Bruno’s Cookbook at Last

Inspired by Bruno’s Cookbook: roasted vegetables with salmon and browned breadcrumbs.

For a long time, I’ve been waiting for the English edition of Bruno’s Cookbook by Martin Walker and Julia Watson, and at last, I have my copy. As you probably know, Bruno is a detective in the small, fictitious town of St. Denis in the Périgord region of France, and Martin Walker is the author of this series of delightful books. I’ve read them all.

Bruno is not only a model policeman, he’s also a fabulous cook, and he and the other characters in Walker’s series are attributed as the creators of many of the recipes: after all, it’s BRUNO’s cookbook. 

Reading the detailed introductions to the sections of the cookbook and to the recipes is a little like reading fiction. The vegetables and herbs are grown by the people of the village, including Bruno. If there’s something they don’t grow, they can get it at the amazing local market. Bruno knows everyone, and always gets the best of everything. And he always solves the crimes that occur in the little village, while helping all his fellow citizens in many ways.

Bruno and his friends forage the local mushrooms. (I suppose Walker does too, as he includes many recipes for a variety of wild mushrooms.) Bruno loves the region’s famous truffles, which somehow he always seems obtain as gifts, despite their astronomical market value. The characters in the book (and we are told, the real friends of the author) buy cheese that’s made by a local cheesemaker, who also has connections throughout France, so he can procure artisan cheeses from other regions and sell them at his market stall. The locals, including Bruno, hunt wild boar and game birds. Eggs for perfect omelets come from the chickens raised in their back yards. Bruno’s Cookbook even provides the recipe for dog biscuits that Bruno bakes for his intelligent and devoted dog Balzac.

I am totally enjoying my adventure with this nearly-imaginary food. And I think there are a few recipes that I can follow even with the dried herbs, winter vegetables, inauthentic cheeses, and supermarket meats in my pantry and refrigerator. For my first such dish, I adapted a recipe called “Herb-Roasted Halibut on a Bed of Summer Vegetables.” Since it’s winter, I used winter vegetables, and I used salmon, which is listed as an alternative to the halibut — that’s what I had on hand. But I followed the instructions for seasoning the dish, and for a topping of breadcrumbs browned in olive oil. And it was delicious!

Not exactly following the cookbook, but I was inspired by this recipe for a dish of roasted vegetables and fish.

Blog post © 2023 mae sander