The Cook and The Gardener by Amanda Hesser

The Cook and the Gardener by Amanda Hesser 

This book came out in 2000, and the subtitle is A Year of Recipes and Writings for the French Countryside.

This award-winning book offers a lovely blend of cookbooks and garden stories that allow you to live vicariously with Hesser on a culinary school of the estate in Burgundy, France. 

Since the book is about traditional French gardening and cooking, it also captures the local customs and wisdom cultivated in provincial France.

Each chapter covers a month. The book can be read one season at a time, following along with the changes on the calendar and in the harvest.   Each season offers a recipe for stock.

The little stories about the gardener are delightful, and there are wonderful tips that gardeners will appreciate. For instance, Amanda learned not to pick cabbages before a frost because the frost enhances the flavor. There’s a lovely recipe for pumpkin soup and all kinds of preserves.

This is my favorite book because it’s part cookbook, garden story, and history.

Best of all, the tone is cozy-cozy, charming, and conversational.

You can get a copy of The Cook and the Gardener by Amanda Hesser and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $3.