Help finding a French cookbook for soups

[John Talbott]

After reading that the French eat soup 5 nites a week on average it occurred to me there must be one or more fabulous cookbooks for soups. With the way I eat at lunch I think I might just up my twice a week habit to more. Anyone have one they trust (the array at FNAC looked impossible to choose between). Thanks.

[Laidback]

John,

the Bar à Soupes has one on their website:http://www.lebarasoupes.com

[LindaK]

I love soup but am more in the habit of ordering it in restaurants or even take-out for lunch than making it at home. No good reason why... I always enjoy soups in France. Last fall en vacance, I ordered soupe de potiron (pumpkin soup) at lunch almost every day and had so many variations, I never tired of it.

For the basics, Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking has a good line-up of fundamental recipes. I've had excellent luck with James Peterson's Splendid Soups. The latter is hardly devoted to French cuisine but there are probably two dozen recipes for French soups amongst the many other international recipes (all worth trying) and it includes a discussion of general techniques (stocks, etc.) that are essential to making soups of any sort. Patricia Wells' Bistro Cooking also has several reliable recipes that are easily made.

None of these are en francais, malheuresment, but I don't have access to a FNAC here in the states.

[zeitoun]

Sorry, not quite a cookbook nor soup specific but for "French" recipes these days, I refer to this website quite frequently.

Counting soupes, veloutes, potages, cremes, cappucinos and gaspacho, I counted 50 recipes, and this is only in the "entrees" section.

In terms of books, I have heard good things about "Soupes Du Jour" from Anne Catherine Bley. I do not have it but my sister does and almost swears by it, and I trust her in the kitchen!!

Edited February 9, 2005 by zeitoun (log)

[Jon Tseng]

James Petersons Soup book is very good (very much after his Sauces book)

Not exclusively French but theres a lot of French in it

J

[phaelon56]

After reading that the French eat soup 5 nites a week on average

Hmmmm. BUt why so few casual eating places that offer something other than onion soup gratinee? My GF prefers soup to most other choices for a light meal and we rarely saw anything other than onion soup on the menu boards we perused at many cafe's i Paris. Even the casual take-away places or food court type establishments seemed to lack soup.

Is it like press-pot coffee.... something that is typically prepared and consumed at home but not out?

[Bux]

Back in '65.Mrs. B and I spent quite a bit of time in Paris over a six month period and all of it on a very small budget. A typical lunch in a neighborhood bistro or restaurant would usually start with a simple salad -- maybe cucumbers or tomatoes -- or something like a hard bioled egg and homemade mayonnaise. For dinner, potage was always among the offerings for a first course. Potage was always cheap, filling and nutritious. A friend living in Paris at the time advised us that there was always potage, even when it wasn't on the menu. That's not the case today. The potage isn't there, and the little places we found without looking, aren't there as much either. Aux Lyonnaise reminds me of the high end of those places -- the ones in which we splurged. Machon d'Henri is closer, but still upscale from the places we knew and loved.

[chefzadi]

The onion soups are still there because it's perceived as a bistro classic that most people don't make at home. It's also pretty easy for a chef to make "passable" versions of one without spending alot of time or money on ingredients. Even so we had a pretty hard time finding onion soup of reasonable quality the dozen or so times my wife and I have been in the past 7 years. Whereas when I was a student in Paris many moons ago a good onion soup was a relatively easy find.

The quality of food is "going down" in France, not because of a lack of skilled chefs or

arrogance on the part of chefs (as was implied in some threads) nor is it because French people have gotten lazy or unappreciated of quality (as was implied in some other threads) it is more because France is becoming a less agricultural country and the cost of doing business for the small owner or the artisan is much too high. It's not just restaurants. Where are the artisanal bakers? It's more and more about "big business" in France. I read somewhere that over 100,000 small businesses have closed in the past 20 years. (I will get back later with the source).

Big business cares about the bottom line.

Cheap, filling, nutritious AND made from scratch just isn't possible in areas with high rent, high taxes and high wages. Unless the owner hires illegals, but that's another topic.

[Bux]

The quality of food is "going down" in France, not because of a lack of skilled chefs or

arrogance on the part of chefs (as was implied in some threads) nor is it because French people have gotten lazy or unappreciated of quality (as was implied in some other threads) it is more because France is becoming a less agricultural country and the cost of doing business for the small owner or the artisan is much too high. It's not just restaurants. Where are the artisanal bakers? It's more and more about "big business" in France. I read somewhere that over 100,000 small businesses have closed in the past 20 years. (I will get back later with the source).

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It's never simple, and those things are intertwined, but Mort Rosenblum gave some staggering figures about the move away from agriculture in France in his A Goose in Toulouse. Small farms are dying as the sons and daughters of farmers opt for life in the city.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

After reading that the French eat soup 5 nites a week on average it occurred to me there must be one or more fabulous cookbooks for soups.  With the way I eat at lunch I think I might just up my twice a week habit to more.  Anyone have one they trust (the array at FNAC looked impossible to choose between).  Thanks.

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If I read you correctly, John, you are looking for recipes for French styled soups for you to create at home. No? Agreeing with you about FNAC's selection (of just about any cooking category), I would suggest that you just "point and shoot". Or, just peruse your vegetable basket and refrigerator crisper. My husband, now retired, requires lunch 7/7 , and one soup course comes into play a couple of days a week.

Think the classic French puree: leftover or freshly cooked veggies,including some form of the onion family, broth or cream, whirred in your blender and served hot or tepid. Dusted with herbs, crumbs, bacon pieces or floating veggie bits, croutons, fois gras, heck, you get the point.

You don't need a book; just a coin de cuisine.

[rjwong]

John,

Are you familiar with a recent publication titled The soups of France by Lois Anne Rothert (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2002)?

The book is in English, and apparently, Rothert spent ten years collecting these soup recipes from the different regions of France, with sprinklings of MFK Fisher-type commentaries.

I've never encountered this book. I was just doing a library search for you since the question was asked. I hope this helps.

[bleudauvergne]

Hi John,

There are lots of links to recipes for soups here. (click) Among many others, you can find:

Name of the Soup (followed by the name of the chef that contributed the recipe)

Soupe a l'indienne (Anne-marie De Gennes)

Soupe a la bière et farine brulée (Thierry Schwartz)

Soupe au pistou (Michel De Matteis)

Soupe aux fèves (Pierre Koenig)

Soupe d'asperges et de blanc de poulet (Bernard Mariller)

Soupe d'huitre (Michel Oliver)

Soupe d'oeuf mollet au basilic (Xavier Mathieu)

Soupe d'orties, tranche de pain au jambon (René Meilleur)

Soupe de bolets au lard croustillant (Alexandre Faix)

Soupe de cresson à l'oeuf (Henri Charvet)

Soupe de cresson et escargots (Romuald Fassenet)

Soupe de favouilles (Jean-andre Charial)

Soupe de foie gras en croute (Joel Robuchon)

Soupe de grenouilles au riesling (Olivier Nasti)

Soupe de haricots (Jean Albrecht)

Soupe de haricots aux coquillages (Alain Dutournier)

Soupe de melon au lillet blanc (Gaelle Benoiste Pilloire)

Soupe de moules de bouchot à l'orange, effilochée de légumes (Thierry Conte)

Soupe de moules et mimolette (Eric Provost)

Soupe de potimarron, tortellinis de chèvre frais à la fleur de thym (Serge Chenet)

Soupe de potiron, fleurette au goût de lard (Marc Veyrat)

Soupe glacée à la tomate (Christian Millet)

Soupe minute velours vert (Georges Blanc)

Soupe de canard (Philippe Redon)

Soupe d'asperges à la mélisse et langoustines rôties (David Zuddas)

Soupe de moules au curry (Eric Frechon)

Soupe de poireaux et pomme de terre au cabillaud (Pascal Auger)

Soupe de poisson (Gerard Lorenzoni-salini)

Soupe d'oranges, d'ananas et de fraises à la menthe fraîche (Philippe Gobet)

Soupe de bananes a l'ananas (Babette Fuzellier)

Soupe de chocolat aux pommes à la cannelle (Pierre Herme)

Soupe de melon aux framboises (Pierre Koenig)

Soupe victoria au safran, quenelle maringuée (Sonia Ezgulian)

I don't have a cookbook for soups, I tend to follow my nose at the market and also catch ideas wherever I can for soups. I keep an eye out for really wonderful food combinations and I like to make them in soup form.

[John Talbott]

OK; I think I've got the next 3 years of supper soups covered. This thread really had legs; you never know. Thanks everyone. One more book in French I learned of was Soupes by Sophie Brissaud. Now "aux marmites."

[chefzadi]

John-

There are several categories of soup in France.

Just the simplest descriptions here...

Potage- Thick soup with pureed vegetables.

Veloute- Smooth, creamy textured soup. Often made from a single vegetable.

Potee- Regional Cabbage soup

Creme- Thickened with potatoes, sometimes flour or both.

Bouillon- Clear broth for beef, fish or vegetables.

Consomme- Concentrated beef broth/stock.

Bisque- Shellfish soup, such as lobster or shrimp.

Gratinee- Melted cheese on top.

Soupe- Can have a lot of ingredients. Usually not pureed.

Soupe du Jour= leftover ingredients at most restaurants.

[Bux]

Soupe du Jour= leftover ingredients at most restaurants.   

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And often listed as "soup du jur" or even "soup de jur" on many American menus. In one restaurant asked the waitress about the soup du jur. I think I said "what's the soup du jour." She went into the kitchen and returned to tell me, with a straight face, it was the soup of the day. I suppose I should have asked which vegetables were left over last night.