Mastering the art of French Cooking 50th Anniversary by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, Simone Beck
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Book Reviews of Mastering the art of French Cooking 50th Anniversary
Book Review: The book that rewrote the book
Summary: 5 Stars
There is not a single bad thing to say about this book. The team of Beck, Bertholle, and Child literally changed the way cookbooks are written, rethought the whole concept from the ground up, and sacrificed comprehensiveness for quality to create a book so epic that it changed the direction of American cuisine, gave the publisher pause about stealing the thunder from the then-hugely popular Dione Lucas, and turned Child (and to a lesser extent Beck) into a superstar, a universally loved culinary figure the likes of which we will probably never see again. Dozens of cookbook authors to come, from Barbara Tropp, to Alton Brown, to Anthony Bourdain, to Sara Moulton, to Jacques Pépin, to Christopher Kimball, to (most reluctantly, given their mutual personal dislike) Madeleine Kamman, have built their works on the outline that l'École des Trois Gourmandes created nearly five decades ago.
What E3G did was strip assumptions down to the bare bones and build up -- nowhere in the book was it considered a given that the reader had even a passing familiarity with French cuisine. The "Mastering" came in the focus on the basics -- a proper crêpe, a perfectly roasted leg of lamb, the platonic ideal of a green pea -- and thus created a book that, despite the advances in kitchen technology and the inevitable changes in tastes over the years, remains to this day one of the most critical books any would-be chef could possibly own.
And the food... well, let's not pretend it's good for you food. It's mid-20th century French food, no doubt heavily informed by the need to indulge during the long, difficult period of rebuilding after World War II. Butter and cream are used with abandon, and even the idea of vegetables as something to be endured rather than enjoyed is tossed away in favor of making them taste as good as possible. Baking is somewhat short-changed, but Beck and Child would come back a decade later with volume II to rectify that oversight. Overall, the book is less comprehensive than you'd think; this is because the publisher was somewhat put out by E3G's original, painfully detailed, frankly Knuthian effort and the authors decided to concentrate on quality over quantity.
The current 3rd edition essentially combines the somewhat updated text of the 1983 second edition (changes in certain ingredients and tools, plus the introduction of the food processor -- Child's favorite go-to appliance -- made it worth the effort) with a fair amount of historical material that's expanded on in the several biographies of Child on the market now; this certainly isn't to say an older edition wouldn't be a bargain of course, but you may at times have to relearn a few techniques. (And of course older editions seldom have the dust jacket; this will be a book that gets used and abused once you get into it.)
"Mastering" is, quite simply, one of the top five greatest cookbooks ever written in the English language. If you're a foodie of any stripe, but especially an American foodie, you suck if you don't own this book.
Book Review: "If you're afraid of butter, as many people are nowadays, just put in cream!"
Summary: 5 Stars
The movie "Julie & Julia" is built around the astonishing idea that a fan of "Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Volume One" would cook her way through the book's almost-600 recipes in a single year. I've been using this book for three decades and I've only made a fraction of the recipes. But I've made that fraction so many times that the pages fall open to my favorite recipes.
The other way to identify my favorites? Greasy pages. Makes sense --- Child knew, when Michael Pollan and Nina Planck were still in their cribs, that it wasn't real food that kills you, it's grotesque American portions. As Child gaily told her television audience, "If you're afraid of butter, as many people are nowadays, just put in cream!"
Such bluntness was her nature --- and her charm. She came from money and privilege; the challenge of her life was to find something worth committing herself to. First came Paul Child. Then, at 37, came the Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris. And then, through a bit of luck, came an opportunity to work with Simone Beck on a French cookbook for Americans. As she tells the story in My Life in France, that book took almost a decade.
Judith Jones was the first American editor to read the manuscript. She flipped: "I pored over the recipe for a beef stew and learned the right cuts of meat for braising, the correct fat to use (one that would not burn), the importance of drying the meat and browning it in batches, the secret of the herb bouquet, the value of sautéing the garnish of onions and mushrooms separately. I ran home to make the recipe --- and my first bite told me that I had finally produced an authentic French boeuf bourguignon --- as good as one I could get in Paris. This, I was convinced, was a revolutionary cookbook, and if I was so smitten, certainly others would be."
Quality mattered. So did timing. "Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Volume One" was published in 1961. In the White House was a President with a wife who loved France. Air travel was replacing ocean liners --- Americans in larger numbers were traveling to Europe. Frozen food and TV dinners were clogging the supermarkets; Child lobbied for accessible sophistication, and changed the way some of us ate.
And then there was multi-media. WGBH, Boston's public TV station, invited Child to promote her book. The station had no studio kitchen, so she brought eggs, a whisk and a hot plate. On camera, she made an omelette, narrating the process with wit and confidence. A TV series soon followed --- she was Martha Stewart before there was Martha Stewart.
Actually, she was much more. Back then, cooking was not a respected profession. She showed that it was a discipline --- and an art. And she legitimized the home-gourmet. Was cooking a chore? Not after you'd seen Julia Child, amusing herself as she prepared dinner.
All these years later, I'm still charmed by Child's 13-page screed on omelettes. On the other hand, I never had much use for her pâtés or terrines, soufflés or sauces. Dessert still seems like overkill. And the seven recipes for kidney? Non-events. It's the classics that first appealed to me, and still do.
Book Review: After 48 Years, This Book Tops The Best Sellers List
Summary: 5 Stars
Julia Child et al, wrote this mastery of a cookbook over 48 years ago. It has finally made the best seller list this week. The success of the film 'Julia and Julie' and the book of the same name has given Julia Child a leg up! It is not surprising that women who have bought this cookbook are surprised at the amount of butter involved. Americans are afraid of butter. The French use butter and always have in great proportions, but they also eat a lot of fruit and vegetables and they walk- they walk everywhere.
Nora Ephron, Director of 'Julie and Julia' says she had as a goal of her film that people would buy Julia's book. Not only buy it, but cook with it. And, they have in numbers that run into the thousands, 22,000 to be exact. The recipes are not difficult, they take a little extra time, that's all. This is not 'put your dinner on the table in 30 minutes' cookbook. Do you remember Julia Child's cooking show on PBS? We used to watch it every week and laugh along with her as she dropped the chicken on the floor, picked it up and said, no one is here but me!The food looked luscious, even in black and white. My first recipe was the Beef Bourgione and it is still a staple in my kitchen. Her pate brisee is also the best recipe for pie crust and it is so much easier now with a blender. Pie Crust that is flaky and buttery and supports the filling. I recently made a blueberry pie,and it was the taste of summer!. A fresh blueberry pie in the summer with vanilla ice cream tops a meal!
I received Julia Child's 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' again for my birthday this year. It replaced the old tattered copy that has its rightful place in my bookcase. The old one was used and showed it, but isn't that what we want in our cookbooks? Julia Child would be pleased, I think. Unlike, Julie, I am not going to try each recipe, but will go for my tried and true and some new ones, in memory of Julia.
Bon Appetit! You can't beat that!
Highly Recommended. prisrob 08-23-09
My Life in France (Movie Tie-In Edition) (Random House Movie Tie-In Books)
Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking
Julia Child - The French Chef
Book Review: Everything you ever wanted to know about French cooking but were afraid to ask
Summary: 5 Stars
I learned how to cook by watching Ms. Julia Child on PBS. She has always been one of, if not my very favorite, TV cooking chef. Ms. Child's on-air recipes were always so practical and forgiving because she not only gave recipes but also taught a method and had a wonderful attention to detail that has remained uncompromised.
Recently when Ms. Child's show was put back into rotation on The Cooking Channel I started watching her shows again and celebrating her recipes (she is truly the only cook that I can watch, get the method and make the dish without any complications, mistakes or a need for a paper recipe). And I was amazed to find that I did not have any of her cookbooks in my kitchen library. So I immediately decided to purchase her most famous cookbook (and her very first), "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."
The book was first published in 1961, is hard cover and a total of 684 pages in length. The book includes diagrams, pictures, as well as an index and a glossary.
And although I know my way around the kitchen, I have to admit that the book is somewhat intimidating. It is truly a wealth of information for absolutely everyone that appreciates the fine creation of French culinary cooking.
The contents of the book include chapters and sections on these topics: kitchen equipment, definitions (basic translations from French to American-English), ingredients (how to find some of the rather unusual items in American supermarkets and what to substitute), measures (or conversions), temperatures, cutting, wines (I don't drink, but even if you don't this is still handy to read because we all entertain), soups, sauces, eggs, entrees and luncheon dishes, fish, poultry, meat, vegetables, cold buffet, and desserts and cakes.
So far I have made a couple of the recipes from the poultry chapter and what I like about this book is that Ms. Child lays everything out so neatly and explicitly in each recipe. She even lists all of the utensils that will be needed for each dish.
This is would make a fantastic book for a new bride because it includes descriptive information on both serving and preparing lavish and basic dinners. I also recommend this book to both the amateur cook (like myself) as well as the longstanding professional because we can all learn something new about French cooking. And who better to teach us than the one and only Julia Child.
Book Review: Pure honest recipes
Summary: 5 Stars
I moved from Europe to the USA 3 years ago. I never heard of Julia Child, to the astonishment of lots of Americans I spoke to. I love to cook and bake from the comfort of my own house. In Europe I was a manager of a bakery/pastrie store, the kind you won't find here in America. What my employers there (the bakers themselves) taught me was never to fall for substitutes for, especially, butter and sugar. Going through Mastering the art of French Cooking, I was utterly pleased to see that Ms. Child stuck to that principle as well. I've made quite a few recipes from this amazing book. The notorious cheese soufflé is a true classic gem, and turned out to be perfect (it's really a matter of READING carefully). Like all the other recipes, I love the fact that she lists the ingredients that come with each step in the process of making the recipe. Very clear, no nonsense and in my opinion not complicated at all. I have made onion soup for years according to my own recipe and therefore I was very curious how Ms. Child's version would be like. It was more work for sure, she cooks the onions in butter and oil and for quite a long time. She also adds white wine, which I never did before. The soup was outstanding, only next time I will add the bay leaf I myself always use, I missed that subtle touch, however I'm planning to stick with her version of this tasty soup.
I do not always agree with Ms. Child, for example she almost only uses Swiss or Parmesan cheese in her cheese recipes, I find a nice matured Gouda a fantastic cheese to use as well. Like in the soufflé.
In her baking recipes that involves apples she mentiones Golden Delicious mostly. I find that these apples lose their flavour completely, probably because they miss the tartness I prefer. So I use Granny Smith instead.
But overall this book is must have! It's fantastic. Everything that involves cooking/baking is discussed. Tools, measurements, ingredients availability, although that might have changed over the years. I'm lucky to have a Wegmans close to me where, so far, I've been able to find everything I need. Oh...I've read in some reviews that one needs so many tools sometimes to make a dish, I find that that gives me a sense of 'real cooking'.
Tonight I'm making Bouillabaisse for the first time. I'm already excited about making it.