This 2022 French-language edition of a cult classic of twentieth-century haute cuisine includes a new foreword by Patrick Henriroux, the current chef of La Pyramide-Vienne.

La Pyramide opened as a roadside inn in 1822 and some hundred years later was run by the legendary Fernand Point. Point was a larger-than-life figure of impressive appetites, humor, and wit. Through his kitchen passed many talented young men, some of whom would become famous in their own right as Claude Peyrot, the Troisgros brothers, Paul Bocuse, and Alain Chapel.

Though attributed directly to Point, this book was compiled by his widow, who gathered together his kitchen notebooks, sketches, and recipes, along with tributes to Point and La Pyramide from notables such as Collette and Cocteau.

Though the cooks Point trained would eventually be credited with developing nouvelle cuisine and overturning decades of intransigent stodginess in French fine dining, Ma Gastronomie makes it clear that freshness and imagination had a home at La Pyramide.

People who are familiar with the 1974 US edition by Lyceum books will notice the absence of some material, notably an introduction by Joseph Wechsberg, which was meant to establish Point’s importance stateside, and an upbeat report on “La Pyramide Today.” In its place is the foreword by Henriroux, who has maintained the restaurant at two Michelin stars since the late 1980s.

English-language editions are scarce, so we are pleased to have this new edition from France.

Hardcover. Color and black-and-white photographs and art work. In French.