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Title

• Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1

Authors

• Simone Beck
• Louisette Bertholle
• Julia Child

Publisher

• Knopf

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1

Overview

From the publisher

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 classic French cooking. This beautiful book, with more than 100 instructive illustrations, is revolutionary in its approach because:

• It leads the cook infallibly from the buying and handling of raw ingredients, through each essential step of a recipe, to the final creation of a delicate confection.
• It breaks down the classic cuisine into a logical sequence of themes and variations rather than presenting an endless and diffuse catalogue of recipes; the focus is on key recipes that form the backbone of French cookery and lend themselves to an infinite number of elaborations.
• It adapts classical techniques, wherever possible, to modern American conveniences.
• It shows Americans how to buy products, from any supermarket in the U.S., that reproduce the exact taste and texture of the French ingredients: equivalent meat cuts, for example; the right beans for a cassoulet; the appropriate fish and shellfish for a bouillabaisse.
• It offers suggestions for just the right accompaniment to each dish, including proper wines.

“Anyone can cook in the French manner anywhere,” wrote Mesdames Beck, Bertholle, and Child, “with the right instruction.” This is the book that, for 40 years, has been teaching Americans how.

Read a review of this book

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1

Selected contents

• Soupe à l’Oignon (Onion Soup)
• Tarte Normande aux Pommes (Custard Apple Tart)
• Potage Parmentier (Leek or Onion and Potato Soup)