What I'm Reading: John Singer Sargent: Portraits of Artists & Friends

Before moving onto today's post, I want to circle back for a moment to my "What I'm Reading Right Now" post on April 13th, where I talked about the recently published book, John Singer Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends. The Metropolitan Museum has opened an exhibition of the same title from June 30th - October 4th that highlights paintings featured in the book and is definitely worth a visit!  See "Source" located below today's post for the link to that earlier post.

I've just come across a fascinating cookbook by Daniel de la Falaise: Nature's Larder Cooking with the Senses via The Style Saloniste Blog, who discusses the book with him.  Daniel is a chef/farmer/model and now author of an extraordinary cookbook.  What really appealed to me is that this book is not only beautifully photographed by Daniel, but even if you never attempt any of the dishes, his writing eloquently explains his personal life philosophy and includes enough engaging anecdotes to make this an absorbing leisurely summer read. 

Daniel belongs to quite an illustrious family: he's the nephew of Loulou de la Falaise, the grandson of famed fashion designer/hostess Maxime de la Falaise, the grand-nephew of Mark Birley (Annabel's, London), son of furniture designer, Alexis de la Falaise and Rose, his mother is a well regarded gardener.  His approach throughout Nature's Larder is to connect the food to the land, cooking seasonally farm to table, with particular emphasis on vegetables and achieving, with minimal manipulation the best the ingredients for a particular dish have to offer.  Daniel's introduction to living on the land and developing a lifelong respect for that particular way of life began with his father Alex, who raised the family on farms in Wales and England and considers himself a farmer's son.  Daniel's early mentors were Mark Birley, the owner of Harry's Bar London and Alberico Penati, who was the head chef with whom he apprenticed. Today, according to Daniel, Alberico "has the best Italian restaurant in Paris by far, Penati al Baretto on rue Balzac."  Right there is the reason I've been looking for to have a rendezvous in Paris...