The excitement of French home cooking, simple dishes, includes many superb renditions of the great classics: a glorious cheese-domed onion soup, a spoon-tender beef daube, and the "top-secret" recipes that every good Parisian cook knows-but won't reveal.

Over 500 other recipes are remarkably easy: a cheese and olive quick bread, a three-star chef's Basque potato tortilla made with a surprise ingredient (potato chips), and an utterly satisfying roast chicken for "lazy people."

French Dishes For American Tables will make cooks fall in love with France all over again, or for the first time.