Simple French Food

Olney, Richard. Simple French Food (3rd Imp) Atheneum: New York, USA 1975. 8vo (240x160mm) oatmeal cloth, red & blue lettered bds t.e red, [2],ix,[1],433,[3]pp. (foreword by James Beard) [SIGNED & inscribed bookplate to Harriet Healy to ffep] VG-/VG

OLNEY, Richard (1927-1999)

Simple French Food

New York: Atheneum, February 1975. Printed by H Wolff, New York. Foreword by James Beard; drawings by the author; designed by Harry Ford. Third printing.

Octavo (240x155mm) beige 'heavy linen weave' cloth, red lettered spine, navy blue lettered, boards; blue endpapers, top-edges red, [2],ix,[1],433,[3]pp.

SIGNED large plain vernacular 'bookplate' inscribed "for Harriet Healy - ami calement Richard Olney" to front free-endpaper.

Unclipped dust jacket several small scuff marks, several very small chips to edges, edges lightly soiled, small blemish to verso; faint shelf wear, small occasional signs of kitchen use (saute of green beans (p179) was apparently a favourite); very faint foxing to fore-edges.

Olney's influence on the quiet culinary revolution in the English-speaking world in the late twentieth century can't be over-estimated.  His first book, The French Menu Cookbook, published in 1970, with its emphasis on seasonal ingredients and cooking, and local and traditional techniques and recipes had a profound effect on chefs and restaurateurs such as Alice Waters (Chez Panisse) and Simon Hopkinson (Bibendum) and wine importers such as Kermit Lynch.  Elegant prose, classic good taste and masterful careful instructions made it an instant classic. Simple French Food, his second book, was published to great acclaim, and is considered one of the best books on cuisine bourgeoise or cuisine simple yet published in English.

A contemporary and good friend to Julia Child, James Beard, and Elizabeth David, amongst others, Olney was that rareity, an American in France, acknowledged and feted by the French for his contribution to their gastronomy.  Olney authored a newspaper column for over a decade "An American in Paris"; wrote the official biography of Chateau d'Yquem and Domaine Romanee-Conti, two of the greatest wines of France; and was the editor and driving force behind the seminal and ground-breaking Time-Life series 'The Good Cook'.

Harriet Healy (1899-1998) opened a high-society cooking school  and kitchenware store in Palm Beach, Florida in 1951 having attended Le Cordon Bleu and later L'Ecole de Trois Gourmandes (the cookery school started by Julia Child, Simone ('Simca') Beck and Louisette Bertholle) in Paris.  The cooking-school became nationally renowned and hosted many significant chefs, authors and customers.  She was a life-long friend and correspondent of Julia Child (and her sister Dort) and spent many summers in the South of France.  She was the author of several cookbooks.  In 1975, she took for the summer a cottage on the property owned by Simca Beck's family where both Simca and Julia had their Provencal homes; and where Olney, Beard and many other culinary luminaries met and dined regularly.  Healy also hosted many chefs and authors in her store and home in Florida from this circle and Olney almost certainly conducted cooking classes at Bon Gout on his book tours.

Olney's Simple French Food is the only culinary work to have been the basis of a successful (albeit settled) claim for breach of copyright in a recipe.

A significant copy of an important work.

ISBN: 0689105754