When did Julia Child write her book Mastering the Art of French Cooking?
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Mastering the Art of French Cooking is a two-volume French cookbook written by Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, both of France, and Julia Child of the United States. The book was written for the American market and published by Knopf in 1961 (Volume 1) and 1970 (Volume 2). The success of Volume 1 resulted in Julia Child being given her own television show, "The French Chef", one of the first cooking programs on American television. Historian David Strauss argues that the publication of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", "did more than any other event in the last half century to reshape the gourmet dining scene."
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
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Volume 1 of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" received overwhelmingly positive reviews when it was first released in 1961. In the "New York Times", Craig Claiborne wrote that the recipes in the book "are glorious, whether they are for a simple egg in aspic or for a fish souffle," and that it "is not a book for those with a superficial interest in food...but for those who take a fundamental delight in the pleasures of cuisine." Michael Field, writing for the "New York Review of Books", praised Beck, Bertholle, and Child for "not limiting themselves to la haute cuisine," and stated that "for once, the architectural structure of the French cuisine is firmly and precisely outlined in American terms." Field's sole criticism of the book was that the authors suggested dry vermouth as a substitute for white wine, as he felt the domestic vermouth available to American home cooks, the book's target audience, was "bland and characterless." Despite being a relatively expensive cookbook, retailing for $10 in 1965, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" Volume 1 did well commercially, selling over 100,000 copies in less than five years. According to Julia Child biographer Noel Riley Fitch, the publication of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" instantaneously changed the entire American cookbook industry, leading more cookbook publishers to place emphasis on clarity and precision, and away from the "chatty and sometimes sketchy" style that had typified American cookbooks.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
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"Mastering the Art of French Cooking" Volume 1 was originally published in 1961 after some early difficulties. Beck, Bertholle, and Child initially signed a contract with publisher Houghton Mifflin, but Houghton Mifflin grew uninterested in the project. Child recalled one editor telling her, "Americans don't want an encyclopedia, they want to cook something quick, with a mix." Beck, Bertholle, and Child refused to make requested changes to the manuscript, and Houghton Mifflin abandoned the project, writing that the book, as it stood, would be "too formidable to the American housewife." Judith Jones of Alfred A. Knopf became interested in the manuscript after it had been rejected. After spending several years in Paris, Jones had moved to New York, where she grew frustrated with the limited ingredients and recipes commonly available in the United States. Jones felt that the manuscript would offer a lifeline to middle-class women, like her, who were interested in learning how to cook French cuisine in America, and predicted that "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", "will do for French cooking here in America what Rombauer's "The Joy of Cooking" did for standard [American] cooking." While Jones was enthusiastic about the book, Knopf had low expectations and invested very little into promoting it. In order to generate interest in the book, and without support from Knopf, Child appeared on several morning talk shows in 1961 to demonstrate recipes, which she later cited as the impetus for her own cooking show, The French Chef.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
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Critical perception of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" has generally remained positive. In 2015, "The Daily Telegraph" ranked it as the second greatest cookbook of all time, behind Fergus Henderson's "Nose to Tail Eating". In a 2012 "New York Times" piece commemorating Julia Child's 100th birthday, Julia Moskin wrote that "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" should be credited with "turning the tide" on American food culture 1961, when "trends including feminism, food technology and fast food seemed ready to wipe out home cooking." Moskin added that, "in its fundamental qualities, the book and its many successors in the Child canon aren't dated at all. Their recipes remain perfectly written and rock-solid reliable." By contrast, in 2009, food writer Regina Schrambling published a piece in Slate entitled, "Don't Buy Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"," where she argued that the book now "seems overwhelming in a Rachael Ray world," its recipes overly complicated and unsuited for modern American tastes.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
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Volume 1 was immensely successful, and work on Volume 2 began around 1964, as a collaboration between Simone Beck and Julia Child, but not Louisette Bertholle. By the end of 1960, Beck and Child had grown frustrated with Bertholle because they felt she did not contribute enough to "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" to merit co-authorship and one third of the book's proceeds, and wanted Knopf to change the byline to read "by Simone Beck and Julia Child with Louisette Bertholle." Beck argued, "it is bad for the book for her to present herself as Author, as she really does not cook well enough, or know enough," and that Bertholle should only be entitled to 10% of the profits (to Beck and Child's 45% each). Ultimately, the contract with the publisher necessitated that Bertholle be given a co-author credit, and the final profit split was 18% to Bertholle and 41% each to Beck and Child. The dispute left Bertholle extremely upset, and effectively severed the professional partnership between herself and Beck and Child.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
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"The Way To Cook" differs from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in numerous ways. While "Mastering" was a collaboration that co-authors Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle had gotten underway before Child's involvement, "The Way To Cook" was a solo work written entirely by Child during the late 1980s. Another difference was that "The Way To Cook" did not focus entirely on French cuisine, on which her reputation had been built, but added a substantial number of recipes for traditional American dishes, especially those of New England, where Child's mother had come from and where Child had spent much of her life. In this, the book reflected the diversification of the cooking repertoire on Child's television show, "Julia Child & Company," that had taken place since its premiere in 1978.
The Way To Cook
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Jones's relationship with Julia Child similarly began when Jones became interested in Child's manuscript "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", which had been rejected by a publishing house. After her years in Paris, Jones had moved to New York, where she was frustrated with the ingredients and recipes commonly available in the U.S. Jones said of the book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", "This was the book I had been searching for," and she got it published. In America's postwar years, home cooking was dominated by packaged and frozen food, with an emphasis on ease and speed.
Judith Jones
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Among her culinary influences are Julia Child and her book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", and Marcella Hazan and her book "The Classic Italian Cook Book".
Ruth Rogers
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The book "Julia's Kitchen Wisdom" accompanied a TV special of the same name and was compiled by co-author David Nussbaum, who had worked with Child and Jacques Pépin on their book of the previous year, "Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home". It was Child's last published book before her death in 2004 and was intended as a quick reference for common kitchen techniques rather than a comprehensive cookbook in the manner of 1961's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" or 1989's "The Way To Cook".
Julia's Kitchen Wisdom
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Ephron's screenplay is adapted from two books: "My Life in France", Child's autobiography written with Alex Prud'homme, and a by Powell, "Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen" (later retitled "Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously"). Both of these books were written and published in the same time frame (2004–06). Powell's book was based on her blog "The Julie/Julia Project", where she had started documenting online her daily experiences cooking each of the 524 recipes in Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". The film is the first major motion picture based on a blog.
Julie &amp; Julia