From Julia Child's Kitchen by Julia Child
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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!
Book Review: Probably Julia's Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
Those interested in cooking à la Julia usually make their way to Mastering I and/or II, fine volumes both, but there is good reason to choose this volume instead. In my opinion it should be considered Julia's finest achievement as a cookbook author, and if I could have only one book in my kitchen, this would be it. It is a superb teaching volume and ideal for beginning home cooks, but even those with experience would benefit from owning it.
This is the first book that Julia developed and wrote entirely herself, and for that reason it is quite a bit more individual than its predecessors. In her autobiography "My Life in France" she describes it as both the hardest and most rewarding project of her career. Unlike the Mastering volumes, which were meant to be practical textbooks on French cooking, this book is much more wide-ranging and exploratory, with Julia trying out everything from pizza to curried dinners to hard boiled eggs to Christmas fruitcake. It's like a snapshot of how she cooked in the early 1970s. By then she had worked through some fundamental recipes for almost two decades and solved many problems still unsettled in Mastering I, which means that the versions of them published here often contain small but vital improvements. An example occurs in the very first recipe, for Potage Parmentier, that most basic and delicious of soups. Julia adds a simple flour thickener as a liaison, which adds a step, but in my experience it results in a better-textured and nicer-tasting finished product than one gets with her earlier versions of this recipe. Not only that, but following it gives you a little lesson on thickeners, which you can then apply elsewhere. The book is filled with little touches like that. I adore her way with chicken in this book; most of the recipes are simpler than those in Mastering I and II, but always delicious. The beef chapter is superb and I have become known as a great cook by serving this version of her Boeuf Bourguignon. I have also made the best puff pastry of my life by following this book's instructions, and Julia's chocolate mousse--well, it's like a dream come true! I've probably cooked three-quarters of the recipes in this book and am always impressed, and I learn something every time I cook with it.
Of all her books, this is the one in which Julia's personal culinary preferences and predilections come through most clearly. There is quite a bit of editorializing before and between recipes, and from these mini-essays you get a sharp sense of what she valued in food. This book should be seen as a summary of Julia Child's achievement, culminating the work of her earlier publications. Her later books, while worthwhile, do not add much to the picture that doesn't already receive treatment here.
I cannot recommend this book enthusiastically enough. Try to get one of the 1970s printings if you can, since they are of fine quality, unlike the 90s-era reprinting.
Book Review: This Book is Simply Divine
Summary: 5 Stars
The other day -- when I was at my computer writing reviews of some cookbooks I'd picked up at a Southern California estate sale, including two books by Julia Child, The French Chef Cookbook and Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home -- I was interrupted by Hubby Dub.
"I think I'd like something special tonight," he said and, of course, I knew he was talking about dinner. He smiled, then handed me a gift wrapped package and don'tcha know, I'm a girl who loves presents. I ripped the wrapping off and to my surprise it was this book, FROM JULIA CHILD'S KITCHEN.
Was I ever impressed! He'd noticed, actually noticed me the last couple weeks pouring over, devouring the two books mentioned above. Usually when I'm wrapped up in a cookbook, imagining what various recipes might taste like, he's reading a software manuel or watching sports. And what's more he took the time to get me this special gift. This book is out of print and it cost him a lot of money, well over a hundred bucks.
I got right up from the computer, went downstairs, poured a cup of coffee, then curled up on the sofa with this book. Dinner was going to shine tonight and the ghost of Julia Child was going to help me cook it. I went straight to the beef section, though beef is not a favorite of mine, Dub loves it and he did buy me the book, after all.
I settled on Boeuf a la mode; Boeuf in Daube, which translated is Whole Piece of Beef Braised in Red Wine. I skipped the optional larding fat or pork fat. I am sure the fat adds to the taste, but the recipe turned out perfect. The dish was perfect, tasted a treat, but I decided to add just a bit more, maybe to make up for the fat I cut out, so I did the Sauce Hollandaise on page 622 and poured it over steamed veggies. Oh wow!
And since I was already using (and drinking a bit of) red wine (a nice Pinot), I decided to go with the Pears Poached in Red Wine on page 511 for dessert. Another treat.
This book is wonderful and I don't, I really don't know why it is out of print. This book will teach you so much. It's just simply divine.
Book Review: For cooking novices, Julia's best book
Summary: 5 Stars
This unassuming book, a companion to Julia Child's original WGBH TV series, doesn't have many recipes, certainly isn't comprehensive, and has only pathetic, tiny, black and white illustrations. But it's loaded with detailed explanations of the basics--what to do, why to do it that way, what will happen if you do it the wrong way and (sometimes) how to fix things that have gone wrong. The book is really almost a programmed learning text on cooking, although it isn't presented as such. I don't know of a better cookbook for novices, who can soon follow it to create really impressive dishes that will earn accolades, and help keep up their interest in cooking. Not all the recipes are classics. Some are the author's innovations, but make the point that, by combining basic techniques, interesting new dishes can be done. For example, the two sauce "Lasagne a la Francais" is unlike any Lasagna you've ever had--but wonderful--and makes perfect sense once you've been through the earlier recipes in the book on whose techniques it builds. If I were looking for a book for someone who didn't really know how to cook, but wanted to learn, this is the one I'd get.Book Review: One of the great cookbooks of all time
Summary: 5 Stars
If you know nothing about cooking, this is the book to buy first, and the fact that it's so hard to find is a damn shame. Julia is who she is for a good reason. The recipes (and more) in here -- the original Caesar Salad (given to Julia by Cesar Cardini's daughter), the last words in puff pastry and chocolate mousse recipes, a discourse on the ethics of cooking lobster, advice on metric measurements (written in the '70s when there was hope for the US to convert, but relevant now in the era of Internet recipes), and even a comparison of French and American butchering practices make this more than just your average TV cookbook (it was the companion to the color French Chef series). To any cookbook interested in Western cooking of any sort, this should be a part of your library. It doesn't cover everything, but if you can't learn to cook from this book you can't cook period. Julia has written many a cookbook (even Baking With Julia, though written by Dorie Greenspan, still has Julia's spirit in it apart from the TV connection), and most all are great, but this is the one Julia book every serious chef should own.