Rosa Jackson
Niçoise: Market-Inspired Cooking from France’s Sunniest City
(W. W. Norton, April 2024)
Read about Niçoise and the world of Southern French cooking in The Wall Street Journal
LA Times’s visits Rosa Jackson’s cooking school in Nice, Les Petits Farcis
An LA Times 2024 best spring cookbooks
One of Esquire’s Best Cookbooks of 2024
An Epicurious best cookbook of April
Listen in for recipe secrets on KCRW
An immersive cookbook with 100 recipes that unlock the colorful cuisine of Nice and the surrounding French Riviera.
At the foot of the French Alps, on the Mediterranean coastline, the city of Nice is sun-drenched, bursting with color, and replete with vibrant, full-flavored food. In Niçoise, Rosa Jackson, founder of the popular cooking school Les Petits Farcis and a resident of the city since 2004, invites home cooks to discover much more than salade Niçoise and ratatouille. With its reliance on olive oil, fresh produce, fish, whole grains, and chickpeas, the Italian-influenced Niçoise cuisine includes panisses (chickpea fries), daube (orange-scented beef stew), and a sweet Swiss chard pie. Encouraging readers to follow the seasons, Jackson structures her delicious and easy-to-master dishes around the freshest ingredients and celebrates casual street food like the tuna, egg, and vegetable sandwich known as pan bagnat. Beautiful photography, visits to local shops and restaurants, and conversations with the mamies who keep traditions alive further transport readers to the hidden corners of this tourist mecca.
Praise for Niçoise
“Beautiful. . . . [Jackson] is a graceful, witty writer, and her book is deeply lived and knowing. The glimpses of her life in Nicoise will surely encourage others to follow in her footsteps.” —Alexander Lobrano, The Wall Street Journal
“Nicoise with its light and appealing photographs, and knowledgeable voice, is a joy to browse through and cook from. This cuisine is especially dependent on the quality of the ingredients; begin with good materials and you’ll end up with a dish you love.” —Sheryl Julian, Boston Globe
“A lovely new cookbook.” —Florence Fabricant, The New York Times
“Gorgeous and formidable, while not in the least bit intimidating or stuffy, Rosa Jackson’s exploration of food and cooking in Nice is not only one of the best cookbooks of 2024, but it’s bound to have a lasting place in your library for years to come.” —Alex Belth, Esquire
“The people of Nice are fiercely proud of their resolutely seasonal cuisine. Rosa Jackson celebrates the sun-soaked flavors and ingredients of Niçoise cooking, direct from her long-time home (and her well-known cooking school) in the south of France. Rosa shares her favorite recipes, including the classic Salade Niçoise, picnic-friendly Pan bagnat sandwiches, garlicky Grand aïoli, and a brilliant Lemon tart with a soupçon of olive oil. Niçoise brings the freshness and vibrant spirit of Nice—and Niçoise cuisine—to your kitchen, and onto your table, wherever you are.” —David Lebovitz, author of Drinking French and My Paris Kitchen
“In this vibrant book, Rosa Jackson lovingly shares her deep knowledge of an often overlooked and misunderstood corner of French cuisine. Through wildly tempting recipes and colorful anecdotes, Jackson takes us on a delicious journey into rhythms and flavors of her adopted city. I may need two copies: one for my kitchen counter and one for my nightstand.” —Molly Stevens, James Beard Award-winning author of All About Dinner and All About Roasting
“Jackson amazes with lots of informative and encouraging sidebars on things like hunting for mushrooms, crushing hazelnuts, washing leeks, and stocking the Nice pantry… consider [Niçoise] bona fide and truthful publicity for the region.”
—Booklist
“This is not simply a monster coffee-table cookbook, designed to be leafed through in an armchair, unblemished by grease spots. The recipes, collected by the author over 20 years, are outstanding. You will want to try them right away. I plunged in the day I got the book.” —Moira Hodgson, The Wall Street Journal
“This passionate portrait of a pocket of French cuisine is sure to inspire.” —Publisher’s Weekly
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tried and loved a fresh, springy recipe from NIÇOISE
Featured in the July/August issue of food magazine Culinaire
Learn to make a NIÇOISE recipe in The Wall Street Journal
Read the Publishers Weekly review of NIÇOISE here
Rosa Jackson has run her cooking school, Les Petits Farcis, for the past twenty years. Since 1996 she has written about French food for international publications, including the Financial Times and Food & Wine. She lives in Nice, France.