New World Provence

Book excerpt: French cuisine is considered among the world’s best, but its traditional ingredients like butter and cream aren’t always appropriate for today’s heart-healthy diets. New World Provence is a new-style French cookbook designed with contemporary North American audiences in mind, featuring healthy, easy-to-find ingredients prepared using traditional French techniques tweaked with the home cook in mind. The book includes beautiful yet simple recipes that take advantage of meats, seafood, and vegetables abundant in North American markets; in keeping with their contemporary flair, pan-cultural influences abound, yet all the while the recipes remain faithful to French traditions. Authors Jean-Francis and Alessandra Quaglia are the husband-and-wife chefs and owners of Provence and Provence Marinaside, two fine dining establishments in Vancouver. Their recipes reflect not only North American sensibilities, but familial ones as well; they are the parents of two young sons, and Jean-Francis’ mother owns the famed Le Patalain restaurant in Marseilles, France. These relationships pervade the book, which reveals how a common love and respect for food can be passed on from generation to generation, from the old world to the new. The book features thirty-six stunning, full-color photographs and over 120 recipes, including prawns with chickpea gallette, whole rabbit barbecue, bean and wild mushroom ragout, fresh crab with tomatoes and fresh herbs, roasted vegetable tart, poached sea urchin on bread, and new-style bouillabaisse.