From Julia Child's Kitchen
by Julia Child
Our Price: $62.47
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Julia ChildEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1999-10-12
ISBN: 0517207125
Number of pages: 736
Publisher: Gramercy
Book Reviews of From Julia Child's Kitchen
Book Review: My favorite Julia
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the book that taught me how to cook. It is my favourite of Julia Child's cookbooks, although the two volumes of Mastering are, together, a close second. Whenever I cook some French dish I look through this, Escoffier, and Mastering the Art of French cooking; among them they pretty much have the French classics covered. Basically, is someone were wanting to learn traditional French cooking I would suggest doing it with this book in the left hand and Mastering (both volumes) in the right. Mastering the Art of French cooking was a collaboration; it was an attempt to describe, in quasi-encycolpaedic fashion, the French classics; as a result it is slightly impersonal (though hardly entirely so) and very much concerned with tradition. This is a highly individual book; the author's personal taste (which was excellent) and life experience (fascinating) enrich every recipe. The soubise (rice and onions and gruyere cheese) is sublime. The fruitcake is not only one of my favorite fruitcakes but has converted a number of fruitcake-phobic friends into devotees (although, as she warns us, it is not to be made on a budget!) It is a fantastic teaching book. For example, there are pages detailing how to hard-boil an egg. Judging from the number of unfortunate hard-boiled eggs I see that have chalky hard yolks and that horrible blue line between the yolk and the white, this is information more people should have. There is also a very detailed discussion of peeling the egg so that it does not disintegrate before you get it out of the shell. This is the kind of thing a beginning cook needs!
So as I said, if you want to learn French cooking, either first get Mastering and then this, or first this and then Mastering. If you're a beginner and don't want to be intimidated perhaps the second way would be better. I haven't spent much time with any of Mrs. Child's other cookbooks, but leafing through them in bookstores, quite frankly, I never found any of them quite as interesting as this one. This is the most personal, the most in-depth; this is the one in which she shares her kitchen philosophy and her spirit.
Having said all of this I am shocked by the prices which are being asked. I suppose that the double-whammy of Mrs. Child's still relatively recent demise, and the recent movie, have made all things Julia worth their weight in gold. But I bought this book in a second-hand store in Virginia when I was a college student in the early '90s and as I was pretty penniless back then it cannot have cost very much. Then I somehow lost it and, after years of nomadic living and, naturally, not cooking much, when I wanted to learn again, I searched the used bookstores of New York for it and, sure enough, found it. That would have been either 1999 or 2000, I was in an entry-level position in a publishing company and, if anything, even more penniless than I had been as a student. Bottom line, seventy-nine dollars, which is what is being asked for it used as I write this, is ridiculous, even if it is a great book, so shop around!
Summary of From Julia Child's Kitchen
One of the first and most important-and most successful-cookbooks by America's beloved Julia Child. Using a very accessible approach to French cooking from an American point of view, here are recipes and techniques for the beginner as well as the more advanced cook, using easily available ingredients for everything from soups and appetizers to dessert. Black and white line art and photographs throughout.Reference Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Five Star Cookbooks
Southern Living Our Best Christmas RecipesOxmoor House; Published: 1994-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.95
Price in other shops:
Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Healthful Cooking: Recipes and Techniques for Wholesome Home Cooking (Essentials of...)by Dana Jacobi
Oxmoor House; Published: 2003-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $22.60
Price in other shops:
At Home with the French Classicsby Richard Grausman
Workman Publishing Company; Published: 1988-01-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.43
Price in other shops:
From Julia Child's Kitchenby Julia Child
Gramercy; Published: 1999-10-12; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
French Farmhouse Cookbookby Susan Herrmann Loomis
Workman Publishing Company; Published: 1996-01-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $224.99
Italian Farmhouse Cookbookby Susan Herrmann Loomis
Workman Publishing Company; Published: 2000-01-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $25.00
Rose's Christmas Cookiesby Rose Levy Beranbaum
William Morrow Cookbooks; Published: 1998-11-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.30
Price in other shops:
The Bread Bibleby Rose Levy Beranbaum
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2003-10-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $21.00
Price in other shops:
The Cake Bibleby Rose Levy Beranbaum
William Morrow Cookbooks; Published: 1988-09-20; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $21.99
Price in other shops:
The Gourmet Slow Cooker: Volume II, Regional Comfort-Food Classicsby Lynn Alley
Ten Speed Press; Published: 2006-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.98
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Backstage with Julia: My Years with Julia Childby Nancy Verde Barr
Wiley; Published: 2008-04-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.72
Price in other shops:
The Way to Cookby Julia Child
Knopf; Published: 1993-09-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $25.00
Price in other shops:
Julia and Jacques Cooking at Homeby Julia Child, Jacques Pepin
Knopf; Published: 1999-09-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $178.29
Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol. 2 (Paperback)by Julia Child, Simone Beck
Knopf; Published: 1983-09-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.97
Price in other shops:
Appetite for Lifeby Noel Riley Fitch
Anchor; Published: 1999-05-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.49
Price in other shops:
Julia Child - The French ChefWGBH BOSTON VIDEO; Release date: 2005-04-26; DVD
Best price: $22.49
Price in other shops:
The French Chef With Julia Child 2WGBH BOSTON VIDEO; Release date: 2005-11-22; DVD
Best price: $22.38
Price in other shops:
Julia Child! - The French ChefWGBH BOSTON VIDEO; Release date: 2006-10-17; DVD
Best price: $23.08
Price in other shops:
Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cookingby Julia Child
Knopf; Published: 2009-06-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.53
Price in other shops:
The French Chef Cookbookby Julia Child
Knopf; Published: 2002-08-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.97
Price in other shops: