Customer Reviews

The Way to Cook

5 star:		(81)
4 star:		(9)
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2 star:		(3)
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Julia Child's "The Way to Cook" is one of the essential cookbooks every kitchen should have. Julia's straight forward instructions, her outstanding recipes and the quality of the dishes she recommends make this and fantastic cookbook.

While Julia covers a wide range of dishes in this book (Soups, Breads, Eggs, Fish, Poultry, Meat, Vegetables, Salads, Pastry, Desserts, and Cakes & Cookies) her emphasis is definitely on French/European cooking. If you are looking for recipes from different ethnic groups, you will need to find other cookbooks to compliment this one.

In the last five years that I've owned this cookbook, I've made a wide selection of recipes and have never been disappointed. From simple dishes such as crepes to complex day-long affairs such as Lamb Stew Printaniere, her instructions have been complete, straightforward, and detailed. If you follow her steps, you're guaranteed to have incredible results.

The book includes both beautiful and useful photographs. This is important, because one of the big drawbacks with most cookbooks are that they have incredible imagery of the finished dish, but don't actually show you how things should look as they are being prepared. The way to cook does an excellent job at showing you both... which is one of the reasons it is such an outstanding book.

Julia's other books are also excellent. Both "Baking with Julia" and "In Julia's Kitchen With Master Chefs" are outstanding.

One last word of advice... if you ever make A Fast Saute of Beef for Two from this book, use heavy creame instead of cornstarch (she says you can use either). The cream will make the difference between a good meal and a great one!

Enjoy!

`The Way to Cook' was written by Julia Child and published by Knopf about 27 years after the first publication of `Mastering the Art of French Cooking' which established Child's reputation. So, it was published when Julia Child was a household name for over two decades. It was meant to be her most important culinary work. It has never replaced Child's first book in the hearts and minds of America's foodies, in spite of the fact that the book opens with a statement that the book means to address Americans' new health consciousness and their diminishing time available to cook.

This is still a very, very good book. Unlike the more famous `French Cooking', this book is much more concerned with teaching the art of cooking. In fact, Ms. Child originates an idea here that has reached its fullest fruition in the style of Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meal rubric. Ray succeeds in putting out fast meals not by using a lot of processed supermarket preparations, but by using knowledge of cooking to make the best of basic ingredients. This is not to say Ms. Child is doing fast cooking. Many recipes are pretty involved. I can still remember doing Julia's take on a barbecue recipe which involved making both a sauce and a rub from a goodly number of ingredients and a substantial amount of time required to slow cook the ribs. I got pretty hungary by the time I was finally finished.

Teaching is so important to the object of this book that it is one of the very few books I know which could easily serve as a good textbook for a course on cooking. The only other book I know in this category would be Madeline Kammen's `The New Making of a Cook'. It is important to distinguish both of these books from the `how to cook everything' titles such as the `Joy of Cooking', `James Beard's American Cookery' or Mark Bittman's `How to Cook Everything'. The purpose of these books is to give detailed coverage to a wide range of methods rather than simply be a repository of a large number of recipes.

The most distinctive feature in this book which supports it's object to teach cooking is the notion of the master recipe. A classic example of this approach is the master recipe for `Ragout of Chicken and Onions in Red Wine'. If this dish doesn't sound familiar to experienced cooks, it should be, because the very famous French recipe `Coq au Vin' is a variation of this master recipe. The classic simply adds lardons, mushrooms, and brandy and replaces sliced onions with `brown braized white onions'.

In addition to master recipes and variations, there is a wealth of notes on techniques to improve your results. In discussing the use of lardons, there is a note which recommends blanching bacon and salt pork before adding it to a recipe to remove salt and smoky flavor. I am certain this is an optional step, but it is welcome to me as I often avoid recipes using salt pork to avoid the somewhat noisome smell of smoked fatty tissue which may come from cooking smoked pork.

Another feature of the book which fits the master recipe model is that variations on the ragout master recipe are not limited to recipes for chicken. Rather, the same section includes ragouts of turkey and rabbit. The same principle is used throughout the book where foods are grouped by method of preparation rather than by source (pig, cow, lamb, calf, fowl).

Still, the chapters are true to a fairly classic organization, with some topics you may not find in the usual work. The chapters are: Soups, Breads, Eggs, Fin Fish & Shellfish, Poultry, Meat, Vegetables, Salads, Pastry Doughs, Desserts, Cakes & Cookies.

The chapter on Breads covers just four master recipes, but it will give you a thorough and satisfying experience which will tell you if you have the kind of love for baking which warrents exploring specialized works by such experts as Peter Reinhart or Nancy Silverton.

The chapter on Pastry Doughs also just covers four master recipes, Pate Brisee, Puff Pastry, Pate a Choux, and Crepes. I may not be willing to take on puff pastry any time soon, but I would expect that the other three master recipes should be enticing enough to remove a cooks fears about making pies, crepes, and eclairs. Crepes especially should be an entertainer's best friend in that the batter can be made well in advance and, if necessary, the crepes themselves can be made in advance and reheated. If you want them fresh, it takes but a minute or two to cook a crepe, and it makes great kitchen theater, especially if you master the technique of flipping the crepe.

I suspect the must useful chapter may be the one on eggs. Knowing ones way around egg cookery will take you a goodly distance toward being able to prepare really great dishes from standard pantry. I find that an author's discussion of how to make an omelette is often a good test of the quality of their book as a whole. I can say that Julia comes through for me by citing an omelette technique I have seen nowhere else. That is, the warning to limit oneself to two eggs when you have only a typical household burner available.

As the book is published by Knopf, the layout, editing, and photography are first rate. I was just a little surprised when I could not find `barbecue' in the index, yet there is clearly a master recipe for barbecue in the chapter on meats. The very best feature of the book is Julia's very familiar voice and attitude which carries you on with reassurances that you can do it and these techniques will do you great service in your life.

Very highly recommended. Lots of French recipes and lots of modern appliances put to good use.

I got this cookbook as a Christmas gift four years ago after taking cooking seriously for four years. The knowledge Child imparts took me to another level of understanding good food and good cooking.

I don't consider myself a gourmet. I am a good home cook who appreciates delicious, hearty food and I gravitate towards these types of dishes and chefs. By the time I read The Way to Cook, I'd already owned and read three or four cookbooks (all from the Silver Palate ladies) and I didn't learn about the process and intellectual thought of cooking until Child. Wow. She truly brings everything to its most basic point and then, tell you how to treat the food. Additionally, the book is organized well; written in a straightforward manner; and the recipes are simple to follow and delicious to eat.

True, this is more continental than it is American, but I think if you could only have two or three cookbooks, this would be one of them. The others would be Cook's Bible and Joy of Cooking (new ed).

One warning, like most cookbooks, the food is rich, so if you're on a diet, eat breakfast, make this for lunch or an early dinner and don't eat anything the rest of the day!

I bought this book when it was first published (and it cost me almost 10 hours of wages), and of all the cookbooks I own (maybe 40 or so), this is the one I use the most. Even when I moved to Hawaii for a short-term internship, I used precious luggage and weight restriction space to take this heavy book with me. Why? Not just because it has great recipes, but because it is just what the title says - a book about how to cook (at least, how to cook Northern European). I don't go to it very often for specific recipes (although her French Onion Soup is fantastic), but to see how to do something in general - like, how to make a cream sauce, how to make a chowder base, how to clean mussels, how to clean fowl, etc. If you master this book, you will have mastered the theory of (Northern European) cooking, and will no longer be tied down trying exactly to reproduce a recipe in one of countless thousands of generic cookbooks. You will have courage to experiment, because you'll know what the ingredients are doing and how to handle them - you will, in fact, become your own recipe inventor and creative, tasteful, confident cook that you and your family (and friends!) will appreciate. This is, really, the proper model for what cookbooks should be, and I wish someone would do something similar for other cuisines (and if they have, send me an email about it!).

I first bought this book many years ago in an attempt to become a better cook. I found it amazing! However, it was not until my autistic son, who is learning to love good cooking, discovered it that I truly appreciated it fully.

Being autistic and OCD, he is unable to do anything without precise, explicit instructions, and is a slave to doing it the 'right way'. We have found this book to be a perfect match to the way he does things. There is no guessing for him, and he is able to follow the directions and complete complex dishes without my vague 'about this much' instructions. I can stay out of the kitchen while he is cooking, knowing that the instructions and pictures are clear enough for him to complete one of the scrumptious dishes that are included without the frustration that accompanies many less detailed cookbooks.

I am sure that if this cookbook works for his need for precision and allows him to produce Julia's marvelous dishes without frustration, that it will allow anyone to duplicate his success.

I have had this book for several years, and it's dawning on me how important a work this was, because I use it every time I make certain dishes. For example, I always use it to make rice (who can remember whether it's 2 cups of water or 1 1/2?) and also for hard boiled eggs. These are the types of things that other cookbook writers take it for granted that you know, but which are crucial to the success of the recipe and which Julia Child considers important enough to devote several pages to. I find this book to be an essential tool in my kitchen.

I admire her ability to explain, in common sense terms, how to achieve basic cooking recipes (she calls them "Master recipes"), and how to incorporate them into more complicated recipes. This makes the book useful for beginners as well as more experienced cooks.

She especially handles the subject of cooking with meat and poultry well, offering a wide range of dishes with an international, yet traditional flair. Many of the recipes are reminiscent of her televsion show, "Julia Child and Company." They have a sort of 60's trendiness to them, which makes them fun and evocative of food one's Mom used to make, while at the same time not being out of date. You just sort of expect that there will be a fondue recipe or two, plus a few "chafing dish" preparations!

The pictures are very helpful, as are the instructions that are drafted in laypersons' terms. Her recipes are basic standbys, nothing particularly fancy, but everyone needs at least one of those types of cookbooks in their kitchen. A tour de force for Julia Child, who seems to get better with each succeeding effort.

I have a few dozen cookbooks on my shelves -several of them by Julia Child- but as its tattered binding and the food stains on almost every page show, "the way to cook" is the one book I use the most. The reason I keep going back to "the way to cook" is its unique combination of being a cooking course, a collection of good classic recipes and a reference manual on food.
Unlike too many other cookbook authors, Child never tries to dazzle nor does she condescend. And while the writing is always entertaining and sometimes even hilarious the book's clear focus is on teaching the readers how to cook with proper technique, confidence and outright joy. The only thing Child expects of her readers is a willingness to pay attention, but the reward is outstanding food.

In the first year after buying this book I systematically cooked my way from cover to cover - from potato leek soup to tarte tartine. On the way I learned how to make good chicken stock, mayonnaise, pot roasts, sauce béarnaise, braised brusselles sprouts, chicken pipperade, flan and classic genoise cakes. I doubt that any cooking course could have taught me more - certainly not any of the courses I attended at my local cooking schools.

Now, 10 years later I go back to "the way to cook" if I want to look up a recipe for a classic dish or I need a recipe for a cake batter or some pastry cream. But sometimes I just read some of Child's comments and enjoy her command of both the English language and French cooking.

So if you are serious about cooking, get this book, and I am sure a few years down the line your copy will have as many splotches of great tasting sauces on it as mine does now.

Versatile master recipes, well written, meticulously researched -- all the things that you would expect of a Julia Child cookbook. As several reviewers have said, if you only buy one cookbook, make it this one. It teaches a wide variety of techniques through recipes that can carry you through a lifetime. I've had a copy of this book for almost 20 years and I refer to it constantly. I'm on my second copy; my first was signed by the late author, so I put that splattered copy away for posterity. I have given this to all of my girlfiends when they've gotten married; invariably, it ends up being the book the they use most, too. I own about 400 cookbooks, but this is one of few that stays out on my kitchen counter bookshelf.

An avid cook I only recently was won over by the legendary Julia Child. And I have to say that "The Way to Cook" is one big, beautiful cookbook. The huge tome is filled with full color photographs of not just completed dishes (the so-called "beauty shots") but detailed shots of the step-by-step techniques needed to prepare the often complicated recipes--a feature I found extremely helpful.

I really liked this book, but I have to say the title is a real misnomer. This is NOT a book for beginners who want to learn to cook (for that I'd recommend "The Betty Crocker Cookbook" or maybe "The Best Recipe" from "Cook's Illustrated), it's an advanced course for wanna-be gourmets. If you don't love to cook, or don't enjoy making "fancy" dishes (though there are a few "basics," this book focuses on Child's forte, classical French cooking that's pretty enough to serve in a restaurant), then this cookbook isn't for you. But if you're ready to expand your cooking horizons, I think this title is perfect.

One more note ... a fan of Martha Stewarts television cooking segments I noticed that a great number of the techniques that Martha promotes come straight from Child. Something I never realized before reading "The Way to Cook."

This is the best foundational book on how to cook well. There are other books that offer more encyclopedic coverage of the details of cooking a range of foods. There are other books that give insight to specific culinary traditions. And there are a few that try to present foundational cooking strategies. But none match this book for equipping any cook, novice or experienced, with systematic, proven techniques for producing excellent food from quality ingredients. The specific recipes are slanted toward European style dishes and meals. But don't let that specialization obscure the rich insight into fundamentals. How to make a sauce, how to prepare the bird or the roast, how to handle vegetables -- what to do and what to avoid. Variations on a basic theme. The book is rich with all of these. If I were just beginning as a cook, this is the first book I would want and the only book I would need. I have more experience than that now -- but this is still the best resource available when I want to get back to basics and retool my cooking sensibilities.