French Cooking for One

‘‘This slender volume insists that food for one should be simple yet delicious. Drawing on memories of her French grandmother’s cookery, Roberts’ recipes are elegant and – mostly – quick to prepare: celeriac croquettes, trout with almonds, or sausages with apples and cider. A delightful little book.’ - Constance Craig Smith, Daily Mail Best Cookery Books for Christmas‘To make a proper supper for yourself is, afterall, a kind and tender thing to do if you’re under pressure - and [Roberts’]book contains only recipes for one person. For the absence of doubt, however, Imust stress it isn’t the kind of manual that has you making lasagne, to befrozen in individual portions. The dishes included are at once more simple andmore luxurious than that. Mussel salad with ravigote sauce. Rabbit withmustard. Steak with bordelaise sauce. So many micro feasts, and every one ofthem nourishment for body and soul. (…) [Roberts’ book is] edged like anold tablecloth with the spirit of her maternal grandparents’ kitchen as well asher own domestic expertise. Most of the recipes, short and uncomplicated, aimto deliver the perfect effort-to-taste ratio; if she has an ElizabethDavid-like briskness on the page, she’s also a sensualist, a part-timesybarite. But even if you’re not in the mood for cooking, simply to read themis to encourage rumination. She is such a noticing writer, and in her handsyou find yourself doing the same, a dowdy cauliflower suddenly beautiful, aslab of marbled meat a world unto itself.’ - Rachel Cooke, ObserverFood Monthly‘Michele Roberts’ enchanting book French Cooking for One proves la cuisine francaisecan be enjoyed alone, when there is nothing to interrupt the joy ofpreparing good ingredients and turning them into enticing dishes. Heranecdotes and notes of wisdom that accompany the recipes make her theperfect companion in the kitchen.’ - Carolyn Boyd, author of Amuse Bouche

A former food columnist for the New Statesman, Michele Roberts has always written about food and cookery in her novels and short stories. Half-French and half-English, she learned to cook at her grandparents’ home in Normandy. She is the author of 15 acclaimed novels, including Daughters of the House (shortlisted for the Booker Prize). She is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, a Chevalier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. As a republican, she turned down an OBE in 2003.