Cooking with Master Chefs [Paperback]

Julia Child (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 28, 1993

In this companion volume to the PBS series "Cooking with Master Chefs," Julia Child introduces sixteen of America's talented chefs from different parts of the country and interprets their recipes for the home cook. With the help of more than eighty color photographs we see the chefs at work in home kitchens and we learn the individual techniques that make their signature dishes so delicious -- and so workable. For example:
-- from Charles Palmer (Aureole, New York), how to sear peppery venison steaks
-- from Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger (Border Grill, Santa Monica), how to make a spicy vegetarian feast
-- from Emeril Lagasse (Emeril's, New Orleans), how to produce an authentic crab boil and a shrimp etoufee
-- from Andre Soltner (Lutece, New York), how to cook traditional family dishes from Alsace
-- from Jeremiah Tower (Stars, San Francisco), three innovative ways with chicken
-- from Lidia Bastianich (Felidia, New York), the secrets of pasta and risotto
-- from Patrick Clark (Hay-Adams Hotel, Washington, D.C.), new ways with fish -- fresh salmon as a roulade, grouper crusty with horseradish
-- from Michel Richard (Citrus, Los Angeles), how to work with chocolate -- a mousse-filled dome, deep-fried chocolate truffles
-- from Amy Ferguson-Ota (The Ritz-Carlton, Hawaii), the special flavors of island produce -- breadfruit, ti leaves, green papayas, wok-seared ono
-- from Robert Del Grande (Cafe Annie, Houston), how to cook with chiles
-- from Nancy Silverton (Campanile, Los Angeles), the trick of a grape starter that works magic on her crusty loaves
-- from Jan Birnbaum (Campton Place, San Francisco), how to home-smoke salmon and roast sassafras-encrusted lamb
-- from Jean-Louis Palladin (Jean-Louis at The Watergate, Washington, D.C.), the technique of roasting duck breasts in a fireplace
-- from Alice Waters (Chez Panisse, Berkeley), celebrating the winter harvest in vegetable dishes and salads
-- from Jacques Pepin (chef-at-large), making puff pastry and a freestanding souffle

Julia Child writes in her Introduction that she's never known a serious cook or chef who didn't say: "Every day I learn something new!" "That point of view," she says, "turns home cooking and the pleasures of the table into a wonderful adventure.' So, appetit, and enjoy the adventures that this wonderful book provides.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A companion to the PBS series of the same name, Julia Child's classic Cooking with Master Chefs introduces readers to sixteen of America's top chefs, then presents their signature dishes to make at home. With the relaxed precision cooks expect of Child's recipes, and aided by more than 80 color photos, the dishes are as accessible as they are delicious. Child's fans, as well as those of chefs including Emeril Lagasse (Emeril's, New Orleans), André Soltner (formerly of Lutèce, New York), Alice Waters (Chez Panisse, Berkeley) and Michel Richard (Citrus, Los Angeles), among others, will be delighted.

The recipes, arranged in mini-menus of three to five dishes each, run the gamut of (mostly) American-inspired specialties. The aforementioned Lagasse provides an authentic Louisiana Crab Broil and savory Shrimp Étoufée; Mary Sue Milligan and Susan Feninger (Border Grill, Santa Monica), present a spicy vegetarian feast; and Charles Palmer (Auriole, New York), reveals his methods for making perfectly seared Venison and Tender Butternut Squash Timbales. The Italian table is represented by Lidia Bastianich (Felidia, New York), who shares her Pasta Ears with Brocolli di Rape and Sausages. And for dessert, chef Richard produces an extraordinary Chocolate Dome and pulse-quickening Hot Chocolate Truffles. Other chefs provide equally mouth-watering dishes.

Useful notes on techniques and ingredients are given throughout and in an appendix. As lively as it is instructive, Cooking with Master Chefs should provide a gratifying encounter with a remarkable culinary crew, conducted by an esteemed interpreter of the world's table. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly

This handsomely designed book, a companion to the new PBS television series, brings acclaimed chefs out of the restaurant and into their own home kitchens with characteristic dishes and singular stylishness. And as Child ( The Way to Cook ) observes, though readers may not be equipped to mimic these achievements exactly, we can indeed "gather ideas" from the recipes and apply them as we're able, with the aid and inspiration of 80 photographs. The lineup is brilliant, including Jacques Pepin, Alice Waters, Patrick Clark, Andre Soltner and 12 others; and it covers as much geographic as gastronomic ground, from Hawaii (one recipe by chef Amy Ferguson-Ota incorporates "ti" leaves, which grow wild there) to New Orleans. Reading soon enough becomes a form of voyeurism, possibly even better than dining, particularly when one turns to a Provencal tapenade, courtesy of Chez Panisse's proprietor, or to Michel Richard's "Chocolate Dome" with raspberry sauce. And of course, coming from Child, the book is well and warmly written. About a pasta dish by Lida Bastianich, incorporating broccoli de rape , she comments, "This lovely dish shows what can happen to tough old greens if you treat them right." Author tour. Illustrated.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (September 28, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679748296
• ISBN-13: 978-0679748298
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #542,424 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Julia Child was born in Pasadena, California. She was graduated from Smith College and worked for the OSS during World War II in Ceylon and China, where she met Paul Child. After they married they lived in Paris, where she 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, Boston's WGBH launched The French Chef television series, which made her a national celebrity, earning her the Peabody Award in 1965 and an Emmy in 1966. Several public television shows and numerous cookbooks followed. She died in 2004.

(Photo credit: (C) Michael P. McLaughlin)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great addition to the cookbooks I actually use, July 10, 2003

By 

MotherLodeBeth "MotherLodeBeth" (Sierras of California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cooking with Master Chefs (Paperback)

Enjoying the PBS series which is what this cookbook is based on, I wanted the book because of two quest cooks-chefs that were on Julia Childs series. First was the team of Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken who prepared a vegetarian meal, and the other Nancy Silverton who made a wonderful selection of earthy, or rustic breads which have become favorites in our home.

Fact is there is something for everyone in this cookbook and the directions are easy to follow, the photographs stunning as well as realistic (follow the recipes and the food will look like that shown).

While we try and eat more fruits, vegetables and grains than meat, I admit I also liked the Jean-Louis Palladin section dealing with duck, which is a bird that is often overlooked here in America but which when raised well can easily become a favorite for meals.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All Hail, Julia, and her friends! Bon Appetit!, July 4, 2011

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Sylviastel - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cooking With Master Chefs (Hardcover)

Julia Child has written a cookbook with her chef friends such as Susan Feniger, Emeril LaGasse, Jacques Pepin, and others in this collection. She writes her books with great affection as the meals that she prepares and cooks on her shows and in real life. The celebrity chefs are really Julia's friends. In this book, she takes a few of their recipes along with adding biographical information on how they started their careers as chefs. Child treats each of her fellow chefs with great encouragement, delight, and affection in this book.

If you will be reading and possibly using the recipes, please follow the instructions carefully. By looking at the meals and the recipes, you would think it's easy but it's not. These chefs have proven to masters of their crafts. Julia Child fans like myself appreciate not just her skills in the kitchen or as an author but as a friend to viewers and to her guests.

Julia and her master chefs each teach about the culinary arts, friendship, and sharing recipes with your friends.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars JULIA, March 8, 2010

By 

Pasquale Goglia - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cooking with Master Chefs (Paperback)

The book arrived promptly, in great shape and cheap. There are 3 good tv cooking programs, Julia, Mario and America's Test Kitchen. Watching Julia is very enjoyable. Most of the recipes in the book are easy and interesting.