Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 - by Julia Child & Simone Beck (Paperback)

About the Book

"A classic continued: a new repertory of dishes and techniques carries us into new areas of Mastering the art of French Cooking"--Cover.

Book Synopsis

The beloved sequel to the bestselling classic, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume II presents more fantastic step-by-step French recipes for home cooks.

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 Paris restaurant, of the essential cooking of France.

From French bread to salted goose, from peasant ragoûts to royal Napoleons, recipes are written with the same detail, exactness, and clarity that are the soul of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

From the Back Cover

In all of our recipes, and especially in those for desserts and cakes, we have taken full advantage of modern mechanical aids wherever we have found them effective. While Volume I reflects France in the 1950s and the old traditions of French cooking, Volume II, like France herself, has stepped into contemporary life.

Review Quotes

Praise for Julia Child and Mastering the Art of French Cooking

"Julia Child paved the way for Chez Panisse and so many others by demystifying French food and by reconnecting pleasure and delight with cooking and eating at the table. She brought forth a culture of American ingredients and gave us all the confidence to cook with them in the pursuit of flavor." --Alice Waters, Chez Panisse

"Mastering the Art of French Cooking was one of my first introductions to my foundation of understanding the art of French cooking. The combination of reading Julia's book, working in the kitchen, and watching her television shows helped lead me to my beginnings in serious cuisine. Julia is . . . the grande dame of cooking, who has touched all of our lives with her immense respect and appreciation of cuisine." --Emeril Lagasse, Emeril's Restaurant

"Julia has slowly but surely altered our way of thinking about food. She has taken the fear out of the term 'haute cuisine.' She has increased gastronomic awareness a thousandfold by stressing the importance of good foundation and technique, and she has elevated our consciousness to the refined pleasures of dining. Through the years her shows have kept me in rapt attention, and her humor has kept me in stitches. She is a national treasure, a culinary trendsetter, and a born educator beloved by all." --Thomas Keller, The French Laundry

"Julia freed the American public from their fears of cooking French. By doing so, she greatly expanded the audience for all serious food writers. Her demystification prepared that public for the rest of us. I believe that the television shows based on that landmark book did even more to encourage reluctant cooks to try their hands . . . much to our benefit." --Mimi Sheraton

"1961 A.D. Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking is published. Her black-and-white TV show on WGBH in Boston soon follows. Child is one of the great teachers of the millennium: She is intelligent and charismatic, and her undistinguished manual skills are not daunting to her viewers. An entire generation of ambitious American home cooks is instantly born." --Jeffrey Steingarten

About the Author

Julia Child was born in Pasadena, California. She graduated from Smith College and worked for the OSS during World War II; afterward she lived in Paris, 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 Julia Child 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.

Simone ("Simca") Beck was born in 1904 at Tocqueville en Caux, Normandy. In 1933, she began to study at the Cordon Bleu, then the world's supreme school of cuisine. In 1948 she was approached by a friend, Louisette Bertholle (now Comtesse de Nalèche), to collaborate on a French cookbook for Americans. In 1951, at the suggestion of her husband, they began to search for an American to help them, and a friend introduced Simca to Julia Child, then studying cooking in Paris. Soon afterward, the three women formed a cooking school, L'École des Trois Gourmandes, and began the collaboration that produced the several volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She died in 1991.