The 9 cookbooks in the running for the first edition of the 2024 Festins Féminins Prize

With the ambition to shine the spotlight on those who shape the cookbook landscape, Madame Figaro, with the support of Bold by Veuve Clicquot, launches the Prix des Festins Féminins. Presented on December 12, it will reward the best work of the year written by a woman. Journalists, recipe creators, chefs, authors and even photographers… they all marked the year 2024 with creative and unique opuses, mixing recipes, reports, photographs, techniques, reflection and poetry. Here are the 9 works in the running for the prize which will be awarded by a jury chaired by the starred chef Manon Fleury, bringing together the actor Manu Payet, the singer Aurélie Saada, the culinary journalist Mina Soundiram and the poet Ryoko Sekiguchi among others. Beautiful people who will debate the most beautiful pages of the year this Thursday, November 7 in the premises of the Figaro.

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Persephone, a story to enjoy by Maison Joumana in collaboration with Virginie Clavereau

The myth of Persephone is also the story of the birth of the seasons. Daughter of Zeus and Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and harvests, she rhythms the seeds, dividing her time between the depths of the kingdom of Hades, and her life with her mother, return to the light marking the beginning of the harvests . It is inspired by this myth from Greek mythology that Maison Joumana has created an innovative work, at the crossroads between a recipe book, an art book and a collection of poetry. A visual and gustatory journey, combining poetry, sculptures made from bread and recipes from the Lebanese house founded by Joumana Jacob. But also prints, ceramics and shocks of color by the artist Virginie Clavereau. A story to savor with all the senses.

Persephone, a story to enjoy, by Maison Joumana in collaboration with Virginie Clavereau, €19.

My Lebanese table by Carla Rebeiz

Carla Rebeiz, the founder of the Eats Thyme restaurant in Paris, opens the doors to her stylish and colorful cuisine with her first book, My Lebanese table. A personal work bringing together 100 recipes to the taste of his youth in Beirut, twisted with modernity by the culinary influences of his travels. A free and spontaneous cuisine, like the one who, in her fifties and after a career in finance, was caught up with her love of cooking and launched into catering in 2020. Result? Tomato kebbe, fassoulia bil timesautéed Greek horns, mouhallabiébrownie au half or even zaatar cookie.

My Lebanese tableby Carla Rebeiz, Marabout editions, 264 pages, €29.90.

Olympe, a free cook by Anne Etorre

Anne Etorre restores Olympe Versini to the place she deserves in the history of gastronomy. Self-taught cook, first woman to obtain three Gault & Millau toques, star of the 1980s, pioneer of bistronomy… The culinary author pays tribute to this outstanding cook and art lover with this life story punctuated with vintage recipes and recent. Like his duck ravioli with broccoli sauce or his pigeons with honey, served in his first address, Le Restaurant d'Olympe, where Robert de Niro, Francis Ford Coppola, Orson Welles and even Mick Jagger paraded in the Paris of the 1990s. 1980. The gourmet biography of an emblematic figure of French gastronomy.

Olympusby Anne Etorre, published by Hachette Pratique, 272 pages, €35.

100 recipes to save! by Julie Andrieu

Do you know the three somersaults? The miroton beef? Calalou with crab perhaps? These singular names, yet familiar, all have one thing in common: they are recipes from our terroirs. Dishes which had their hour of glory, cooked on a daily basis, before almost falling into oblivion. At least before Julie Andrieu shined the spotlight on it. With his new work, 100 recipes to save!the culinary journalist roams our regions in search of forgotten treasures, to be discovered through recipes, old-fashioned culinary techniques and advice. A lovely tribute to our gastronomic heritage.

100 recipes to save!by Julie Andrieu, Albin Michel editions, 224 pages, €29.90.

At the good mother's table by Mahéva Angelmann

Mahéva Angelmann, the restaurateur behind the emblematic pizzeria de la Bonne Mère, located just below Notre Dame de la Garde, pays homage to the Marseille art of living with this first opus called: At the good mother's table. Composed of photos of the Phocaean city crushed by the sun, we discover the rhythm of the locals through 80 recipes with Italian and Provençal influences. So, we have lunch in the sun in front of a Provençal-style mullet, we devour pissaladière and arancini during an evening in a traditional cabin, and we share a bouillabaisse at the village feast. An immersive and delicious read to escape for a while, with a preface by François-Régis Gaudry.

At the good mother's tableby Mahéva Angelmann, First editions, 282 pages, €35.

Where rice smells like mango blossoms by Zuri Camille De Souza

With Where rice smells like mango flowersthe itinerant chef from the southwest of India, Zuri Camille De Souza, signs a personal work, inspired by the desire to celebrate and understand her heritage. Through 50 vegetarian recipes, traditional or with intercultural influences, she dives back into her childhood memories marked by culinary traditions. We thus discover the recipe for carrot halwaa breakfast prepared by Aji, her grandmother, mixing sweet candied carrots with ghee and almonds, or even that of chowlia stew of cornille beans with garam masala, ginger and coconut from his mother, “the dish that confirms to me that I am back home”. A lovely tribute to a family culinary history.

Where rice meets mango flowersby Zuri Camille De Souza, Eugen Ulmer Eds, 192 pages, €26.

My recipe book by Stéphanie Le Quellec

Stéphanie Le Quellec speaks with complete simplicity. With this new work called My cooking notebookthe chef at the head of four restaurants in Paris shares her personal, everyday cuisine. The goal of the winner of Top Chef season 2? Let yourself be guided by indulgence, without rules or restrictions, with 80 simple-to-make sweet and savory recipes, ready in 30 minutes or less (excluding cooking). Like her ratatouille, to which she adds potatoes “because I like them to soak up the juice from the vegetables”. A guide to cooking with joy, without limits and as you like, with the precious advice of a starred chef.

My recipe book by Stéphanie Le Quellec, Solar editions, 200 pages, €24.95.

Africa cooks in France de Vérane Frediani

Director Vérane Frediani likes to highlight characters who operate in the shadows. After Marseille cooks the worldit is the influence of “Afropean” chefs on the French gastronomic scene that the director decided to dissect through portraits, interviews, recipes, photographs, but also playlists and chefs’ bedside books. With this new work designed as a documentary, Vérane Frediani takes us on a Tour de France to discover, not a single African cuisine, but a movement with a myriad of styles, influences and personalities, born between Congo and Lille, or even Mauritania and Bordeaux. We remember the journey of the intriguing Ker Atsou, the salivating recipe for braised sea bass and her cassava fries from Ngo Nkogloum, and we add African honey to our list of products to discover. A work as enlightening as it is enticing.

Africa cooks in Franceby Vérane Frédiani, Éditions La Martinière, 272 pages, €29.90.

I tell you everything by Sonia Ezgulian

The culinary step by step: the former journalist and restaurateur Sonia Ezgulian recooks it in her own way with this opus composed like a culinary photo novel. Baptized I tell you everythingthis new publication which adds to the approximately 70 to its credit, can be read like a comic strip, each recipe delivering with it a little story and moments of joy between friends immortalized by the photographer and her husband, Emmanuel Auger. An imaginative novel, driven by cuisine, friendship and music, to savor.

I tell you everythingby Sonia Ezgulian, Éditons Hachette Pratique, 192 pages, €25.