Comments on: Ma Gastronomie Republished

By: Kirk

Kirk — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I found a copy of this book a few years back when it was still out of a print and paid a tidy sum to purchase. Though I cannot argue with its importance to and impact on so many great chefs today, when I first read it I was disappointed. The cover bears Point’s name and no other and the first person possessive of the title would indicate a work by Point himself. Yet the book is mainly about Point and La Pyramide written years after the fact. There are recipes and the brief passages you cite but most of the book is not the great cuisinier’s voice. Still, I pulled it off the shelves again last night and it made for some wonderful dreams.

By: Laurence

Laurence — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I have the old edition, and read it from time to time. The recipes are very old school in explanation – take some lettuce and stew it in butter – but it’s the little one-liners and stories that take this book into my Pantheon. When I read someplace that Charlie Trotter liked having champagne in the kitchen, it was a LOL moment. That bugger’s affecting Point! FP used mags. What style!

By: Elizabeth Clauser

Elizabeth Clauser — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I had pre-ordered mine ages ago on super sale. I just received it yesterday and, after reading your entry, am even more excited to dive in!

By: John Dumbrille

John Dumbrille — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Ditto. “Success is the sum of a lot of little things done correctly.”
Michael Caine played a character in Mona Lisa who was of a similar ilk. Noblesse oblige.

By: Bob delGrosso

Bob delGrosso — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

What a pity that Point is on record with not much more than “Ma Gastronomie.”

No matter, he is a god.

By: luis

luis — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Someday I may be ready for this book. Right now I just don’t feel worthy. Too much learning ahead before this type book will be required in MY kitchen. Met Matt Damon tonite the movie star!…. he suggested I vote next Wednesday… (Elections being held on Tuesday). I hope he has got it right… otherwise socialism is just dejavu nightmare dreams become reality once again for me. The older I get the more nigthmaresihhh! disapointments I have under my belt. Wish I was born under a diff star. Some of us just seem to be at ease in our times….

By: Scotty Harris

Scotty Harris — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

The blog didn’t like the phrase: a new commentary of (Insert the work of your favorite author here!)

By: Scotty Harris

Scotty Harris — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

A good year – 1955 – my wife was born then. But, thanx for your response. If there was a new commentary, like a new commentary on I might buy it, but I have come to adore the condiment stains on my existing copy – I like to read while I eat!

By: ruhlman

ruhlman — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

scott, the only thing new to my knowledge along with some amended recipes is the intro by Keller.

I daresay if he’d known when he was first given the book by chef henin, in his early twenties, that he would one day be asked write the forward, he’d have tipped over like a felled redwood.

for people who like coincidences: point died in 1955, the year keller was born.

By: Sean Kelly

Sean Kelly — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Great!

This transplanted Clevelander is #3 on the Seattle Public Library list.

By: Katie

Katie — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Much like chadzilla, I’ve been wanting to get my hands on this book for a loooooong time, so I’m glad to see it back in print, and already purchased it on Amazon…thanks, Mike!

By: Erin

Erin — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

That is fantastic! I had a rather elderly copy that disappeared in my last move and I’ve been dying for a new copy.

By: jscirish27

jscirish27 — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Great, now I have a reason to go to Kitchen Arts & Letters on my day off besides browsing. Can’t wait to check it out.

By: Scott Harris

Scott Harris — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

It may be a beautiful new edition, with a great new introduction, but is there anything there that I won’t find in my old ‘74 edition? MOney is tight these days

By: david

david — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I like that Point instructed his waiters, if a diner lit up a cigarette between courses, to immediately bring them their check, noting to the client; “Obviously you’re done with dining.”

Of course, inventing the Marjolaine endears his even further…

By: chadzilla

chadzilla — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I have been trying to aquire this book for about a year now (with limited cooperation from Amazon for some reason). It’s one that I’ve never read, and so badly want to dive into it. I’m a sucker for old school food rhetoric and how it relates to modern food.
One of my mentor chefs detested Point because for him, he represented the cuisine that he was trying to break away from. Years later (and a couple of food movements later), we can see Fernand Point from the perspective that he was trying to break free from the cuisine of his mentors… well, not break free exactly, but find a more free form of expression. How far we have come, and how still very relevant to all that is happening today.

By: jodycakes

jodycakes — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

“Success is the sum of a lot of little things done correctly.”

THIS STATEMENT IS BRILLIANT…and should be the mantra of anyone just starting out…it ain’t gonna be easy.

Awesome recommendation – thank you.
Will pick up a copy.

By: Rhonda

Rhonda — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Thanks Michael. I look forward to reading this book 18 years from now when it becomes available in Canada (providing we don’t burn it).

By: NYCook

NYCook — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Good to be back. Doubles for the past month, so not much time to post. Before I get started Ruhlman I was wondering if you had a chance to read AC’s Urban Italian and if so would like to get your thoughts on it.

Anyway I consider this book. Ferdinand Points book among MY holy trinity of cookbooks the other two being Marco Pierre White’s Devil in the kitchen and Escoffiers Le Guide Culinare. What can I say i am a sucker for that old school French shit although I no longer cook it. “OUI CHEF!” I would love to add Fergus Hendersons book to that list but I just don’t see any wiggle room so we will call that 3B.

Anyway back to Point. I remember I had to do a project on him way back in the day in
B-block Gastronomy in “Lord” John Nihoffs class at the CIA and just thinking to myself this dude(Point that is)knew how to do it right man.

This is my favorite quote from his book, and I guess a shot across the bow of those people who time and time again post complaints on this forum about having to make stock…
“Every morning the cuisinier must start again at zero, with nothing on the stove. That is what real cuisine is all about.”

By: S. Woody

S. Woody — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Synchronicity strikes:

In Judith Jones’ The Tenth Muse, which I was reading yesterday, I came across her telling of meeting Point at La Pyramide in 1948:

“When we were about to feeling far too scruffy for such an elegant place, a very large man – well over six feet and more than three hundred pounds, I’d guess – approached us. His eyes were on Nikki, and he asked if our caniche was hungry. I piped up and said yes, and so were we, but I was afraid that we were not properly dressed for this lovely place, and, of course, we didn’t have a reservation. Maybe it was because of our tawny-colored poodle (I learned later that he had one) that he reached out his hand, said that he was Fernand Point and wanted to feed us, so please come in.”

She goes on to remember the marvelous meal he served them (the dog first, of course). Given Ms. Jones’ memory of the food and the man, I’ll be interested in reading his own thoughts, in his own words. Thank’s for the heads up!