Cookbook Profile: Paradise Found

Paradise Found
The People, Restaurants and Recipes
of St. Barthélemy

by Robert & Kara Brooks

It is a rare person indeed who is not enchanted by a visit to St. Barthélemy, more commonly known as St. Barths, in the French West Indies. Equally rare is the person who will not be charmed by Paradise Found which perfectly captures the allure of this delightful island.

Robert and Kara Brooks, the authors of Paradise Found, transport the reader to the island of St. Barths, one of the tiniest in the entire Caribbean. Paradise Found takes you inside the kitchens of 18 of the most popular restaurants on St. Barths. All aspects of the island's gastronomic scene—from the creative genius of the island's award-winning chefs, to Creole favorites made by local island families—are explored. With 18 complete dinner menus and over 70 recipes, Paradise Found is a comprehensive primer on the very best of modern French-Caribbean cooking. Culling from the Island's finest and freshest ingredients, the contributing chef's provide a bounty of marvelous recipes, including Provençale Fish Soup, Cod Fritters, Duck Confit, Fish Tempura with a Green Mango Salad, Tuna Sashimi with Avocado Sorbet, Chocolate Fondant Cake, and Homemade Vanilla Rum.

Equally important, Paradise Found takes you inside the lives of the people who own and work in the various restaurants on the island. You'll meet Andy Hall, who left a life in the London insurance world to harvest grapes in France and ended up owning one of the liveliestrestaurants on the island; Randy and Maya Gurley, who honed their cooking skills in the charter boat business and created one of the most popular restaurants in the Caribbean; Franckie and David Greaux, who set out early every morning in their boat to catch the fresh fish that is cooked by their mother and served in the ground floor of their parents' house each evening; and Chef Kiki Barjettas, who developed his passion for cooking while accompanying his father to the market every Sunday as a young boy in France. The residents of St. Barths are determined to live each day of their lives joyfully. Their love of life is infectious, and the visitor cannot help but be inspired by their example. So pull up a chair, share a meal, listen to the stories and let Paradise Found awaken your passion for life as well.

Robert and Kara Brooks are also the founders of The Insiders' Guide to St. Barths, www.sbhonline.com, the most popular website dedicated to the island of St. Barths.

Praise for Paradise Found

"St. Barths has always been my personal Paradise. Paradise Found helps me reminisce about the beauty of the island, its beaches and the fun of the restaurants."
—Jean-Georges Vongerichten

"St. Barths is one of those rare islands where the restaurants alone are worth the journey, and Paradise Found is the perfect passport to the pleasures of her tables."
—Dewey Schurman, Editor, Islands

"Paradise Found, a stunning new book on St. Barthélemy, does a balancing act. The lush colors and sensuous photographs are matched by the polished, thoughtful writing, to convey a genuine understanding of the people of this Caribbean island."
—Elizabeth Riely, author of The Chef's Companion and A Feast of Fruits

"Paradise Found evokes the flavors, perfumes, and visual splendors of this fragment of volcanic rock that is St. Barths. In this enchanting volume, Robert and Kara Brooks capture the fusion of French refinement, Caribbean warmth, and New World enterprise that are manifest in the vitality and hospitality of St. Barths' engaging inhabitants. Their photos, recipes, and tantalizing descriptions will send thousands of hungry, sun-loving epicures to their maps and travel agents. We can only hope that once "found", this alluring paradise will endure. The book's gastronomic revelations fully answer Calvin Trillin's lamentation that without an Italian West Indies , travelers to 'the islands' must bring their own food or starve."
—J. Charles Mokriski, Restaurant Critic, Improper Bostonian

Buy the Book!

Paradise Found
The people, restaurants and recipes of St. Barthélemy
by Robert & Kara Brooks
Buckley Lane Press
$37.50, Hardcover
Full-color photographs throughout
ISBN: 0-9743127-0-3
Information provided by the publisher.