French cuisine has a reputation for ventricle rupturing invention and Fernand Point was one of its greatest practitioners. This is his personal notebook of guidelines and pairings and discoveries, first published in 1969. The notes are often written in shorthand for himself and his staff. Explanations of common culinary terms are ommited, unless the minutiae are deemed extremely important. The idea is the point. The recipes are marvelous, including easily executed pates (whose simplicity I was surprised by) and two ducks browned and de-glazed with cognac, braised in two bottles of Chateauneuf-du-Papes, removed from the pot, cooking liquid reduced, pork blood added, topped with Mornay sauce, sprinkled with parmesan and mushrooms and finally finished in the oven. It is the kind of food that has become unfashionable, leaving the dinner table for the annals of cuisine, but its legendary status is preserved here.
