Photo: Knopf

'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.

Photo: Sony Pictures Entertainment.

This evening, Slashfood will be joining Meryl Streep and Amy Adams on the red carpet for the New York premiere of "Julie and Julia"! And naturally we'll be Tweeting, so follow along here or on Twitter.

The movie is Nora Ephron's melding of Julie Powell's "Julie and Julia" and Julia Child's "My Life in France." It opens nationwide on Aug. 7.

But don't forget that you have a chance to see it before anyone else. You have until 2 p.m. Friday to enter to win passes to a screening on Aug. 3 in New York. Just click here to tell us what Julia Child meant to you.

Meryl Streep as Julia Child. Photo: Sony Pictures Entertainment

One of the brightest stars of the new film "Julie and Julia" gets no billing. Yup, you foodies have probably guessed that the dishes in this culinary melding of Julie Powell's "Julie and Julia" and Julia Child's "My Life in France" are the pieces de resistance.

A group of very giddy foodies gathered Thursday in New York to get a first glimpse of the film -- which opens Aug. 7, 2009 -- and chat with the film's director, Nora Ephron, about how she recreated the dishes that made America's French Chef famous.

"This is just a celebration of food, which is a thing that changes both of these women's lives," Ephron says. "It's about joy -- and the joy of food, and the joy of cooking."

Some of the dishes in the film and exclusive photos after the jump.

We've been awaiting the French Chef flick "Julie & Julia" for some time now. And we're pleased to report we're heading out this afternoon to see a sneak preview, which we'll be sharing tidbits from with you via Twitter. Stay tuned!

Meryl can do the voice! Slashfood's sister site Moviefone has the trailer for the new Julia Child flick "Julie and Julia," and the two-time Academy Award winning Streep appears to be a delightful "French Chef."

We've been eagerly awaiting Nora Ephron's retelling of Child's story with that of blogger Julie Powell (she spent a year writing about her adventures cooking through "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"), and the trailer has us salivating for more. (We even spied a purchase made at the "Julie and Julia" sale held earlier this month hanging behind Julia!)

You'll have to wait until August to see the film. Till then, "Bon Appetit!"

[Via Moviefone]

Yup, it's true. Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep is going to play the famous chef in the film adaptation of Julie Powell's bestseller Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen (retitled Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously for the paperback on the right).

The film is going to be written and directed by Nora Ephron, who sometimes gets unfairly put down by film fans. Not only is she a really good essayist, all of her films are enjoyable (haven't seen Bewitched...). I particularly liked You've Got Mail.

If you haven't read the book yet, it started as a blog by Powell, who decided to take Childs' book Mastering The Art Of French Cooking and makie every recipe in her small kitchen.

Yesterday's New York Times featured an article about food movies past, present and future. Of course, there's talk of the usual suspects like Tampopo and Big Night, but the gist of the article is that there are plenty more food movies to come, especially from American filmmakers. Of note are a remake of Mostly Martha, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, and an adaptation of Julie Powell's blog-based book Julie & Julia. The latter is to be written and directed by Nora Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle, Bewitched) for Columbia Pictures. Anthony Bourdain even weighs in on Adam Sandler's performance in Spanglish.

For those of us who follow the food blogosphere, Julie Powell is a familiar name. Her recently published book, Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, is based on her own food blogging chronicles. She's in the Times' Magazine this week, writing about how her meals are changed now that she lives alone in a studio on the Upper East Side. Gone are dinners of pork chops in cream sauce, potatoes, meat. In their place, she makes simple things like a garlic soup with a poached egg, which she eats night after night, alone, until the large pot she made runs out.

Sounds a lot like my weeknight dinners.  

One-third of the nonfiction finalists for the Lulu Blooker Prize, which honors  books based on blogs, were created from food blogs.The folks over at print-on-demand provider Lulu like to call them "blooks." Maybe it's the former copyeditor in me, but I'd much rather simply call them books.

And the food finalists are:

• Egg, Bacon, Chips and Beans: 50 Great Cafes and the Stuff That Makes Them Great,  by Russell Davies. Based on his award-winning Web site this tome is an affectionate guide to greasy spoons in the U.K.
• Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, by Julie Powell. Some might argue that her book, based on her Salon blog,  is a more ambitious project than Davies. Either way I like to believe the late Julia Child had nothing against a well-run greasy spoon.

The prizes are $2,000 to an overall winner and $1,000 to the other category winners. As yet, nobody seems to have confused this award with the highly prestigious Booker Prize.