Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volumes One and Two, 2013, Sarah J. Gim
The Beginnings of Change: The Publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, 2017, Kristen Amico
Child's first cookbook is famously known as "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," written in collaboration with companions Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, who had offered her the opportunity. Following nine rigorous years of composure and editing, their cookbook was picked up and published by Alfred Knopf in 1961. Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Volume Two released nine years later in 1970.
Child jumped at the opportunity to compose her own cookbook - determined to share her newfound discovery with her home country.
Child's primary goal with both volumes was to bring French culinary methods to the United States and make them accessible to the average citizen, regardless of wealth or status.
The publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking burst open the doors of culinary confinement for the home chef. The era of Spam and jellified concontions steadily began to fade, as methods of cooking previously exclusive to restaurateurs were now available to the typical consumer.
"Yes, I was tremendously interested in French cuisine because it was - it's the only cuisine that has the real rules on how to cook, and I wanted to - because I had start in quite late. I was about in my early 30s when I started cooking - and I found that the recipes in most, in all the books I had were really not adequate. They didn't tell you enough. And I'm - for one, I won't do anything unless I'm told why I'm doing it.
So I felt that we needed fuller explanations so that if you followed - if you followed one of those recipes, it should turn out exactly right. And that's why the recipes are very long, but they have full detail. My feeling is that once you know everything and have digested it, then it becomes part of you."
~ Julia Child on NPR with interviewer Terry Gross in response to whether she saw the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking as a way to introduce the American population to French cuisine, 1989
A Look Inside
Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volumes One and Two, 2014, Mary Olssen
"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.
We have purposely omitted cobwebbed bottles, the patron in his white cap bustling among his sauces, anecdotes about charming little restaurants with gleaming napery, and so forth. Such romantic interludes, it seems to us, put French cooking into a never-never land instead of the Here, where happily it is available to everybody. Anyone can cook in the French manner anywhere, with the right instruction.
"Too much trouble," "'Too expensive," or "Who will know the difference" are death knells for good food. . . . Cooking is not a particularly difficult art, and the more you cook and learn about cooking, the more sense it makes.
Train yourself to use your hands and fingers; they are wonderful instruments. Train yourself also to handle hot foods; this will save time. Keep your knives sharp. . . . Above all, have a good time." - Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle, Julia Child, 1961, Knopf
This excerpt from Mastering The Art of French Cooking provides a firsthand perspective of Child's views concerning both whom this cookbook is targeted and exactly how accessible French cuisine can be. Child emphasizes that her recipes are for home chefs that are unabashedly open to, quite literally, mastering the art of french cuisine. Through Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Child was the first to introduce these methods on a consumer based level. Recipe by recipe, home chefs branched out further into the world of gastronomy with the passage of time.