The title of this book is a bit deceiving. This is not a fat-fearing diet book; au contraire, author Mireille Guiliano is a cheese-loving, champagne-sipping lover of her native France’s often rich cuisine. What her book patiently teaches is the lost art of eating. That is, savouring flavours, cooking in tune with the seasons, intimately knowing one’s farmers’ markets, and treating food as both a source of nutrition and pleasure. At this time of year when magazines and websites can bombard us with an onslaught of post-holiday dieting tricks, Guiliano’s book reminds us that maintaining one’s figure is a process that can be enjoyed and a balancing act that takes careful thought.
As CEO of Veuve Clicquot Champagne, Guiliano divides her time between Paris and New York and has observed the customary eating habits of women on both continents. Like an anthropological study written by a stylish, charming, and exceptionally tactful French woman, Guiliano breaks down the North American rituals of eating versus the French customs. “America is a relatively young country by European standards,” she writes, “and being a great nation of immigrants, much less uniform as to its gastronomic norms. While this multitude of influences has produced many delicious results, America still lags in developing the sorts of coherent principles of eating that only a thousand years of history could achieve.” What ensues is a wake-up call to anyone who eats in front of a computer or TV screen, slaves away in the gym to indulge an ice cream habit, stocks up at the grocery store once a week, or commits any of the other common North American pitfalls that Guiliano observes.
Writing in a warm and witty tone, Guiliano describes the tricks of svelte French women—basically a combination of common sense and a healthy dose of moderation. Her description of eating and cooking in France is a literary trip to Parisian cafes and rural French markets. I’ve read the book three times, mostly for a good dose of French exposure, but also to get myself out of any bland ruts I may have found myself in the depths of a Canadian winter. Guiliano’s love of food and good health are enlightening and inspirational. “A healthy body and healthy mind work together,” she writes, “To maintain both, there is no substitute for joie de vivre.”
Published by Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN 1-4000-4212-7.
Available at Barbara Jo’s Books for Cooks and Munro’s.
