The Cook and the Gardener - Tapa blanda

A seasonal tribute to the symbiotic relationship between a chef and her provider of ingredients. In courting the wisdom of M. Milbert, Hesser gained the kind of old-fashioned seasonable sensibility that many of us have lost today and her delightful recipes reflect this. Both Hesser's taste and voice are gentle and sure. This is most assuredly a cookbook, with a collection of 250 seasonal recipes. But Hesser devotes the majority of her exceptional prose to the yearlong blossoming of her friendship with (and informal apprenticeship to) Monsieur Milbert, the august 79-year-old tender of the chateau's two-acre vegetable garden. The Cook and the Gardener is more than an excellent cookbook. Hesser's knowledgeable, graceful, and opinionated prose calls to mind the great food writers M. F. K. Fisher and Elizabeth David.

Laced with insights into human nature as well as into nature itself, this text is a rare culinary and literary experience that cooks and gardeners alike will embrace.