Feast of the Five Senses
(a.k.a Seductive Cooking: See Touch Hear Smell Taste)
By Ludovic Lefebvre and Martin Booe 

     If the French wanted to stop the war with Iraq, their chefs should have challenged ours to a cook-off, if Ludo Lefebvre’s sensual orgasmic cookbook The Feast of the Five Senses is any indication. Lefebvre epitomizes the French attention to detail by emphasizing all five senses in cooking: sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste. Actually sit down and think about the burrito we’re snarfing in the car while talking on our cell phones, pausing to marvel at the contrasting touch of the soft corn of the tortilla and the heartiness of the beans in our mouth, smell the processed cheese? Savor a delicious meal in the company of our friends and loved ones? That would slow our lemming march toward obesity, heart attacks and diabetes.

     Fortunately, master chef Lefevbre, shown in the photos in which he soulfully captures the heart of the American woman by lovingly raising a fork of food to his lips in a way that would make the “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” Fab Five throw in the toque, is on our side. His Dickensian hard-knocks apprenticeship as a chef in France, over the wishes of his father (never get between a Frenchman and food), led to becoming the top banana in the kitchen at the famed Los Angeles L’Orangerie. How does Lara Flynn Boyle stay so skinny if Lefebvre cooks French Sea Bass with Crispy Skin, Potatoes Fondante, Maui Onion Confit, and Lemon, Cardamom, and Coffee Bean Sauce (page 101)? And isn’t that too much fuss, especially if, as Lefebvre says on page 234, “I like to cook light”? And who actually names all the ingredients in their recipe, or prepares elaborate meals with several stages that Lefebvre so helpfully advises you can do ahead? Martha Stewart, you can put down your hand now.

      Aye, there’s the oregano and star anise rub. Lefebvre’s recipes, introduced with his charming French descriptions, seem a tad too convoluted for everyday life. But his introduction to new flavors, new combinations, and his rhapsodizing over simply listening to our food give us a new perspective on cooking—and on life.