Balthazar is one of the great restaurants of the world, a perfect evocation of a French brasserie (in a beautiful room in Manhattan)‚ and The Balthazar Cookbook is one of the great celebrations of classic French regional brasserie cooking. Starting life as one of the hottest tables in New York, Balthazar immediately attracted a host of glittering A-list clientele, food lovers, and those who wanted to see and to be seen. And yet is has remained since opening, to its eternal credit, wonderfully democratic, just like the food it serves. With recipes ranging from the most iconic and nostalgic French dishes such as Moules Marinire, Cassoulet and Coq au Vin, to its world-famous‚ house‚ Balthazar salad, this is French bistro food at its finest, with just a hint of contemporary culinary savvy thrown in. Like the restaurant itself, Keith McNally’s cookbook is elegant, unpretentious and timeless, with recipes that quite literally lift the lid on classic French brasserie cooking. With a wonderfully clean, stylish layout and design that reflects the belle-epoque charm of the restaurant, this is a book you will want to return to time and time again.

Opened by Englishman Keith McNally in 1997, Balthazar has rapidly become a feature of New York’s culinary landscape. Overlooking the irony of a Brit teaching New Yorkers how to eat French food, McNally’s empire of brasserie-style restaurants (including the famous Pastis, Lucky Strike and Schillor’s Liquor Bar) are effortlessly chic. According to the famously self-effacing McNally, he seeks to create places that he himself would like to eat in. And has, albeit slightly reluctantly, agreed to come over to the UK around publication time, in September 2010, to talk about his extraordinary life and career for the first time‚ which in itself will be a major press event!