Cooking with Adrienne: A Story of Friendship and Food

"Gastronomy, and not just the Eiffel Tower, has always lured some travelers to France. Adrienne Zausner...(was) among those gastronomes, dining at Michelin three-star restaurants the way safarigoers checked the “Big Five” off their lists. Ms. Zausner went beyond exquisite dinners by befriending chefs, cooking with them and serving their recipes at home." Florence Fabricant, Food and Wine Critic, New York Times.

Cooking with Adrienne is a cookbook and the amazing, often hilarious, story of a woman who became the American doyenne of French cuisine during the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties. Her recipes were based on the food coming out of the kitchens of Alain Chapel, Frédy Girardet, Michel Guérard, Jean and Pierre Troisgros, Roger Verge and others who were creating the New French Cuisine. She helped pave the way for many of these chefs to bring their New Cuisine to America.

“My husband and I cooked together for the first time in years last weekend – Pesto with Pasta and Seafood from ‘Cooking with Adrienne’. The meal was delicious, the real thing and so much better because we did it together. Your book is wonderful beyond words, combining Adrienne’s recipes with stories and photos of her smiling, laughing, embracing others and life! I didn’t realize how much I’ve missed cooking, and my vibrant friend and mentor, Adrienne. I’m back in the kitchen, albeit feeling a bit wobbly, but hoping to continue rubbing elbows with my husband, guided by Adrienne.” Helen + Ian, NYC

Adrienne began cooking in Paris with Simone Beck, co-author, with Julia Child, of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She became an accomplished home cook who believed that all food was good food if prepared properly. The book reveals the mysteries of making a sauce, from a simple jus to beurre blanc and hollandaise, as well as the basics of stock and vinaigrette. The recipes run the gamut from Jean Troisgros’ Steak with Spinach and Vinegar dressing, Adrienne’s own Squab with Morels, Frédy Girardet’s Passion Fruit Soufflé to the simpler, but no less delicious, Tomate Provençal, Pasta with Pesto and Scallops, and Moussaka.

"Few people, if any, knew the intimate details of some of the most famous restaurants in France and Switzerland the way Adrienne did. This collection of recipes provides unique insight into culinary history. Adrienne documented every meal, knew each of these chefs personally and cooked these recipes at home. Cooking with Adrienne provides enthusiastic cooks with a rare look at the fine points of understanding, appreciating and replicating the cuisine of these masters. Their legacy has a direct link to contemporary cooking around the world.” Michael Anthony, Executive Chef, Gramercy Tavern

“Adrienne’s passion for cooking comes through so powerfully in this book. I loved seeing the menus she hand-wrote for special dinners, many recorded here, and I'm amused and moved remembering the adventures with Jean Troisgros in Napa Valley.” Gael Greene, InsatiableCritic.com

Joan shares with us Adrienne’s favorite recipes from some of the greatest chefs of the twentieth century, as well as her own original dishes, carefully explained with the French terms and fancy kitchen jargon laid bare. Alongside the recipes are the equally delicious stories from Adrienne’s culinary travels: the month she spent cooking under the direction of three-star chef Jean Troisgros when he was a guest in their house in Mougin; She and her husband were the first Americans to visit Alain Chapel's restaurant in Mionnay; sitting next to Julia Child and her husband in Michel Guérard’s Paris restaurant, Pot au Feu, and many, many more.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to The AFTD to fund research into Primary Progressive Aphasia which is the dementia Adrienne suffers from and which prevents her from being able to cook or indeed communicate in any way.

This book took over my life when my Best Foodie Friend, Adrienne, was diagnosed with a rare form of dementia* that would ultimately rob her of the ability to speak, write, and cook. We had been cooking together for over 20 years. In a panic, I realized that many of the recipes we had made were in her head and mine, or scribbled on bits of paper. In a race against time, I began writing down all of our recipes and as many stories as I could recall. The result is Cooking with Adrienne.

We were the most unlikely of friends. I was a small-town girl from Massachusetts with a penchant for eating dessert first. Adrienne grew up in Brooklyn, then lived and worked in Manhattan. She went to Europe on her honeymoon and came home with a duck press. I got married in 1980, honeymooned in New Jersey, and then moved to Queens. I began working as an account executive for an investor relations firm run by Adrienne’s husband in 1984. That was my first bit of luck.

My second bit of luck came six years later when I had the good fortune to travel to Europe with Adrienne and her husband. Over the next 20 years we dined at some of the greatest restaurants as well as wonderful holes-in-the-wall. The food changed me and my taste buds forever. I became a foodie. Which was a good thing because the rule on every trip with Adrienne was that you had to try everything put in front of you.

My travels with Adrienne awakened my palate and made me want to cook at home the food that I had been eating abroad; I couldn’t put the palate genie back in the bottle. However, I had two small children, a full-time job, and no time to produce what I thought was the labor-intensive food that I had learned to love. That was when cooking with Adrienne really began. Despite my dessert-first culinary approach, Adrienne set to work educating my palate and teaching me to cook… anything and everything. I do wonder sometimes how I ended up living this life so far from where I began. But live it I did and still do.

The first thing Adrienne taught me was that all food is good food if properly prepared. And that making good, even great, food is within anyone’s reach. It requires a bit of planning, a few basic skills, a willingness to taste everything, and an eye for presentation. A freezer full of homemade stock is also essential!

Read the book and you'll see for yourself!