a particular tool or appliance (e.g., tea strainer, food processor, baking stone), you’ll need to devise an alternative. VERDICT Wells’s latest is beautiful and instructive, and her recipes and notes are a pleasure to read. If you’re lamenting the loss of Julia Child and Richard Olney, this is a must."

– Library Journal (starred review)

Famed bestselling cookbook author Patricia Wells creates a blueprint for success in the kitchen with this superb collection of recipes drawn from her cooking schools in France—the perfect successor to Julia Child’s classic The Way to Cook.

At her cooking schools in Paris and Provence, Patricia Wells’s students leave with more confidence in the kitchen than they ever experienced before. Now, home cooks can learn from the master, known for her collections of delectable, precise, and well-tested, recipes.

Here Patricia Wells codifies the skills she imparts in her classes in this inviting instruction manual and cookbook. Each of the recipes teaches particular techniques—blanching, searing, simmering, sweating, steaming, braising, deep-frying—with additional recipes that take your skills in directions both savory and sweet, simple and profound—giving you the knowledge and assurance to expand your cooking even further.

For each master recipe, Patricia provides creative sub recipes, such as:

  • Braised Meat: Four-Hour Braised Aromatic Pork (Master Recipe), plus Provençal Lamb Daube with Tomatoes, Olives, and Mushrooms
  • Grilling: Scallops Grilled in Shells with Truffle Butter (Master Recipe), plus Grilled Chicken Under a Brick
  • Brioche: Honey Brioche (Master Recipe), plus Blueberry and Orange Blossom French Toast
  • Madeleines: Sweet Chestnut Honey Madeleines (Master Recipe), plus a stunning Walnut Cake using the same batter.
  • Roasted Vegetables: Autumn Rainbow Vegetables (Master Recipe), plus Roasted Eggplant with Harissa, Fennel Seeds, and Honey
  • Panna Cotta: Lemon Panna Cotta with Candied Lemon Zest (Master Recipe), plus Raspberry Panna Cotta
  • Rustic Galette: Apple and Fresh Rosemary (Master Recipe), plus Apricot and Lavender Honey Galette

Patricia also provides a list of pantry essentials, necessary equipment, sources for finding the best ingredients—such as oils, fish and shellfish—a dependable list of preferred wine importers, and advice on when to make easy ingredient substitutions and when to stick to the original recipe.

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