In this special edition, we offer a cookbook review. Regular column after the jump.

We're certainly not the types to indulge in the latest tome of unmanageable recipes from some celebrity chef. But the one man who we would trust to write a good celebrity cookbook has gone and done just that. That's right, from the man who brought you the coke-and-booze-and-sex-and-coke tell-all Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain, has made a study of his classic french bistro recipes from Les Halles. Luckily, new SFist Ryan got his hands on a copy and offers this review:

The discussion of French versus American butchery in the meat section is worth reading about six times. In general, the amount of meta-commentary he provides for the dishes, their ingredients and the instructions is well above the usual. Really well put together, with his signature amount of attitude and dismissal of pretension.

It could be said he's warming up to his foodie audience a little bit - some pros know this s**t, and those that don't would never admit to needing an introduction to it. Most of us only have the background we came up in - what our mothers taught us, what we learned in our first serious restaurant, or what we leaned at school (if we were lucky enough to be saddled with $30k in debt for an education that's worth $7.30/hour when we graduated).

In other words, its a hell of a reference for anyone looking to cook old-school frugal-as-f**k frog-style. He goes easy on the newbies, but there's a few recipes in here I wouldn't want my next door neighbor attempting to make, lest she burn down our building. And ruin a beautiful cut of meat.

So if you want to get to the roots of "California Cuisine," that is, classic French technique, pick up a copy. And then go get it signed by the man himself as he comes to the Bay Area to promote the tome on the 10th and 11th of November. We're sorry about the dumb-ass no smoking laws, Anthony.

We've been trying to find a relatively easy guide on how to make fresh cheeses at home - and where to get the cultures and rennet - since they're time consuming and messy but relatively easy. Instead the Chron just offers us descriptions of the different kinds you can't afford to buy at the Ferry Plaza. Taster's Choice even taste-tested organic milks, which you would think would go nicely, being the main ingredient in fresh cheese. Alas. Marlena Spieler tries to explain the allure of persimmons as summer turns to fall.

If you don't think Meredith Brody spends too much on dinner already, then don't read the column from this week, where she praises the relative affordability of George Morrone's Tartare. Oy. Jonathan Kauffman makes a good point - "If you want to make it on your dinner service, don't, don't, don't open in downtown Oakland." From what SFist can tell, the Oak Plaza isn't going to last very long, which is too bad, because we liked Michael Prendergast when he was at Tropix.

We're not sure what's going on with Dan Leone. The breakup? The move? He plays calypso at the Park Chalet and admits the only way to eat cheaply there is to be with the band. Better to go to the Safeway and get provisions for a picnic on the beach. Paul Reidinger gets geo-political with his review of the San Francisco outpost of Sonoma's Taste of the Himalayas. We read Miriam Wolf's Meatless just because we think vegetarians are crazy. And Anthony Bourdain would agree.