Disappointing. The first strips weren't even really about French food or the art of enjoying cuisine -- strips about coffee or the author making a friend or going fish shopping or visiting Budapest aren't what I expected or wanted. Self-indulgent and misleading.

To Drink and to Eat Vol. 1: Tastes and Tales from a French Kitchen, by Guillaume Long is certainly very unique. It is short stories, a comic strip, a cookery book, and a cooking instruction manual all rolled into one. Much can be learned from this fun book, and while there aren’t a lot of actual recipes, there is much to be learned such as how to make a perfect omelet, breading fish, and how to make good French coffee. There are charts on different foods such as how to recognize different types of fish after the fish has been cut up, useful tools for your kitchen, and a primer on tomatoes. Long covers kitchen skills such as skimming, breading, boiling eggs, using garlic, and green cuisine (like to avoid eating endangered species so we don’t run out).

There is a recipe for a Hungarian specialty called Porkolt, several fabulous salads, an excellent bouillabaisse, and a section with some quick and easy appetizers. The Watermelon Feta Salad is excellent, and most cooks won’t want to try the recipe for Poached Raven, which was given to the author by his father just before he died; most cooks will, however, want to follow the step-by-step instructions for perfect French crepes. This is a French cookbook, after all.

The book is loosely divided up into seasons, and there are helpful cooking tips throughout. Everything is included in little squares in comic book style, which makes for fun reading, but not necessarily easy-to-follow form. While there are good cooking instructions that will improve every cook’s knowledge and cooking skills, this book is more of a novelty, and is quite entertaining as opposed to a serious cookbook that cooks will refer to often. For those who like novelty books and want to read something entertaining, this book will be a welcome addition to their cookbook collection.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

I really liked this cookbook and memoir of stories in France. Great for any chef or lover of French culture.

This is such a gorgeous book, and even gave me some hot tips on stocking my new apartment's kitchen. Picked up a physical copy for myself!

I knew this book would be different when I saw the description, but was not prepared for how different. This is a great graphic novel with less recipes than I thought would be included. The stories was great to read, and the recipes that were included were terrific. This is a great and beautiful book for those who like to get to know their recipes and feel immersed in their reading and cooking experience. I recommend this book to others to see for themselves.


Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for allowing me to preview this book.

A lengthy compendium of adult cartoons with the fun and frustrations of food preparation, cooking, eating, and partying being the subject matter. Not for the faint of heart––you'll need to focus and concentrate while perusing the comic illustrations included in this volume. Read in bite-size chunks. Not for young readers as it includes colorful, irreverent, language and themes.

This is a great and amusing way to write food stories. Congratulations to the author for thinking of it! It provides a great change of pace for the reader for the foodie or the person who enjoys reading food history.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book provided by the publisher and Net Galley. However, the thoughts expressed are totally my own.

'To Drink and to Eat Vol. 1' written and drawn by Guillaume Long is a series of comics and recipes about all things food. It's a unique and fun graphic novel.

This is a book written by someone who loves food and can be opinionated about food. There is a diatribe about coffee makers, tomatoes, and garlic mills. There are some simple but delicious sounding recipes. There are the trips the author takes and the food experiences for better and worse.

Initially I thought this might be a food snob, but opinionated doesn't come across that way in this book. The art is fun, and there is plenty of humor along the way. There is also an underpinning emotion of food and family memories. I really enjoyed this collection of food comics.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Lion Forge, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

I was looking forward to reading this book when I saw it offered. Unfortunately, I did not realize that it was written in a comic-book style. I found it difficult to follow and not very enjoyable. However, this is probably more a reflection on my distaste for this style of a book than it is of the book's contents, so in fairness to the author, I will not post a review to any of my sites. I wish him luck.

I've been several times in France in my life and I also learnt the language, and ever since I've been a bit in love with French things. I also love cooking, and doing anything kitchen-related in general (though I'm far from experienced). I also love stories, whatever form they come in. So, for obvious reasons I was drawn to this book as soon as I saw it on NetGalley. I think I expected more of a cookbook than it was, though it does include recipes and good advice on how to do things. The 'story' part was way more emphasized than I thought it would be, though that I should have counted with, because I knew already when I started that this book is basically a comic book.

It is a fun and light mixture of comics, recipes, advice and fun stories dealing with food. I enjoyed the stories, some more, some less, and I loved the drawings which matched the tone of the text perfectly. The individual story of a week spent with gastronomy in Budapest came as a surprise! I love it, it was funny, and as much as I know it (though I'm Hungarian, I don't spend much time in our capital, to be honest) accurate. The recipes were easy to follow and included little tips that make your work easier which I found awesome. I think if I'd try to do any of them, I'd make notes myself according to the book (bullet points maybe), because the drawings would turn my attention away from the actual words. The book also contains some historical fun facts about food/food related procedures or words, and I loved those! Most of these facts had been unknown by me before.

The art in this is delightful. I'm not much of a cook, and I'm a vegetarian, so a lot of the finer points about food (particularly fish) were probably wasted on me. I did appreciate Long's deep dedication to a perfect cup of coffee, however. This was a fun collection, and if you or someone in your life is a foodie, this would be an excellent title for them.

I was very excited to score an advance copy for review of this book. Unfortunately, this book did not to live up to the hype for me. While I enjoyed learning about different foods, I found myself getting lost in the illustrations at times. I enjoy a good, informative cookbook but this one was simply too cartoonistic for me.

This charming book is not exactly a cookbook, or exactly a travelogue, or exactly an introduction to different dishes and restaurants the author has tried. It's all of these things, representing sort of a workbook or diary in graphic format (whatever the nonfiction equivalent of a graphic novel is called). A number of the recipes look delicious, and thanks to the illustrated presentation, we .get to see some of the side instructions and comments that you would get if a more experienced (not always tolerant or willing!) person were demonstrating how to make something, rather than just writing down a recipe for us. Some of the English is a little quirky, even occasionally baffling (in "The Ten Commandments of Raclette," was Moses really meant to speak like Yoda?). This book should be savored as a foodie artist's sketchbook, a mix of cooking notes, travel diary, and handy compilations of drawings of various types of foods (tomatoes, fish).. A treat for food lovers as long as you don't expect a straight cookbook.

This is a very interesting cookbook. It is part graphic novel and part cookbook. The book contains comics about cooking and eating and includes some recipes. It is funny and informative. It is definitely a new perspective when it comes to reading a book about cooking. There are images that serve as guides and the book is organized by seasons. It is definitely not what I was expecting and it would be a great book for a younger person who enjoys reading comics and who appreciates cooking humor.

To Drink and to Eat Vol. 1 has recipes for Appetizers, Entrees, and Desserts, like you, would expect in a cookbook, but they are shared graphically with charming pictures that tell the recipe's story and so much more. There are kitchen stories, travel stories, and the book is divided into sections titled: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. A few examples of what you will find are A Good Coffee, A Mini-Guide to Recognizing Fish When It's Not in Fish Form and The Tomatoes That I've Tasted. The stories are quirky and interesting and the recipes I have tried so far were very good(Feta, Watermelon Salad, Tomato Lobster Spaghetti, and Molten Chocolate Cake).
If you are like me, you own or have read many, many cookbooks. The contents vary, but they are all organized in pretty much the same way, some basics, background information, pictures, and recipes. This book truly stands out from an ordinary cookbook. I had fun reading it, I learned some new things, and I enjoyed the recipes I have tried. I can see a hard copy in my future and I know at least one friend who is getting a copy next year.
I thoroughly enjoyed going on this culinary journey with Guillaume Long.
I received a DRC from Diamond Book Distributors through NetGalley.

Is it a comic book? Yes. Is it a cookbook? Ditto. Wait, it's kinda both! I suppose if someone said that this cookbook was a real joke - they'd be absolutely correct. Excellent drawings were accompanied by witty prose all in the name of cuisine. It made for an entertaining read.

I extend my gratitude to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.