'So many
micro feasts, and every one of them nourishment for body and soul.' -Rachel
Cooke, Observer Food Monthly



Whether cooking for one on a daily or an occasional basis, cooking well for
yourself means cherishing yourself and your appetites, joyously giving yourself
pleasure, opening yourself to new experiences. This book will encourage you to
do all that. - M. R.



A unique work of literary and culinary joie de vivre, part food memoir,
part recipe book, French Cooking for One is Michele Roberts' first
cookbook, and a personal and quirky take on Edouard de Pomiane's ten-minute
cooking classic. Once a food writer for the New Statesman, Roberts was
born in 1949 and raised in a bilingual French-English household, learning to
cook from her French grandparents in Normandy. Her love of food and cookery has
always shone through in her novels and short stories.



French cuisine, classic though it is, still
holds delicious surprises. From quick bites for busy days to sumptuous main
courses for those who enjoy spending more time in the kitchen, the focus
throughout is on dishes that are simple and fun to prepare, and results that
are mouthwatering to contemplate and, of course, to eat.



With over 160 delicious recipes, the majority
of which are vegetarian, combined with piquant storytelling and feminist wit,
French Cooking for One is a working cook's book with French flair, bursting
with life and illustrated with the author's original ink drawings, full of
charm and humour.



More than a handbook of classic French
dishes, French Cooking for One does something that few, if any,
cookbooks do: it bears testimony to a singular literary life.



Gorgeously
written vignettes of Roberts' childhood in Normandy and of her years living in
Pays de la Loire are peppered with anecdotes about intellectual and artistic
luminaries: an omelette prepared by Gertrude Stein's cook for Picasso; a simple
pasta dish calling to mind the French philosopher Julia Kristeva and the
Scottish poet Alison Fell's images of female orgasm; and Emma Bovary's
extraordinary wedding cake, among others.