Synopses & Reviews
The sequel to the classic
Mastering the Art of French CookingHere, from Julia Child and Simone Beck, is the sequel to the cooking classic that has inspired a whole American generation to new standards of culinary taste and artistry. On the principle that “mastering any art is a continuing process,” they continued, during the years since the publication of the now-celebrated Volume One, to search out and sample new recipes among the classic dishes and regional specialties of France—cooking, conferring, tasting, revising, perfecting. Out of their discoveries they have made, for Volume Two, a brilliant selection of precisely those recipes that will not only add to the repertory but will, above all, bring the reader to a yet higher level of mastering the art of French cooking.
This second volume enables Americans, working with American ingredients, in American kitchens, to achieve those incomparable flavors and aromas that bring up a rush of memories—of lunch at a country inn in Provence, of an evening at a great Paris restaurant, of the essential cooking of France.
Among its many treasures:
• the first authentic, successful recipe ever devised for making real French bread—the long, crunchy, yeasty, golden loaf that is like no other bread in texture and flavor—with American all-purpose flour and in an American home oven;
• soups from the garden, chowders and bisques from the sea—including great fish stews from Provence, Normandy, and Burgundy;
• meats from country kitchens to haute cuisine, in master recipes that demonstrate the special art of French meat cookery;
• chickens poached (thirteen ways) and sauced;
• vegetables alluringly combined and restored to a place of honor on the menu;
• a lavish array of desserts, from the deceptively simple to the absolutely splendid.
But perhaps the most remarkable achievement of this volume is that it will make Americans actually more expert than their French contemporaries in two supreme areas of cookery: baking and charcuterie.
In France one can turn to the local bakery for fresh and expertly baked bread, or to neighborhood charcuterie for pâtés and terrines and sausages. Here, most of us have no choice but to create them for ourselves.
And in this book, thanks to the ingenuity and untiring experimentation of Mesdames Child and Beck, we are given instructions so clear, so carefully tested, that now any American cook can make specialties that have hitherto been obtainable only from Frances professional chefs and bakers.
With the publication of Volume Two, one can select from a whole new range of dishes, from the French bread to a salted goose, from peasant ragoûts to royal Napoleons. Each of the new master recipes is worked out, step by infallible step, with the detail, exactness, and clarity that are the soul of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. And the many drawings—five times as many as in Volume One—are demonstrations in themselves, making the already clear instructions doubly clear.
More than a million American families now own Volume One. For them and, in fact, for all who would master the art of French cooking, Julia Child and Simone Beck open up new worlds of expertise and good eating. Bon appétit!
Synopsis
The beloved sequel to the bestselling classic, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume II presents more fantastic French recipes for home cooks. Working from the principle that "mastering any art is a continuing process," here Julia Child and Simone Beck have gathered together a brilliant selection of new dishes that will bring you to a yet higher level of culinary mastery. They have searched out more of the classic dishes and regional specialties of France, and adapted them so that Americans, working with American ingredients, in American kitchens, can achieve the incomparable flavors and aromas that bring up a rush of memories--of lunch at a country inn in Provence, of an evening at a great Paris restaurant, of the essential cooking of France. From French bread to salted goose, from peasant ragouts to royal Napoleons, recipes are written with the same detail, exactness, and clarity that are the soul of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
Synopsis
Mastering The Art of French Cooking is for both seasoned cooks and beginners who love good food and long to reproduce at home the savory delights of the classic cuisine, from the historic Gallic masterpieces to the seemingly artless perfection of a dish of spring- green peas. This beautiful book, with more than 100 instructive illustrations, is revolutionary in its approach.
Synopsis
Here is the sequel to the great cooking classic. Each of the new recipes is worked out step-by-step, with the clarity and precision that are the essence of the first volume. 5 times as many drawings as in Vol. I make the clear instructions even more so.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Synopsis
The perfect gift for any follower of Julia Child—and any lover of French food. This boxed set brings together
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, first published in 1961, and its sequel,
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume Two, published in 1970.
Volume One is the classic cookbook, in its entirety—524 recipes.
“Anyone can cook in the French manner anywhere,” wrote Mesdames Beck, Bertholle, and Child, “with the right instruction.” And here is the book that, for nearly fifty years, has been teaching Americans how.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking is for both seasoned cooks and beginners who love good food and long to reproduce at home the savory delights of the classic cuisine, from the historic Gallic masterpieces to the seemingly artless perfection of a dish of spring-green peas. The techniques learned in this beautiful book, with more than one hundred instructive illustrations, can be applied to recipes in all other French cookbooks, making them infinitely usable. In compiling the secrets of famous Cordon Bleu chefs, the authors produced a magnificent volume that continues to have a place of honor in American kitchens.
Volume Two is the sequel to the great cooking classic—with 257 additional recipes.
Following the publication of the celebrated Volume One, Julia Child and Simone Beck continued to search out and sample new recipes among the classic dishes and regional specialties of France—cooking, conferring, tasting, revising, perfecting. Out of their discoveries they made, for Volume Two, a brilliant selection of precisely those recipes that not only add to the repertory but, above all, bring the reader to a new level of mastery of the art of French cooking.
Each of these recipes is worked out step-by-step, with the clarity and precision that are the essence of the first volume. Five times as many drawings as in Volume One make the clear instructions even more so.
Perhaps the most remarkable achievement of this volume is that it will make Americans actually more expert than their French contemporaries in two supreme areas of cookery: baking and charcuterie. In France one can turn to the local bakery for fresh and expertly baked bread, or to neighborhood charcuterie for pâtés and terrines and sausages. Here, most of us have no choice but to create them for ourselves.
Bon appétit!
About the Author
Julia Child was born in Pasadena, California. She graduated from Smith College and worked for the OSS during World War II in Ceylon and China, where she met Paul Child. After they were married they lived in Paris, where Ms. Child studied at the Cordon Bleu and taught cooking with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, with whom she wrote the first volume of
Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961).
In 1963 Bostons WGBH launched The French Chef television series, which made Julia Child a national celebrity, earning her the Peabody Award in 1965 and an Emmy in 1966. Her subsequent public television shows—Julia Child & Company (1978), Julia Child & More Company (1980), Cooking with Master Chefs (1993), In Julias Kitchen with Master Chefs (1995), Baking with Julia (1996), and her one-on-one collaboration with Jacques Pépin, Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home (1999)—were all accompanied by books of the same names. The Way to Cook, her magnum opus, was published in 1989, and in 2000 she gave us Julias Kitchen Wisdom, a distillation of her years of cooking experience. Her memoir, My Life in France, was published posthumously in 2006. She died in 2004.