Thursday, December 30, 2010

The Mirabelle Cookbook by Marco Pierre White.

The Mirabelle Cookbook by Marco Pierre White.  Hardcover book published 1999. 


In my youthful salad days of blogging (July this year), I wrote about Marco’s book, Canteen Cuisine.  Interestingly I only recently sold this book at a mark down price to someone in the U.S..  I write interestingly as firstly the book didn’t sell within Australia and secondly for a lot less than the current www value.  Since originally writing about Mr. White all those years ago (July this year), I have found another title by Marco Pierre entitled “The Mirabelle Cookbook”.  The Mirabelle (it's a restaurant) was purchased by Whitey in 1998 and he maintained its huge reputation and standing in the London dining world… a quick check through Google and I find that MPW has since sold up and moved on.  (I can sense your all out there thinking to yourselves “yeah, yeah, get to the point”… its up next).  What I think is interesting about this book, is the difficulty I am having in selling any books by this guy who is considered to be one of the most influential chefs in the world.  This book like Canteen also didn’t sell when I first listed it on ebay.  The guy has a reputation, he has attitude, he has recipes… he also has a very low profile here in Australia which is where I sell most of my books.  Some of you may argue that he is well known, but I tell you, he ain’t Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson (one day I will write about this scary woman… I promise) or Peter Russell Clarke.  Ask your neighbour (Australia only) if they’ve ever heard of Marco and I bet you that the majority of them will say “Who?”.  So I think the problem here isn’t the book, it’s the location of the book.  If people don’t know what it is, they ain’t gonna buy it.  So I’ve come to the conclusion that like a fine wine, this book needs to sit for a while and mature… so I’ve cellared M. Pierre and he’s sitting nicely on the shelf gaining some age and Aussie popularity… still for sale though… but now here http://www.booksandcollectables.com.au/.  Not gathering dust… just maturing.

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