Cheminement

A blend of biography and memoir, this singular book chronicles the life and career of the celebrated French chef Michel Bras.

Employing a variety of approaches, from vintage family photographs to glossy inserts of plated dishes, written sometimes in Bras’s own words and often in the voice of his collaborator and profiler Corrine Pradier. The book has no recipes.

Its 528 pages do contain a great deal of drama, however. From sweeping photographs of the countryside surrounding the restaurant–which the chef describes as the forge which sharpened his creativity–to musings on ingredients and even the very plates on which his food is served, Cheminement is proof of the scope of Bras’s engagement with everything related to the food he serves.

The title Cheminement can be translated variously as pathway or journey or even progress, all of which seem appropriate to the story told here.