"MasteringTheArtOfFrenchCooking" news and stories

Photo: Knopf

In case you were wondering to what extent the mania for "Julie and Julia'" had gripped the nation, Sunday's New York Times delivered the answer.

This August 30, nearly half a century after the book was published in America, Child's classic tome "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" will be listed in the number one spot on the gray lady's bestseller list in the how-to category. The paper reports booksellers selling seven times as many copies in a month as they are accustomed to selling in a year.

This is not a small deal, particularly for the struggling publishing industry. Blogger Julie Powell is of course largely responsible for the surge of interest in the French Chef, and we wonder whether top Knopf execs have been bombarding her with flowers and thank-you notes.

More importantly, we are curious about how many of our own readers have invested in the book because of the blog or the movie. So spill it in our poll: Have you bought Child's cookbook? When? Tell us why in the comments.

'Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1'
by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck
Illustrations by Sidonie Coryn
Knopf -- First published 1961
Buy it on Amazon

Julia would not have been our "French Chef," had she not collaborated with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle to transform their draft of a French cookbook into an essential guidebook to French food for American cooks.

Long before she showed television audiences that it was OK to screw up in the kitchen, Julia Child and the two other "Trois Gourmands" (Child, Beck and Bertholle ran a cooking school of sorts -- Ecole des Gourmands -- in Paris) were teaching the American cook the wonders that are beurre blanc, boeuf bourguignon and omelettes through "Mastering the Art."

"This is a book for the servantless American cook who can be unconcerned on occasion with budgets, waistlines, time schedules, children's meals, the parent-chauffeur-den-mother syndrome or anything else which might interfere with the enjoyment of producing something wonderful to eat." With those words, Child inspired bloggers and chefs and turned French cuisine into something our nation's home cooks could do ... and well. Bon appetit!

See what we tested and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.

Photo: Random House

'Julia's Kitchen Wisdom - Essential Techniques and Recipes From a Lifetime of Cooking'
by Julia Child
Knopf -- 2009 (original pub. date 2000)
Buy it on Amazon

In the thick of the media blitz surrounding the release of the Julia Child/Julie Powell biographic mash-up movie, it would be easy to mistake this volume -- ours came bestickered with "Now a Major Motion Picture" -- for a quickie cash-in. It's anything but.

Rather, this is a previously published compendium of Julia Child's kitchen notes from her years of writing cookbooks and filming "The French Chef" and we're warning you now -- your copy will get messy. Julia wouldn't mind.

Takeaway tips: In Child's words, "It doesn't pretend to take the place of a big, detailed, all-purpose cookbook like 'Way to Cook' or 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volumes I and II'. It is, rather, a mini aide-mémoire for general home cookery, and is aimed at those who are tolerably familiar with culinary language; whose kitchens are normally well equipped with such staples as jelly-roll pans, a food processor, a decent rolling pins; and who know their way around the stove reasonably well."

"Kitchen Wisdom" is packed with time and temperature charts, foolproof, building block recipes for mother sauces, breads, desserts and soups, as well as her rigorously tested methods for everything from soaking beans and boiling eggs to the ins and outs of flour dredging and sourcing omelet pans. If it's got a soupçon of French technique, it's in the book.

See what we tested and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.

While you may never be able to own an actual kitchen gadget from Julia Child's kitchen (the Smithsonian has the complete contents of her Cambridge, Mass., kitchen on display here), you might be able to grab a set piece from the new Julia Child movie "Julie and Julia" -- if you happen to be anywhere near the New York metropolitan area this weekend.

The movie is Nora Ephron's melding of Julia Child's memoirs with those of Julie Powell, a Queens, N.Y., woman who blogged through "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" over the course of a year.

The prop masters for Columbia Pictures are liquidating the set for the film -- starring Amy Adams (as Powell) and Meryl Streep (as Child) -- from a warehouse in northern Brooklyn, N.Y. this weekend. Slashfood popped in this morning to peruse the gadgetry used to fill seven kitchen movie sets, including the famed cooking school Le Cordon Bleu.

Last night on a subway halfway under the East River a quick purse excavation confirmed what we suddenly feared -- a distinct lack of house keys on our person. The day's lunch of leftover Easter ham and homemade challah bread satisfied our epicurean side but was woefully inadequate when it came to blood sugar maintenance -- hence the walking away, the leaving the keys behind and the "aw, crap!"

We panic a tad in moments like this and scramble right to our happy comfort place -- mentally cataloging the contents of our fridge, flipping the pieces this way and that until they interlocked and a picture formed.

The ham, gotta get through the ham. Well it could go with the red cabbage ... no, no ... the scallions. And eggs, oh right! We remembered to buy eggs. Tortilla espanola? Oh wait, got it -- still have that puff pastry left over from the Eccles cakes and that makes ... sacre damn bleu! We've got the makings for a serious quiche -- if we can actually get into the house.

By some strange miracle (we like to think it's The Secret, of course) our beloved husband materialized on the same train car two stops before ours, and in lieu of a civilized "Hi honey, how was your day?" we collapsed into him sighing "We'regonnahavequichetonightpleasedon'targue." Once in the house, we made a beeline for the Julia Child to verify proportions, and got to rolling, chopping, whisking -- grateful not to have to think, just to act. Half an hour later, there was a ridiculously delicious quiche in front of us, without single extra cent or second spent at the grocery store.

Perhaps y'all are more forward-thinking than some of us, but when do you actually decide what's going to be for dinner that night? Do you cook it all up on Sunday, and apportion throughout the week? Do you daydream about what's on hand and pick up any extra ingredients on the way home? Or do you stand in front of the fridge, staring, and make do with what's in front of you?




Get the Ham and Gruyere Quiche recipe after the jump.