Sweet pea soup is a sensation

When a renowned and starred French chef publishes a new cookbook, we anticipate something special, and French-born New Yorker Éric Ripert delivers with his sixth collection.

This surprisingly user-friendly book about vegetables is packed with tips to help home cooks succeed in the kitchen.

If you read Ripert's 2016 memoir, 32 Yolks, about the gruelling training he endured under the late great chef Joël Robuchon and others, you'll quickly realize how this restaurateur earned his many stars at Le Bernardin, the celebrated New York establishment he co-owns.

This makes it all the more refreshing that, to prepare this fine spring soup, Ripert allows frozen peas.

Gardeners among us know the only way to get good, fresh peas is to grow them. The rest of us, like Ripert, keep a package of frozen peas on hand in the freezer.

Beautifully illustrated by portrait photographer Nigel Parry, Vegetable Simple (Appetite by Random House, $40) is a winner with 110 recipes.

Some of the chef's rules: Buy your vegetables in season; shop every 48 hours; never chill tomatoes or melons; and use peelings in your stock.

A longtime believer that “fish is the star of the plate,” Ripert is now giving vegetables equal status. This easy soup, which can be served hot or cold, certainly helps make the case for it.