French Roots

French Roots spans 60 years and two continents as it follows the lives of its authors--husband-and-wife team Jean-Pierre and Denise Moulle--through food, beginning with the dishes of old-world France, the couple's birthplace, and focusing on the simple, pared-down preparations of French food common in the postwar period.

The story then travels to the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970s, where Jean-Pierre was appointed executive chef at Chez Panisse when California cuisine was just emerging as a distinctive and important style, and where Denise began importing French wine.

Finally, the journey returns to France, where Denise and Jean-Pierre revisit the classic dishes of their native country and forgotten skills of foraging, hunting, and preserving at their home in Bordeaux.

So much more than a collection of 100 elegant recipes, French Roots is the story of an adventure of two people and two cuisines.