by Michèle Roberts SIGNED COPIES AVAILABLE

‘An enduring delight for readers and cooks alike’ - Nigella Lawson

'Michèle Roberts’ enchanting book French Cooking for One proves la cuisine française can be enjoyed alone, when there is nothing to interrupt the joy of preparing good ingredients and turning them into enticing dishes. Her anecdotes and notes of wisdom that accompany the recipes make her the perfect companion in the kitchen.' – Carolyn Boyd, author of Amuse Bouche

‘To make a proper supper for yourself is, after all, a kind and tender thing to do if you’re under pressure… So many micro feasts, and every one of them nourishment for body and soul.’ - Rachel Cooke, Observer Food Monthly

Table of contents

A unique work of literary and culinary joie de vivre, part food memoir, part recipe book, French Cooking for One is Michèle Roberts' first cookbook, and a personal and quirky take on Édouard de Pomiane's ten-minute cooking classic. Once a food writer for the New Statesman, Roberts was born in 1949 and raised in a bilingual French-English household, learning to cook from her French grandparents in Normandy. Her love of food and cookery has always shone through in her novels and short stories.

Whether cooking for one on a daily or an occasional basis, cooking well for yourself means cherishing yourself and your appetites, joyously giving yourself pleaseure, opening yourself to new experiences. This book will encourage you to do all that.
- Michèle Roberts

French cuisine, classic though it is, still holds delicious surprises. From quick bites for busy days to sumptuous main courses for those who enjoy spending more time in the kitchen, the focus throughout is on dishes that are simple and fun to prepare, and results that are mouthwatering to contemplate and, of course, to eat.

Part of the beauty of the art of cooking is that it involves transience, making something delightful that then vanishes, and that in turn involves cherishing the time we spend on perfecting a dish. Cooking yourself something delicious is rewarding, satisfying, cheering. It makes us feel capable, creative, able to take care of ourselves. Cooking for yourself makes you feel spoiled and cherished. - MR

More than a handbook of classic French dishes, French Cooking for One does something that few, if any, cookbooks do: it bears testimony to a singular literary life. Gorgeously written vignettes of Roberts' childhood in Normandy and of her years living in Pays de la Loire are peppered with anecdotes about intellectual and artistic luminaries: an omelette prepared by Gertrude Stein's cook for Picasso; a simple pasta dish calling to mind the French philosopher Julia Kristeva and the Scottish poet Alison Fell'; and Emma Bovary's extraordinary wedding cake, among others.

With over 160 delicious recipes, the majority of which are vegetarian, combined with piquant storytelling and feminist wit, French Cooking for One is a working cook's book with French flair, bursting with life and illustrated with the author's original ink drawings, full of charm and humour.

Interviewed with Lauren Elkin: ‘Michèle Roberts: The Art of Writing a Cookbook’ in VITTLES Magazine

Paperback original with French reverse flaps printed in two-tone stripes on the reverse
190 x 130 x 12 mm, 152 pages
Published 7 November 2024
ISBN 978-1-0686617-1-6