Your Guide to Julia Child Books and Cookbooks

The beloved sequel to the bestselling classic, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Working from the principle that “mastering any art is a continuing process,” Julia Child and Simone Beck gathered together a brilliant selection of new dishes to 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 Parisian restaurant, of the essential cooking of France.

Julia Child had already achieved widespread recognition as the bestselling author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but it wasn’t until her television debut with The French Chef that she became the superstar we know and love today. Millions of Americans learned not only how to cook, but how to embrace food. From that success came The French Chef Cookbook, Julia’s first solo cookbook, written with all the wit, wisdom, and joie de vivre for which she is rightly remembered. Organized by episode — ”Dinner in a Pot,” “Caramel Desserts,” “Beef Gets Stewed Two Ways” — the book, like the television show on which it is based, is a complete French culinary education, packed with more than 300 delectable recipes — including timeless classics like Cassoulet, Vichyssoise, Coq au Vin, Croissants, and Chocolate Mousse.

Perfect for home cooks, Julia fans, and anyone who simply loves to eat and drink. “If you’re afraid of butter, use cream.” So decrees Julia Child, the legendary culinary authority and cookbook author who taught America how to cook — and how to eat. This delightful volume of quotations compiles some of Julia’s most memorable lines on eating — “The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook” — on drinking, on life — “I think every woman should have a blowtorch” — on love, travel, France, and much more.

In this indispensable volume of kitchen wisdom, Julia Child gives home cooks the answers to their most pressing cooking questions — with essential information about soups, vegetables, eggs, baking breads and tarts, and more. How many minutes should you cook green beans? What are the right proportions for a vinaigrette? How do you skim off fat? Here, Julia provides solutions for these and many other everyday cooking queries. How are you going to cook that small rib steak you brought home? You’ll be guided to the quick sauté as the best and fastest way. And once you’ve mastered that recipe, you can apply the technique to chops, chicken, or fish, following Julia’s careful guidelines.

Julia Child and Jacques Pépin are synonymous with good food, and in these pages they demonstrate techniques (on which they don’t always agree), discuss ingredients, improvise, balance flavors to round out a meal, and conjure up new dishes from leftovers. Center stage are carefully spelled-out recipes flanked by Julia’s and Jacques’s comments — the accumulated wisdom of two lifetimes of honing their cooking skills. Nothing is written in stone, they imply. And that is one of the most important lessons for every good cook.

Although she would later single-handedly create a new approach to American cuisine with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her television show The French Chef, Julia Child was not always a master chef. When she first arrived in France in 1948 with her husband, Paul, who was to work for the USIS, she spoke no French and knew nothing about the country itself. But as she dove into French culture, buying food at local markets and taking classes at the Cordon Bleu, her life changed forever with her newfound passion for cooking and teaching. Julia’s unforgettable story — struggles with the head of the Cordon Bleu, rejections from publishers to whom she sent her now-famous cookbook, a wonderful, nearly fifty-year long marriage that took the Childs across the globe — unfolds with the spirit so key to Julia’s success as a chef and a writer, brilliantly capturing one of America’s most endearing personalities.

Perfect for any fan of Julia Child — and any lover of French food — this boxed set brings together the two volumes of the acclaimed, bestselling classic cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Volume One contains recipes for the savory delights of French cuisine. Volume Two presents a brilliant selection of 257 additional recipes that not only add to the home cook’s repertoire but, above all, bring them to a new level of mastery. Taken together, these two books are a stunning feat of cookbook literature and Julia Child’s most beloved works.