Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook

Globally beloved chef Anthony Bourdain's bestselling classic - the hearty, delicious recipes and provocative tricks of the trade from his famed French brasserie where he made his name.

Before stunning the world with his bestselling Kitchen Confidential, and hit TV shows Parts Unknown and No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain spent years serving some of the best French brasserie food in New York. With its no-nonsense, down-to-earth atmosphere, Les Halles matched Bourdain's style perfectly: a restaurant where you can dress down, talk loudly, drink a little too much wine, and have a good time with friends. Now, 20 years after its original publication, Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook remains an audacious classic, full of his signature humour and charm.

Bourdain teaches you everything you need to know to prepare classic French bistro fare. While you're being guided, in simple steps, through recipes like roasted veal short ribs and steak frites, escargots aux noix and foie gras au pruneaux, you'll feel like he's in the kitchen beside you - firing off a few insults when you've scorched the sauce, and then patting you on the back for finally getting the steak tartare right.

As practical as it is entertaining, Anthony Bourdain's handsomely repackaged Les Halles Cookbook and new foreword by Fergus Henderson make for a can't-miss treat for cookbook lovers, aspiring chefs, and Bourdain fans everywhere.

Review

Anthony Bourdain, like the Sex Pistols, created a movement not a following ― Marco Pierre White

No one in our industry is remembered quite like Anthony Bourdain. Years after his passing, his voice still cuts through the noise - raw, direct and soulful. Les Halles holds all of that. It's visceral and beautiful. Funny and true! Reading it is like sitting with an old friend who tells you what you need...with love, grit and no pretension. ― René Redzepi

Anthony Bourdain is an inspiration to generations about how to run restaurant for your customers, not the ego of the chef. A generous chef and generous person, still missed by all. ― Angela Hartnett

Anthony Bourdain and Les Halles was a ground-breaking chef, human and restaurant. His gritty and real viewpoint, expressed in the most emotional way, was also delivered through food in his iconic restaurant. Very often, the term legend gets bounded about and used without the backup. In this case, both the man and his restaurant are legendary, and helped change, establish and reinforce what an incredible work kitchens are. ― Tom Kerridge

This should be everyone's go-to cookbook for French bistro cooking. Honest, direct, brash and joyous dishes distilled to their essence, by our generation's greatest proponent of kitchens and cooking - in his signature honest, direct, brash and joyous words. ― Jacob Kenedy

The Les Halles Cookbook has been such an important fixture in time. When first you discover Bourdain, you ache to try his food, but alas, New York City was a bit far. Onwards was an import to the first edition of this book. It's everything you want from an American gastronome, taking on the French classics. It's technical, while a little sleazy. It's written by a chef who actually enjoys eating his food. To this day I use his tartare recipe professionally and will pick it up to remind me what kind of cookery writer I want to be. It's at the front of all my books and I believe it to be my secret weapon. ― Gizzi Erskine

A man, book and restaurant that have been instrumental in shaping the chef I am today. A book of the greatest hits of French food, nothing comes close. ― Matthew Ryle

Is it really 20 years? Amazing, and how happily remembered, the freshness and vitality of this remarkable presence as brilliant on the page as in the kitchen has not dimmed one whit ― Jeremy Lee

At its heart, this awesome book is about more than cooking-it's about the unpretentious joy of feeding people well, with confidence, craft, and the right amount of irreverence. Twenty years on, Bourdain's voice is still full of fire and wit, and the hard-earned wisdom that cooking isn't just about food; it's about how you think, how you move, how you work. He tells you to put on some Curtis Mayfield and he tells you to get your shit together. And though he's gone, this book still has the power to slap you around, make you better, and remind you why kitchens-and the people in them-matter. ― Shamil Thakrar

I've yet to meet a person who doesn't get a slightly dreamy faraway look in their eyes at the mention of Anthony Bourdain. His writing is that very special combination of charm, wit and knowledge that is endlessly compelling. Les Halles is peak brilliant Bourdain. You will devour it whether you've read it before or not! ― Andi Oliver

About the Author

Anthony Bourdain was the New York Times-bestselling author of Kitchen Confidential, Medium Raw, A Cook's Tour, Typhoid Mary and The Nasty Bits, the cookbooks Appetites and Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook, and the novels Bone in the Throat and Gone Bamboo. He also co-authored the graphic novel Get Jiro! with Joel Rose. His writing appeared in the New York Times and New Yorker. He was the host of the popular television shows No Reservations, Parts Unknown, A Cook's Tour and The Layover. Bourdain died in June 2018.