Just a French Guy Cooking: Easy Recipes and Kitchen Hacks for Rookies
G**E
Favorite Frenchman
I love this guy's cooing style! He makes french cooking easy, delicious and fun! Have been following him for years!
B**R
Alex is a beautiful, comedic mix of teacher and friend
If you haven't watched any of Alex's videos you are missing out! Alex is not only entertaining and instructive but he is personable, friendly, inviting and relatable. The best part about Alex is he's not afraid to let you watch him fail. Anyone who has ever attempted to cook can tell you it can be a colossal mess or it can be comme ci comme ça or by random happenstance you could succeed.If you have watched Alex, you can hear his voice as you read. This was a big relief to me as some chefs don't come through their books like he does which is a vote for authenticity for him as well as relatability.I have gone through the entire book and everything is wonderful and makes me hungry as well as want to try my hand at interpreting each and every dish. I've already started working my way through it and I couldn't be happier from a culinary standpoint.Alex reintroduced me to the genius of Jacques Pépin. That alone is noteworthy but his series on ramen and sauces are absolutely incredible. His energy, giddiness and dedication to his craft come through in every recipe.I highly recommend this book to any aspiring home chef. Any chef that invites you along their journey to educate themselves, to grow and improve with humor and humbleness deserves your attention.
P**N
Just buy this quickly and then be happy
I have followed Alex's _Alex French Guy Cooking_ YouTube channel (it's in English), for a long time. He is funny and irreverent -- the perfect millennial French new media perfectness.I pre-ordered this cookbook a LONG time before it was actually available. Based on the YouTube channel I expected thoughtful recipes laced with humor and great hacks that would get the same results with less work (but only when quality would not suffer). That's what I got.I love Alex. I love his recipes. The book is really quite well done with great graphics. My only major complaint is that a cookbook should have some sort of lay flat binding. This does not. It's not worth a star, so I'm still giving five, but in a lesser cookbook it would totes cost a star.I wish for more process illustrations, either drawings or photos, some things get them and some, sadly, don't. For example there are two different ways of chopping an onion taught with only text. I _saw_ that episode, so the text evokes the images in my memory, but if you hadn't it might not be clear what the text meant. I hope Alex's next (of many future), cookbook learns from this.So I guess that means that I'm reviewing a combination of the cookbook and the video series. I hope you get the cookbook and binge on the videos.Jacque Pepin has watched, endorsed, and done a back and forth video challenge with this channel if that means anything to you -- it does to me. Just do it. Pull the trigger. You know you want to;) I love him and you will too:) I promise.
C**H
You will love this beautiful mad man!
Alex is clever, enthusiastic, funny and highly intelligent. His approach to food is accessible but with a healthy dose of curiosity. Simple ingredients are elevated with technique, a little science, and a lot of love. The range of cuisines come from a wide global sampling, (dare I say, there’s room for more French dishes) and the level of difficulty is broad. You’ll find something for every mood here without the pretense or overwhelm associated with typical pro-chef written cookbooks. Buy this book and watch his YT channel if you want to fall in love with the cooking process, actually enjoy the result, and become enamored with a brilliant, unapologetically French man all at the same time. If nothing else, he’ll teach you to spread the love like butter.
E**E
Easy to follow but sophisticated flavors. Great book for a budding chef just starting out.
I started following Alex on YouTube and was thrilled to find that he had a book out. His buttermilk pancake recipe is a HUGE hit with my southern family so that is saying something.A wide variety of recipes that sometimes need a copy editor but nothing that even a novice cook can’t figure out. Simple and delicious food is the centerpiece of any great kitchen and this book is a very solid foundation to build that kitchen on.
S**Y
A Tad Underwhelming
I don't want to say something like "more style than substance" as Alex's style and passion is what draws in viewers to his YouTube channel, myself included. But this cookbook did come off more as, I dunno, like a marketing agent's version of Alex. Or just a photo shoot. Or something? I dunno. It just is missing those deep dives and authenticity in the recipes themselves that you know and love from his videos. The recipes themselves are varied and robust enough (and delicious!), but are straightforward and standard in their descriptions and instructions.I can appreciate the attempt of the goofy fonts, cluttered pages, hashtags and photos of Alex but ultimately would've preferred that love and style be more focused in the recipes and instructions. The cookbook is built from the top to bottom, emphasizing the superficial style, rather than from the bottom to top. Again, I am not knocking the recipes at all. But they're the supporting cast at best when they should be front and center. This is your grandmother's cookbook with "hip" renames and a bunch of stickers and scribbles all over it. Take away the clutter and the recipes read very much like the textbooks he often likes to color outside the lines of on his channel.Still very happy with the purchase as Alex has really opened up my kitchen to me through his YouTube videos and I was happy to support him. And I do look forward to trying more and more of the recipes.
S**T
The author breaks down French Cooking with the scientific method
Living in Paris, Alex demystifies cooking by experimenting with food and cooking methods. In many ways, Alex repacks the physical chemistry of cooking so that French cuisine makes sense. He offers the insights of Julia Child, with the rigorous insights of chemistry and physics. If you are a technically trained person, this might be more appealing than a tomb on the mystery of cooking. I would highly recommend this book. It has profoundly changed how I cook, and his advice improved the quality of my cooking.
B**S
Excellent cookbook!
Lots of interesting recipes. From simple to more demanding, it’s all here. I actually read this like a novel and the annotations are fun to read. I would definitely recommend this!
B**E
Cucina francese e non solo per principianti
Da qualche tempo seguo i video di questo giovane Chef, adoro che presenti ricette francesi semplici ( come dice il titolo per principianti) e non solo. Nel libro si trovano molti spunti e possibilità di sostituzioni, oltre ad avere anche delle vere e proprie lezioni base su come tagliare le cipolle. Lo adoro
L**O
The most amazing French guy cooking
This book is amazing! The recipes, the pictures and the design! Alex you rock! WeLove the way you cook!
A**X
Muy buen libro fácil de leer. Très bon livre, facile à lire et comprendre.
C’est un livre top! Très bien écrit, des idées très intéressantes, facile à lire et comprendre.La verda es un gran libro de cocina. Esta bien escrito, tiene ideas muy divertidas e interesantes, es fácil de leer y entender.Aplausos a Alex por el libro,Saludos desde Bolivia
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