The French Chef Cookbook

This isn't the cookbook with which Child revolutionized how Americans cook--Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Rather, it's a companion book to her PBS show of the same name. As it says in the back cover, it "puts in print, session by session, dish by dish, every recipe Julia Child has demonstrated on the first series of television programs." It's organized by "Show Number" from 14 to 134. (The first 13 shows no longer exist--the tapes had deteriorated but later shows repeated almost all that material.) As Child writes, the book covers everything from "sauces, stews, and meats to appetizers, vegetables, desserts, cakes and pastries, and from the very simple to the fairly complicated." A subject guide and index makes it easy to locate show more dishes. It makes a superb lesson in how to cook, even if many recipes would make a cardiologist weep. If I have any complaint, it's that I didn't get this in a more sturdy hardcover. show less

Julia Child taught me how to cook. She taught me to enjoy cooking, to have fun with it. This book is based on the cooking series that started it all, The French Chef. No one has ever matched it.

This the book I used to learn to cook - a few simple recipes carefully explained. Well done, Julia!