Spiced

The New York Times has called Philippe Delacourcelle's Paris restaurant Le Pre Verre "one of the city's most fascinating bistros." High praise for a chef at the crowded center of French cuisine but richly deserved, as anyone who delves into these recipes will quickly discover. Delacourcelle's dishes are justly famous for their freshness, originality, and ease of preparation, and for infusing traditional French cooking with a modern taste, in particular the wealth of spices from cuisines around the world. There are 151 recipes adapted here for American measurements and markets: artichokes in a lemongrass sauce; wild mushroom mousse with saffron; duckling in honey and African pepper; a salad of wild rice, mango, basil, and star anise; licorice chocolate tart. Recognizably French but subtly transformed by the aromas and flavors of the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, this is French cooking for a New World, as exotic as it is familiar and as satisfyingly complex as it is simple to prepare. The translators, Adele and Bruce King, provide metric measurements and also adaptations for American cooks. Keeping what is uniquely French and exotic in Delacourcelle's recipes, the Kings suggest how American cooks might evolve their own ideas.