La Grande Bleue: Mediterranean Recipes & Products - Authentic Flavors for Home Cooking & Gourmet Dining

Saada, whose Bagnard restaurants in Paris offer striking twists on Mediterranean street food, has a resume that includes stints working in the Michelin-starred kitchens of Yannick Alléno, Frédéric Anton, and William Ledeuil,

Here, in La Grande Bleu, he’s more interested in presenting traditional dishes than he is in mixing them up as he does at Bagnard. But it’s still easy to detect his interest in flavors and ingredient combinations that go beyond the repetitive staples of so many other Mediterranean books. For example, la malawach, a layered vegetable sandwich popularized by Yemenite Jews in Israel; Tunisian bombolini, a fried round of dough, often stuffed, adopted from Italy; asparagus and clams with geranium water; octopus with figs and hibiscus.

Bold photography and simple page design underscore the accessibility of this cooking.

In French. Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.