French cookbook.

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cc2003btw

Cook
Joined
Sep 23, 2005
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Hi all.

I've decided i want to get into French cookery a bit more, i'd like to get into cooking small tasting menu kinds of food, á la Fat Duck perhaps. Anyone got a reccomendation for a book to start off with?

Cheers.
 
Well, you certainly can't go wrong with any of Julia Child's books - particularly her first 2-volume set on traditional French cooking. They can be found very reasonably in 2nd-hand bookshops - in the flesh & on-line.

After that, if you can find - again in 2nd-hand shops - the French volumes of the two Time-Life series on international cooking, once again you'll be both lucky & well-taught. In fact, even after many, many years of making it, I still use the Time-Life French cookbook version as a base for making my own adaptation for an annual traditional New Year's Day French Cassoulet.

Third, France The Beautiful Cookbook is another standby of mine for authentic, if newer, French recipes.
 
"Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by the master herself, Julia. That is the first of Breezy's recommendations and I totally agree.
 
And I forgot to add that I did notice you were interested in developing "tasting menus". Even using the old traditional cookbooks, most recipes can easily be divvied up into portions suitable for the current "tasting menu" interest.
 
If you want to focus on a degustation type menu, I would get "Flavors of France" by Alain Ducasse. He focuses on not only classical French cooking, but contemporary as well, which it seems you want to focus on due to your interest in The Fat Duck.

 

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Thanks for the suggestions, when the money for the cash strapped student that i am comes in, i'll be investing in the reccomended.
 
BreezyCooking said:
Well, you certainly can't go wrong with any of Julia Child's books - particularly her first 2-volume set on traditional French cooking. They can be found very reasonably in 2nd-hand bookshops - in the flesh & on-line.

After that, if you can find - again in 2nd-hand shops - the French volumes of the two Time-Life series on international cooking, once again you'll be both lucky & well-taught. In fact, even after many, many years of making it, I still use the Time-Life French cookbook version as a base for making my own adaptation for an annual traditional New Year's Day French Cassoulet.

Third, France The Beautiful Cookbook is another standby of mine for authentic, if newer, French recipes.



Also, if you can still get them, I don't know.:ermm:

But I also have Julia Child's six-volume series on VHS called "The Way to Cook".:chef:

She takes you stap-by-step though each hour-long tape, showing you just how to master the beautiful art of French cuisine & cooking. They might be available on DVD by now.:cool:

But the volumes are titled as follows:

1. Vegetables.

2. Fish & Eggs.

3. Poultry.

4. Soups, Salads & Bread.

5. Meat.

6. First Courses & Desserts.

Each volume comes with a little cookbooklet containing the recipes for each dish
demonstrated. I've tried several of those recipes, and they came out great!!!:chef:

She also wrote and published a big thick super-duper cookbook, possibly her last one, I think, by the same title! Barnes & Noble or Borders should have it. It's expensive though - costing $40.00 or more. And she also published Mastering the Art of French Cooking; Volumes 1 & 2. Good luck!!:)

~Corey123.
 
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I don't think Escoffier is practical for modern cooks and kitchens, but second the recommendations for Julia and "Beautiful". If you are young and just learning, you need a cookbook that is geared to our modern grocery stores. Don't get me wrong, I own Escoffier and Larousse. I just find them better for entertaining reading rather than actual cooking. The companion cookbook for the last PBS series that Jacques and Julia did together is a very practical, very useful book. I guess I'd call it semi-French, but I find myself referring back to it a lot more than my other books! Make used book stores and yard sales your best friend. You can find a lot at them, for very little.
 
Sounds great! Sorry I don't have a reccomendation though. I just love French food from resturaunts though, and I know I could never put those peices together like they do because I'm not an artist.
 
Use your library as a resource if you can't afford a lot of these rather pricey books! They usually have a wealth of great cookbooks and classics, or can get them on loan from another branch in your town.
 
Actually, while Julia Child's The Way To Cook book is one of my kitchen bibles, it's definitely not classic French cooking, but more of a basic cookbook.
 
I would also suggest
Barefoot in Paris by Ina Garten

I purchased this book last year and I think the recipes are fantastic and not overly complicated
 
I seem to recall that the OP is British, and as I assume that the books mentioned are mostly American (not Escoffier, of course) I think that if the recipes are all written in US measurements (cup etc), it would be very time consuming to convert every single recipe to European measurements!

Raymond Blanc, Jean Cristoph Novelli and other French chefs have written British style recipe books and would be great books to start looking at modern French cuisine.
 
I find that so many of the delicious recipes posted here can be a real chore to 're-jig' into metric or Imperial measurements - and I'm sure that European recipes must cause the same problems for American members. :)

I suspect that is why people like Julia Childs etc have never gained a wide audience in the UK. We hold Elizabeth David in the same reverence as JC seems to have from Americans. I remember my mother buying Elizabeth David cookbooks in the 50s... A revelation in cookery terms, introducing French and Italian cookery to a post-war generation of eager housewives.:cool:
 
French - Delicious Classic Cuisine (Paperback)
by Carole Clements, Elizabeth Wolf-Cohen

You might have to search around to find a copy -- I got my last copy (a gift for someone else) used via Amazon. It's a fantastic, reasonably priced, clear, beautifully illustrated, and not at all complicated book with things that you can make from any supermarket...excellent book with very authentic recipes.
 
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