Beautiful story of a son and his father and their differing ambtions. Many people learn to live with parental disappointment where the ambitions off the two are not matched. Many parents, especially those war damaged show their love in many different ways. This story is so beautifully written it appears simple, a mark of true craftsmanship.

A beautiful story written from the heart. Julien lives with his father in a small restaurant, the Relais Fleuri, where the locals come to eat the traditional dishes Henri makes. Julien's life from when he's small revolves around the restaurant. He watches his father as he cooks and cooking becomes second nature to him. He wants to be a chef like his father.. Except Henri wants him to go to college and become an engineer. A coming of age story told by Julien when his father dies, when he discovers the secrets he has kept about his life and his recipes, Many thanks to Jacky Durand, Hodder and Stoughton and Net Galley

Let me just start by saying this is the perfect read for Francophiles, lovers of French food and the French way of life. We see a heartstrings story between a father and his son Julien. Julien talks of his childhood, growing up in a loving family home where his father , who is of Algerian descent works hard in his restaurant. The fathers passion for cooking is evident. He taught his son how to pair ingredients and how to respect the ingredients. The book takes a twist when Juliens mother Helene leaves never to keep in contact with her child or to return. We see Juliens fathers personality change where once he was laid back he is now always agitated spending less and less time with Julien. Julien opens up to us about his confused feelings, his urge to make his father proud by following in his footsteps and becoming a chef but the more Julien wants to cook the more his father now stops him from doing so. Preferring his son to stay in higher education and gain 'proper qualifications' which he claims will guarantee him a better future. As time goes on Juliens fathers health deteriorates and he yearns to re connect with his mother whom he so misses. This is a beautiful tale and the recipes are just PERFECT! Highly recommended read.

Julien has lived with his father after his mother, Helene walked out. He never found out why she went. His father runs a cafe and Julien loves watching and helping him cook but when he says he wants to be a chef his father is horrified and tries to discourage him.
Julien finds out that his real mother died in childbirth and Helene was his fathers girlfriend. He then is left an envelope with her phone number in. He finds out where she lives and enrolls in college there but is scared to contact her. When he finds his father is dyingJulien remembers a recipe book that Helene started - could this hold the answer to his questions. He plucks up courage to speak to her and to find out the reason she left.
After his death Helene gives him the book containing all the recipes and then he can finally start his own life cooking.

A short well written book evoking memories of traditional french cuisine with no nonsense good country cooking. It is written in the style of a memoir after the death of a chef father (Henri) and his son's (Julian) determination to follow in his footsteps despite very strong opposition. Julian's father refused to write any recipe down but the recipes are captured in an exercise book in pencil by Helene, the mother of Julian, but he just can't find the book. It is well away from the glamour of celebrity chefs with a myriad of Michelin Stars depicting the true grit and hard work behind an ordinary cafe/bar in Eastern France where the skills are learnt on the job by observing. I think this book may have been translated from the original Le Cahier de Recettes by the same author. There are a few traditional recipes at the end of the book.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC.

This is a lovely story, so well-written; as a reader I really felt like I was the observer, peering through the window of the Relais Fleur Restaurant in Eastern France. watching Julien, his father and Lucien create their dishes in the busy kitchen.

Julien's father had learned his cookery skills since being apprenticed to a baker. Following the war he, together with his comrade Lucien, buy the restaurant and the business flourishes. Helene, Julien's mother is a Literature teacher at school. Julien's father has no time for books or writing - his hands, his taste, his smell, are the tools of his trade, and this produces a chasm between himself and Helene. When Julien is eight years old Helene presented his father with a present of a leather-bound notebook so that his recipes could be written down. Helene started to record the weights, measures, ingredients and timings for the dishes - something his father had never dreamt of doing. He worked on instinct alone. However, after being packed-off for the Summer holidays that year to Lucian's brother's remote cabin, Julien discovers his mother has left home. He's devastated. Where is the recipe book? His father becomes detached and won't talk about Helene at all.

The story takes us through Julien's memories and emotions as he grows up, but following a particularly drunken night, and expecting his father to actually show some emotion towards him, he is told a secret truth which helps him to understand why Helene disappeared. Determined to be a cook, we learn of the lengths he goes to convince his father he is studying while at the same time being determined to hone his cooking skills under the guidance of others.

His father becomes incurably ill - can he trace his mother?
Sitting beside his father's bed in hospital, Julien recalls a myriad of recipes and the detail of their construction under his father's hands. He wishes so much that he could have that recipe book.

Will he ever find it?

Very nice read.