"THE LONG-CHERISHED, SECRET RECIPES OF SIXTY GREAT PARISIAN CHEFS"

BEARD, James. Paris Cuisine. Boston: Little, Brown, (1952). Octavo, original gray cloth, original dust jacket. $350.

First edition of this early James Beard title, co-authored with Alexander Watt, a compendium of the "specialités de la maison" of popular Parisian restaurants, with color frontispiece and in-text illustrations by Vladimir Bobri. A lovely copy in the original dust jacket.

James Beard was "one of the country's leading authorities on food and drink and its foremost champion of American cooking" (New York Times). "Primarily this is a book of unique recipes, the specialités de la maison, from chefs in restaurants where, if they are not in fact the proprietors, they are high in command. These recipes are the secret pride and joy of consummately skilled individual artists… This is not just another French cook book, for some of the restaurants specialize in Italian, Russian and other foreign schools of cooking. It is frankly an exotic cook book and an exclusive one in the sense that we have striven to set down for you in black and white the best of the best" (Introduction).

A lovely, about-fine copy.