Qu’est-ce que c’est? A cookbook that would not only teach me how to cook classic French dishes, but also teach me to speak some French? And it’s written by an author who seems to have produced this ambitious book on her own? As an aficionado of cooking and cookbooks, as well as language, words and world cultures, and to top it all off a enthusiastic support of independent authors, I knew I had to read this cookbook.

The author has chosen ten recipes for our cooking and language lessons. Don’t scoff at a cookbook with only ten recipes! They’re each a good example of French cooking, and can be varied in many ways. And since you’re also here to learn French, you won’t be overwhelmed by a vast number of recipes.

At first, my eyes automatically skipped over the French phrases to read the English versions, but after I’d read a while, I found my focus shifting. The French instructions started to become more familiar, and some words were so interesting that I paused to think about them. “Potatoes” really stood out to me. “Pommes de terre” translates to ‘apples of the earth’ in English. This led me to some internet research where I learned that other cultures have their own similar phrases for ‘earth apples’. Eventually I circled back round to the cookbook and continued learning how to cook a crustless quiche (I’m terrible with crusts, so that recipe was just begging me to try it.)

Immersing in another country’s culture is never a straight-line process. If you traveled to France with the goal of learning the language, you would not find the French to be static people, doing nothing but sitting around waiting to teach you a new word or two. No, you’d learn the language while participating in daily life. This cookbook is like that. The author uses what she calls TPR – Total Physical Response. It’s a way to learn French by incorporating specific physical tasks with a French command. This is how each of us gained fluency in our own native languages, after all, through hearing, responding, and doing.

My thanks to author Elisabeth de Châtillon and NetGalley for allowing me to read a digital advance review copy of this book. This review is my honest and unbiased opinion.

There are only a few recipes in this book, but each one has lots of details and even some background on where the dish came from. There are also variations in the back so you can substitute ingredients that you prefer. The directions are written in French with some English to help, and the translations are available in the book, just not on the same page. This will give you a good foundation in several cooking techniques and french words.

At first I was a little out off by this cookbook as I was expecting more than 10 recipes. But as I started reading and realized how this was helping me with my French, I smiled, readjusted my attitude and really fell in love with it. Yep, that’s right, I was wrong! Happily so.

While I’ve been learning French, reading this book took things to the next level. Before long I found I was reading the recipes in French and was fully comprehending it. What a novel idea for a book! But don’t worry if you aren’t taking French lessons, there’s enough English in here to let you follow along as well.

This book makes a great gift for any of your friends and family that love all things French. My daughter will definitely be getting a copy of this book for Christmas as she too is a Francophile.

What makes this cookbook a bit different from others that feature French recipes is that it is bilingual. English speakers can practice (or learn) some French as they prepare these good looking recipes and enjoy all of the extras included in this title. The recipes themselves are for either main dishes or desserts. The downside of this book is that there are not very many recipes, leading me to conclude that the author’s intent was more to teach French and that recipes were a useful way to do that. With that in mind, this is an interesting title.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Ceci n'est pas un livre de recettes. Or is it? It's going to throw a few people just how few recipes there are here, but that's for a reason. This is done as an exercise for those wanting an immersive lesson in French and French cooking, and so the ten dishes are given as an educational language lesson, as well as a guide to getting things in the oven. You're prepped at first with the vocab of the dish, with everything in both French and English (plus the literal translation nobody uses, which lets us know that when we ask for kitchen towels they come out as "wipe everythings"). After that what we're reading drops out verbs and nouns we've already met in the English line, so we have to hope the words have clicked with us, or else we're all over the place.

What we're absorbing while we're processing this book is generally the language of the kitchen, of course, but that's not a bad thing to learn (I must have forgotten the French for "spoon", if I ever learnt it). And what we're looking forward to eating once we've built up a need for some brain food is all of a hearty quiche, buckwheat crepes with salmon, some lentils and cheese (which looks bland), a variant on Nicoise salad, potato gratin – and that's it before we hit the desserts. You do also get an appendix showing variants, so you're not stuck to just the one quiche, or balance in your clafoutis, etc. There's also a conversation where our author speaks to herself about each dish and its prime ingredient, so we know where it comes from within France, and more about its merits. The online world also has a corner where this is read out by the author for echt pronunciation.

Despite perhaps sounding sniffy at there not being a dozen main recipes here, I do think this book is a success. It wants a specific thing and I think it achieves it. It seems perfectly keyed in with a zoom-time, group cook-a-long – take half a dozen ladies that lunch, put them all online with a copy of this and the right ingredients, and they can have une yack bilingue, and do it as a language-learning group exercise. There are copious U3A groups, language societies and get-together organisations that would relish something like this come next lockdown. So if you judge it as something suitable to your needs, I can't see why not to go for this. You could easily have le monde entier entre vos entrees, or whatever.

French food is fabulous and as the author says, it needn't be daunting or difficult but approachable. Several French culinary books are in my personal library and as an expert cook and visitor to France refer to them for inspiration and ideas. Though this book is limited to ten recipes the author presents them in a completely different way...by using the language to learn. I'm currently learning another language and would find the idea to be useful to a certain extent but prefer the traditional recipe format which is more readable and accessible. I think that the glossary and language information would be convenient all together at the front of the book but this is just a personal opinion.

The illustrations are fun and quirky and the idea of combining food and language a wonderful one. For me learning about a region's food teaches much about its history and culture. I like the author's personal snippets here. This book would be especially useful for those new to French cooking.

My sincere thank you to the author for the privilege of reading this unique book!

This is such a good idea. Lovely, mouth watering recipes written both in English and French. What an exciting way to learn French! Such a great idea. The verbs, top tips and photos all mix together to make a very novel way to learn how to cook, whilst also learning some French.
Fantastic!!!

This is a very intriguing concept and that was what made me decide to download it. Learn a language while making delicious food!? Yes! And Yes!

I don’t know what I expected exactly, but the recipes are written in French with a glossary of terms at the beginning of the recipe. Interspersed in the recipe are phrases you won’t know and those have the English written directly underneath.

I always have to double and triple check myself in recipes anyway because I have a penchant to forget steps or miss ingredients, so having to also flip back and forth over and over to make sure I was reading each step correctly created a lot of anxiety in the cooking process.

I made the first recipe in the book (a quiche) and it was delicious, so the recipes very well may be exquisite, it was just a concept I wouldn’t be able to tolerate.

Overall a 3 out of 5 for an interesting idea, presented in a way I personally couldn’t deal with. If you can get over the structure of the book though, it would probably be a good pickup for you.

This is a cookbook unlike any I have seen before! It is written in both French and English and would be the perfect fun activity for someone learning French who wanted hands on practice reading it. The recipes are also French, so very different than what I am use to seeing, but intriguing. Gorgeous pictures accompany each recipe as well. I did find that the translations made it feel a bit more cluttered and hard for me to read, but the idea was so unique that I still think it is a fantastic cookbook!