Choucroute, bouillabaisse, tarte aux pommes, boeuf bourguignon, cassoulet, pissaladière, potée...These dishes, their histories, and their recipes are all stories for us to savor.

Jean-Louis André and the photographer Jean-Daniel Sudres invite you to travel gastronomic highways and byways, providing marvelous insights into the varied cuisines of the French countryside, with tricks of the trade, sleights of hand, and recipes in their infinite variations. There are inns where every day's plat du jour is redolent of local tradition. Meet expert home cooks and professional chefs who reveal the secrets of their kitchens, as well as producers of cream, butter, and fruits who rank their products as the equals of caviar. You will discover cultures, regions, and landscapes, all revealed through traditional recipes. And since fine cooking is always evolving, this handsome volume also charts its own paths offering chefs' personal creations as well as contemporary variations devised by Jean-François Mallet.