BOOK REVIEW GROSJEAN: CUISINE AND CONFIDENCES
Full, flustered, flecked with flour. All of the above apply to Motorsport News’ culinary odyssey, testing out the dishes included in the recently released cookbook Marion and Romain Grosjean – Cuisine and Confidences, which is written by Grosjean’s wife Marion, a journalist and TV presenter.
The roots of the Haas Formula 1 driver’s passion for cooking are explained in the book’s editorial introduction, as Marion recalls that he needed to lose weight during 2009 when going from GP2 to his first, short-lived, F1 stint.
The book is split into six sections: ‘Welcome to Our Home’, ‘Children, it’s Ready!’, ‘Between Us’, ‘The Athlete’s Diet’, ‘Friends Bistro’, and ‘Eminent Chef’s Cuisine’. Each contains a selection of dishes, with the final chapter dedicated to recipes provided by Grosjean’s chef friends. These are interspersed with images of Grosjean’s F1 career, kitchen exploits and family life, and each recipe includes a short explanation of its background or importance to the couple.
To sample a range of the book’s flavour, we picked five dishes. The chosen smorgasbord: ‘“So British” pea soup’, ‘beef stroganoff’, ‘sole fillets in papillote with truffle oil, cherry tomatoes and fennel’, and ‘salmon tartar and green asparagus’ – plus ‘macaroons with raspberry’ for the office to enjoy. Overall, the results are good – which wasn’t guaranteed. the pea soup – “one of the first recipes that Romain tried when we moved to England” – is a triumph. The salmon tartar, once we’d got past the trepidation and then amazement at fish essentially cooking without heat, is splendidly tender and rich. The stroganoff is also colourful and charming, but the beef doesn’t pack much of a flavour punch.
There are some issues with Cuisine and Confidences that impacted on the experiment. The English translation is a touch off at times and some instructions are confusing. The macaroons taste delightful, but following the recipe exactly calls for the oven door to be left ajar; the heat is promptly blown out by the fan, leaving the end product unrisen and lumpy.
But overall these are minor complaints. The meal was thoroughly enjoyable and pleasantly different. That, in addition to the love between the Grosjeans and their family and friends that flows through the pages, is what makes Cuisine and Confidences stand out. There are few tales from the motorsport sphere, but the book is full of smaller stories about their lives that provide fantastic insight. It is decidedly different, and all the better for it.