What’s up with France?!

I thought it was my imagination at first, but book after book seems to insist: France is back – in case you ever thought it went away.  Maybe it’s because we’re all sick of winter and dreaming springtime-in-Paris dreams. Maybe it’s because once again, people are saying butter is not evil.  Maybe that Provence, 1970 book last year was the trigger. Whatever the reason, French cookbooks are everywhere.

Some are personal odes, usually entitled according to  the formula My + Paris/Provençal/French + Kitchen/Table.  (Remember Dorie Greenspan’s wonderful French book a few years back?) Now we have David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen and Alec Lobrano/Steven Rothfel’s Hungry for France, and Patricia Wells’ The French Kitchen Cookbook. 

Then there are regional cookbooks like Cuisine Niçoise and Provence Food and Wine. There are chef books like Daniel Boulud’s Daniel and Greg Marchand’s Frenchie.  There are reissues like La Mère Brazier, and “easy French” offerings like Rachel Khoo‘s books and Manu Feildel’s French for Everyone.

And last but not least, there’s A la Mère de Famille, from the eponymous French confectionery – making us wonder if we’re seeing an advance wave of confectionery books to follow last year’s  French pastry wave.

All of this presents EYB’ers with one great big problem: which French cookbooks are you willing to get rid of to make room for more?