Cooking with Louis P. De Gouy

[Lindacakes]

I just bought my second Louis P. De Gouy cookbook. I already had The Pie Book. I had a Dover edition of The Pie Book and I replaced it with a hardcover version I found. Then I fell for the cover of Ice Cream Desserts for Every Occasion and bought that. On the back of Ice Cream, there's an ad for The Gold Cookbook.

I've read the biographical blurb. His father, Jean De Gouy, was Esquire of Cuisine at the Imperial Courts of Austria and Belgium. He studied under Escoffier. He cooked at a variety of grand hotels the world over. He was chef on J. P. Morgan's yacht during it's round-the-world cruise. He wrote for Gourmet magazine.

But other than finding his books here and there, I'm not hearing any De Gouy lore. Has anyone actually cooked from his books?

[Darienne]

Hi Lindacakes,

I know nothing about this gentleman but my ears perk up at the word 'ice cream'. Have you made any of the desserts yet? Do they feature making your own ice cream? And what method? Any really mouthwatering desserts? I take it that it is well-illustrated.

Thanks for any feedback.

[Lindacakes]

There are no pictures -- the De Gouy books that I have are compendiums of recipes and variations. Ice Cream Desserts was published in 1948 and includes recipes for bombes, coupes, frappes, mousse, parfaits and sherbets.

Some of the items on my To Do list from it include rhubarb ice, chocolate spice ice cream, concord grape ice cream, date and ginger ice cream, nougat ice cream, prune almond ice cream, snow ice cream, banana marshmallow mousse, blue plum mousse, molasses mousse, banana sherbet, and rhubarb orange marmalade sherbet.

[BarbaraY]

I have his very battered Gold Cook Book, copyright 1947, published 1960. I got it in 1961 or '62. It was my first "gourmet" cook book.

Trying to remember what I cooked from it but that's a long time ago and I discovered Julia Child and that became my go to book.

It is a book of all types of recipes. I find the description of the discovery of waffles hilarious.

[Lindacakes]

I'm picturing the discovery of waffles is kind of like the Lascaux caves . . . Someone "discovered" them while out doing something else . . . There was a grove of waffles, just beyond the river . . .

[SylviaLovegren]

You made me pull out my copy of The Gold Cook Book (a reprint) which I got at a garage sale a while back and hadn't gotten around to really looking at yet. It's loads of fun, all kinds of amusing little stories woven into the recipe headers, which I didn't expect. It's very much a French-American mid-20th century sensibility, but there are massive numbers of recipes -- something like 30 for poached egg dishes alone, some of which look very much worth trying. Also eyeing the lime ladyfingers and the almond fritters, lo-carb be darned.