French Women For All Seasons: A Year of Secrets, Recipes, & Pleasure

Published by Chatto & Windus, 2005, hardcover, index, 387 pages, condition: as new.

Now you can have it all, all year round... 'Who can resist a book that recommends love and chocolate as part of a balanced diet?' asked Allison Pearson in the Daily Telegraph about Guiliano's French Women Don't Get Fat, a mould-breaking book that unlocked the secrets of 'The French paradox' and sold well over a million copies worldwide. By letter, by email, in person, readers have inundated Mireille Guiliano with requests for more advice. Her this buoyant new book full of advice, ideas and fresh, French recipes for each season.

Mireille Guiliano's 2006 followup to her 2005 best-seller French Women Don't Get Fat is again filled with tasty, low-calorie recipes for not only a slimmer, but also a more elegant, French-style eating. She also reiterates her advice to control food portions (even cut them in half!) and advocates exercise and attitude changes over the years so that one will always feel bien dans sa peau (comfortable in one's own skin). "The body acccustomed to less finds that indeed less is more," the author states. "In fact, a body conditioned to enjoy less will naturally find excess unpleasant" (43). Her chapters discuss the healthiest offerings and recipes for each season. I especially enjoyed her winter chapter with its recipes for banana mousse and hot chocolate soufflé. For wine lovers, she also has a chapter called "Wine is Food." Chapter 7 is entitled "Recevoir: Entertaining à la Française," and has some especially nice recipes for quiche lorraine and chocolate brioche. And again, Guiliano beseeches all of us to drink more water. "The idea that a meal might taste better with a diet soda than a glass of water is utterly alien to French women" (341).