Used copies of the older editions of Mastering the Art of French Cooking should be readily available--I see them all over the place, from Goodwill to the Bryn Mawr Bookshop, and they're worth having.  I think I paid a dollar each for mine.  I didn't realize the recipes had been modified.

I have the 1988 Larousse Gastronomique, which covers pretty much everything one would want to know about classic French cooking, I think, but can be highly technical and has more than most people would ever use.  I use Patricia Wells's Bistro Cooking a lot, which is more a practical "greatest hits" of French cooking and not as high style as the Larousse.  I haven't used  La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange but it is a cookbook I've seen on the counters of my French friends--apparently it is the "Joy of Cooking" for French cooks.  It is now available in English.  That might be a good place to start.

For a combination travel/cooking book, I really like Roy Andries de Groot's The Auberge of the Flowering Hearth.

The Art of Eating (www.artofeating.com) is a quarterly food magazine and is excellent.

For non-French cooking, my favorite is the Chez Panisse Cookbook.

Last edited by bosthist (2006-12-23 06:24:35)

In my view, modern "health conscious" cooking is a joke. Top-notch ingredients, with top-notch cooking skills, will create food which is perfectly healthy. Julia must be turning in her 7-foot-long grave.

Thank you very much for your recommendations.   Flipped through the Larousse.  Simply astounding.  First entry I saw was on "canard".  Found another book at a very bourgie cooking store.  Noticed that Julia CHild's first 22 or something tv appearances were summarized and her recipes listed. 

As for changes in Child works, I read a recent review that noted that some of her recipes had been updated to adhere to more elevated standards in American eating.  Such as non-tinned or canned goods etc.  That much is fine.  But I thought too the reviewer had mentioned that some of the stuff had been modified to take into acocunt less fat intake, and other things.  That's not so good.  Just eat less of it if you're worried.

I know someone who was the wife of some professor. they lived in Paris in the 1950s and Simone Beck used to go to people's apartments and teach french cooking. for better or worse, french cooking was an import of that small class of people who lived abroad before the age of jet travel. for better or worse.

It is essential that a woman know how to make an omelette.

I was always under the impression that Julia Child's French recipes were a lighter version for American palattes.

Of course, all this 'fusion cuisine' and faddish diets are completey useless and not at all comparable to lightened French food.

It's a great thought isn't it?

Agreed: Cute & silly.
Very Preppy, very 'fun'.