The French Chef Cookbook [Unknown Binding]

Product Details

• Unknown Binding
• Publisher: Knopf (1979)
• ISBN-10: 0553125931
• ISBN-13: 978-0553125931
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,525,365 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

154 of 158 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The essentials of classic French cooking, but not mastery, February 19, 2001

By 

Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: French Chef Cookbook (Paperback)

If you aspire to French cooking, I cannot recommend "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" enough, and you DO need both volumes (the great breads are in the second volume.)

But...if you want the most often asked-for French classics like Lobster Thermidor, Cassoulet and the classic desserts to use for your elegant dinner parties, this is a BETTER choice. It is slimmed-down, modernized, has photos and is the best of the best.

So it's easy to choose; want to learn and read about French cooking, I like the Mastering series better (even better than Jacques Pepin's book.) Want a handy reference for classic dishes for occasional forays into French cuisine? Choose this one.

69 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Too Can Fold An Omlette, February 25, 2006

By 

Matthew Patton (Deltona, Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: French Chef Cookbook (Paperback)

In this day and age, when there are so many cooking shows that they have their own channel, I remember my far-away youth, when you could choose between Graham Kerr and Julia Child and not much of anyone else . . .

Kerr was the one who always had a glass of wine at his elbow and looked as if he might invite a lucky member of his audience to a bottle party at the local wife-swapper's club. Julia Child was like the big goofy aunt who got all enthusiastic about things and transmitted that to you. Between them, I learned to love food (too much) and discovered that cooking, while undeniably work, was also a lot of fun.

And now you too can do it at home. Lots of beef in wine and sauces with cream and dry white vermouth, many onions and scallions and mushrooms. The occasional dish you're required to set on fire. And always more butter.

There are also lots of patient, common-sense instructions on such sticky subjects as folding omlettes, whipping egg whites, and, horror of horrors, making hollandaise sauce from scratch. In print, as on television, there is Child's supportive, can-do attitude--you ARE going to make mistakes along the way, but a lot of them can be corrected, and with experience, these things will become easier. Just keep doing. And follow the technical rules, which are there for a reason.

And after some effort, you can fold an omlette, the egg yolks in the hollandaise don't scramble, and you can even roll up a sponge cake. The souffles even rise. Oh, and by the way, only make POT -A-FEU if you are serving an army and have a week to cook it . . .

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good book to use when you want to splurge., November 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: French Chef Cookbook (Paperback)

Though you would not want to cook like this everyday, it does produce delicious food with emphasis on proper technique presented in an informal and laid back manner that is unique to Julia Child. A new forward is written by Julia Child explaning the changes in attitudes on food between the late 1960s (when the book was originally published) and the 1990s. A must for all serious about cooking. Though it lacks the in depth explanations of her other books, it is still a great resource for serious cooks. Anyone who grew up or ever watched Julia Child as the French Chef will especially love this book ( come on, you KNOW you have made the roasting hen dance to the French Chef Theme song at least ONCE before trussing it!!).