Originally published in France under the title:
Cent Merveilles de la cuisine francaise.

The author selects one hundred of his favorite recipes out of the entire range of French cookery: from simple country-style dishes to the triumphs of the haute cuisine.

Robert Courtine is a world-renowned authority on French cuisine. For almost twenty-five years he has been writing an avidly read column called "The Pleasures of the Table" for the Paris newspaper Le Monde. Like many of the great gastronomes in history and fiction, Courtine is a marvelous storyteller: highly opin­ionated, even cantankerous, but always enter­taining. His anecdotes about unusual dishes, superb or dreadful restaurants, prodigious eaters, and imperious chefs are written with gusto, and well seasoned with salt-and-pepper comments.
This profusely illustrated book is Courtine’s selection of his hundred favorite recipes out of the entire range of French cookery: from simple country-style dishes to the triumphs of the haute cuisine. To those who cannot follow him across France into the high places of culinary art, Courtine says: No matter, make these dishes yourself, and he provides his own keys to the heart of the French kitchen. Drawing on the legerde­main of the great chefs, Courtine's book is a cultural history of French cooking, with emphasis on those dishes that have stood the test of time: from such classics as Coquilles Saint-Jacques, Caneton Tour d’Argcnt, and Choucroute to lesser-known pleasures such as Estofinado, Dindon Farci, and Lapin en Gelée.
The hundred dishes Courtine has chosen in­clude soups, fish dishes, entrees, vegetables, and desserts. He introduces each recipe with a fascinating essay about its origin and development, interelarding all sorts of odd and intriguing tales associated with the dish. For each recipe, he also proposes the specific menu which will best complement the dish, and the wine to accom­pany the meal. Over three hundred illustrations—old engravings, paintings, photographs, drawings add to the charm of this gourmet’s treas­ure chest.

ROBERT COURTINE was born in 1910 and began writing a weekly column for Le Monde, in 1949, called “The Pleasures of the Table,” which he signed with the pseudonym La Rey­nière. He has been awarded the Prix Interna­tional de Littérature Gastronomique and is a member of the Académie Rabelais. He has published several books, including La Cuisine Française and La Cuisine du Monde entier, each of which has been translated into ten languages.