[.ca] Vie De France (ISBN 0425184722)

From Amazon.com:
"To see and taste and smell all this wonderful food was so heartening to me, I felt I had arrived in heaven," says James Haller in Vie de France. He's referring to the marketplace in the Loire Valley town of Savennieres, but his response encapsulates his "food encounter" during a month-long vacation he and friends took to the small community, where they rented a charming 17th-century house. The diarylike book details the trip and, in daily menus, the food Haller cooked--delightful country dishes like Sausage and Red Wine Ragout, Sorrel and Spinach Salad, and Green Plum Custard Tart. Though not presented in recipe form, the meals nonetheless receive sufficient description to whet appetites and encourage cooking. An ex-chef/restaurateur, Haller, in his early 60s, was looking for the next thing to do, and the house and his diary-keeping provided a necessary break that eventually led to a full-time writing commitment, of which this book is a result. His journey from fearfulness about the outcome of a spur-of-the-moment plan to relaxation and revelation in the French countryside is gratifying. Readers follow the process, joining Haller and company as they discover town butchers where meat is cut to order, supermarkets with multiple cheese aisles, local chateaux, and more while experiencing some of the predictable crosscultural contretemps. Though narratively thin, and lacking the exploration of self and others necessary to paint a penetrating picture, the book manages nonetheless to convey the culinary life and spirit of flower-saturated Savennieres. --Arthur Boehm

Worst Book I've Read in Ages:
It's hard to know where to begin critiquing this dreadful book, but suffice it to say if my middle schooler had turned this in as a "What I Did On My Vacation" essay, I'd have failed him. From the completely uninspired writing style to the astonishing errors in French spelling and terminology to the unsavory and repetitive recipes, it's just one big, sophomoric exercise. Readers, I dare you to count how many times "Chef" Haller writes "I sautéed \osometimes with the accent mark, and sometimes without\c some green beans in olive oil and a bit of garlic." How about that recipe for "French toast" that he repeats verbatim twice? Does a real chef actually use "cheap red wine that we bought just for cooking"? I don't know whether to blame him or his editor, or both, for the remarkable number of spelling errors (framboisse, fois gras, marguez) or the factual mistakes ("We drank a bottle of Badouit, a local mineral water"; "cassoulet actually comes from the Provence region"), but someone should take the rap. Take all this phony "knowledge" gleaned by an absolute amateur on a one-time, one-month trip to France and pair it with a penchant for walking readers through recipes as though they were in Montessori school ("First I chopped last night's turkey into bite-sized pieces and put those pieces into a large cast iron pot I found on the second shelf of the pantry" - OK, I fabricated that, but that's what it's like reading this guy), and you have one big snore of a book.

uplifting biographical story:
In 1996 having celebrated his sixtieth birthday in Maine, renowned chef James Haller, wary of the kitchen, decides to R & R in the French Loire Valley. He and friends rent a seventeenth century home in Savonnieres. Six people including James would stay the entire month that they have leased the property for while other friends will come by for shorter duration. The house combined the best of history with much of modern day convenience. The company was companionable both those staying in the house and the locals whose fresh foods at the markets provided James an invigorating regeneration and though he planned not to cook one meal the motivated chef was soon doing all the cooking. Though the recipes are what readers might expect from the author-chef, the key to this uplifting biographical month is how important friendship is to the human condition. France furbishes the atmosphere that rejuvenated a tired James. VIE DE FRANCE: SHARING FOOD, FRIENDSHIP, AND A KITCHEN IN THE LOIRE VALLEY is an inspirational toast to the stimulation of camaraderie that is a human need in order to live precious life to the fullest. Harriet Klausner

Food, wine and balance in life...:
This delightful book brings you to a place many of us want to be- in a lovely house nestled in a charming village, amongst good friends and family, sharing wonderful food and wine. In the US, food, wine and conversation are too often just brief pauses in the real business of life- work and getting ahead. James Haller's narrative reminds you the French have an alternative, a more balanced pace and focus where work is a necessary interlude between great meals and the cameraderie of friends. The experience in the Loire Valley rejuvenated a life-weary chef and the book reinvigorated me- it got me back in the kitchen to cook creatively for friends and reminded me that I had let work once again overshadow my real business of life.

Food, friends and France!:
You can almost taste the buttery brie and smell the crisp baguettes baking in chef James Hallers book, "Vie de France". Haller and a group of friends rented a lovely home in Savonnieres a small town in the Loire Valley for a month. The beauty of the area, availability of fine fresh food and warmth of good companions inspired Haller to share the time he spent in the region. In "Vie De France", Haller describes how he and his friends enjoyed their days, looking for antiques, exploring the marketplace and soaking up the atmosphere. Haller is an award winning chef and author of several cookbooks. He loves to eat, cook and shop for food. He relishes food and this radiates throughout the book. In each chapter, he shares mouthwatering morsels of the food he feasted on. He describes dishes he made using fresh, local ingredients and dishes he enjoyed at casual cafes and fancy restaurants. Haller walks you through the marketplace where he selects from four aisles of cheeses. You will pick from the freshest vegetables displayed like jewels. The butcher cuts your meat to order as you wait. In the patisserie the variety of breads, candies and pastries delight the eye. It's hard to decide between a "crusty round pain de compagnes" or a hearty wheat bread. Back in the kitchen, Haller prepares tasty dishes using natural, healthy ingredients like creamy French butter, olive oil, herbes de Provence and garlic. The delicious recipes he makes are interspersed throughout the book. Recipes included range from the simple - french toast baguette with an apricot sauce to the more complex - turkey cutlets stuffed with a mushroom pilaf in a white wine and sorrel cream sauce. Other recipes included range from the common - grilled meat and a nice green salad to the more unusual - baked snails in butter, lemon and parsley. The dining experience usually includes a fine red wine and a dessert. Desserts range from light to rich. A decadent creme caramel ends a simple soup and salad meal. Chocolate with hazelnuts tops a meal of sausage and red wine ragout. An apricot lavender tart completes a roast chicken stuffed with cassoulet. A table of menus at the beginning of the book makes finding the recipes easy. In "Vie De France" Haller will create his moroccan olive salad or fresh tomatoes in basil dressing for your enjoyment. You will tour the countryside perhaps stopping for a glass of red wine at the local cafe. You may stop at the antique shop and find a special piece of pottery or pay a visit to the patisserie and pick up a fresh baked apple tart. You will savor the fresh food, beautiful views and good friends. Lee Mellott

Enjoying friends and food in France:
Is it a book about travel? Is it a book about cooking? Yes, on both counts. James Haller's "Vie de France" tells of his experiences living in a rented house in a village in the Loire valley for a month with a group of friends. Like any good travel book, it leaves the reader with a strong impression of the countryside and the people, the culture and the atmosphere - with memories, as if you had spent that month there yourself. Better yet, the impression is of laughter, or at least smiles, and not tears. It also leaves you with memories of food prepared with care, even with love. Not classic French cooking, but Haller's personal style of cooking creatively yet simply. There is also the sense of adventure that comes from visiting a new place, with a foreign language, new towns and roads, restaurants that run on an offbeat schedule, and supermarkets that have a fascinating combination of the familiar and the strange. To emphasize the point that cooking is a major theme, the book has a table of menus, not a table of contents. Certainly a book about the joy of cooking, of travel, of friends, and of life.