Simone Beck

Millions know Simone "Simca" Beck as Julia Child's French partner in creating the two unforgettable volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Simca's Cuisine offers the delectable recipes that Beck personally treasured most. She presents family specialties from the well-thumbed notebooks of her mother and grandmother as well as recipes from her life in Normandy, Alsace, and Provence where she gardened, cooked, and entertained. Skillfully adapting French ways to American needs, Simca's Cuisine gives us both simple delights and fabulous concoctions presented with elegant clarity and delightful illustrations. Menus range from informal dinners that include a beef, lamb, and pork stew from "After a winter walk in the woods" and a baked apple dessert from "Autumn in Normandy" to more formal lunches and dinners that include "A gala Sunday lunch" with its sautéed trout with an almond cream sauce and "A spectacular dinner with champagne" that begins with salmon in brioche. With a charming foreword by Julia Child—her student, co-author, collaborator, and friend for forty years—here is a cookbook truly for every occasion.

Soups from the garden, bisques from the sea, famous fish stews from Provence and Normandy, the real French crunchy bread, meats, vegetables and desserts in variety, all accompanied by step-by-step instructions and superb illustrations, and all in imperial units for British cooks.

'This isn't just any cookery book. It is Mastering the Art of French Cooking, first published in 1961, and it's a book that is a statement, not of culinary intent, but of aspiration, a commitment to a certain sort of good life, a certain sort of world-view; a votive object implying taste and appetite and a little je ne sais quoi. Julia Child was like Amelia Earhart, or Eleanor Roosevelt: she was a hero who'd gone out there and made a difference. Her books are a triumph, and also a trophy' A. A. Gill, The Times

'This isn't just any cookery book. It is Mastering the Art of French Cooking, first published in 1961, and it's a book that is a statement, not of culinary intent, but of aspiration, a commitment to a certain sort of good life, a certain sort of world-view; a votive object implying taste and appetite and a little je ne sais quoi. Julia Child was like Amelia Earhart, or Eleanor Roosevelt: she was a hero who'd gone out there and made a difference. Her books are a triumph, and also a trophy.' AA GILL, The TimesThis is the classic guide to French cooking, with over 1,000 clear, authentic and delicious recipes for everything from Boeuf Bourguignon to the perfect omelette. Bon appetit!

'This isn't just any cookery book. It is Mastering the Art of French Cooking, first published in 1961, and it's a book that is a statement, not of culinary intent, but of aspiration, a commitment to a certain sort of good life, a certain sort of world-view; a votive object implying taste and appetite and a little je ne sais quoi. Julia Child was like Amelia Earhart, or Eleanor Roosevelt: she was a hero who'd gone out there and made a difference. Her books are a triumph, and also a trophy.' AA GILL, The Times'Mastering any art is a continuing process ...' In this book Julia Child and Simone Beck help cooks everywhere master the full repertoire of classic French dishes. Their recipes range across soups from the garden and bisques from the sea, famour fish stews from Provence and Normandy, to suckling pig and charcuterie, baguettes and croissants, and through a huge variety of desserts to petit-fours, all accompanied by clear step-by-step instructions and 458 illustrations.

The perfect gift for any follower of Julia Child—and any lover of French food. This boxed set brings together Mastering the Art of French Cooking, first published in 1961, and its sequel, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume Two, published in 1970. Volume One is the classic cookbook, in its entirety—524 recipes. “Anyone can cook in the French manner anywhere,” wrote Mesdames Beck, Bertholle, and Child, “with the right instruction.” And here is the book that, for nearly fifty years, has been teaching Americans how. Mastering the Art of French Cooking is for both seasoned cooks and beginners who love good food and long to reproduce at home the savory delights of the classic cuisine, from the historic Gallic masterpieces to the seemingly artless perfection of a dish of spring-green peas. The techniques learned in this beautiful book, with more than one hundred instructive illustrations, can be applied to recipes in all other French cookbooks, making them infinitely usable. In compiling the secrets of famous Cordon Bleu chefs, the authors produced a magnificent volume that continues to have a place of honor in American kitchens. Volume Two is the sequel to the great cooking classic—with 257 additional recipes. Following the publication of the celebrated Volume One, Julia Child and Simone Beck continued to search out and sample new recipes among the classic dishes and regional specialties of France—cooking, conferring, tasting, revising, perfecting. Out of their discoveries they made, for Volume Two, a brilliant selection of precisely those recipes that not only add to the repertory but, above all, bring the reader to a new level of mastery of the art of French cooking. Each of these recipes is worked out step-by-step, with the clarity and precision that are the essence of the first volume. Five times as many drawings as in Volume One make the clear instructions even more so. Perhaps the most remarkable achievement of this volume is that it will make Americans actually more expert than their French contemporaries in two supreme areas of cookery: baking and charcuterie. In France one can turn to the local bakery for fresh and expertly baked bread, or to neighborhood charcuterie for pâtés and terrines and sausages. Here, most of us have no choice but to create them for ourselves. Bon appétit!

For over fifty years, New York Times bestseller Mastering the Art of French Cooking has been the definitive book on the subject for American readers. Featuring 524 delicious recipes, in its pages home cooks will find something for everyone, from seasoned experts to beginners who love good food and long to reproduce the savory delights of French cuisine, from historic Gallic masterpieces to the seemingly artless perfection of a dish of spring-green peas. Here Julia Child, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle break down the classic foods of France into a logical sequence of themes and variations rather than presenting an endless and diffuse catalogue of dishes. Throughout, the focus is on key recipes that form the backbone of French cookery and lend themselves to an infinite number of elaborations--bound to increase anyone's culinary repertoire. With over 100 instructive illustrations to guide readers every step of the way, Mastering the Art of French Cooking deserves a place of honor in every kitchen in America.

View recipes from Food and Friends. The coauthor of Mastering the Art of French Cooking shares an irresistible feast of reminiscence and recipes. Simone "Simca" Beck first met Julia Child in 1949 in the women's cooking club Cercle des Gourmettes in Paris. Soon afterwards, the two began collaborating on what would become Mastering the Art of French Cooking. During her extraordinary career, Simca was mentor and friend to a generation of cooks and food writers. In Food and Friends, she interweaves tantalizing recipes and menus with a wonderfully evocative account of her Normandy childhood, her madcap escapades in 1920s Paris, her work with Julia Child, and her friendships with James Beard, Craig Claiborne, M. F. K. Fisher, and Richard Olney, among others.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The definitive cookbook on French cuisine for American readers: "What a cookbook should be: packed with sumptuous recipes, detailed instructions, and precise line drawings. Some of the instructions look daunting, but as Child herself says in the introduction, 'If you can read, you can cook.'" --Entertainment Weekly "I only wish that I had written it myself." --James Beard Featuring 524 delicious recipes and over 100 instructive illustrations to guide readers every step of the way, Mastering the Art of French Cooking offers something for everyone, from seasoned experts to beginners who love good food and long to reproduce the savory delights of French cuisine. Julia Child, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle break down the classic foods of France into a logical sequence of themes and variations rather than presenting an endless and diffuse catalogue of dishes--from historic Gallic masterpieces to the seemingly artless perfection of a dish of spring-green peas. Throughout, the focus is on key recipes that form the backbone of French cookery and lend themselves to an infinite number of elaborations--bound to increase anyone's culinary repertoire. "Julia has slowly but surely altered our way of thinking about food. She has taken the fear out of the term 'haute cuisine.' She has increased gastronomic awareness a thousandfold by stressing the importance of good foundation and technique, and she has elevated our consciousness to the refined pleasures of dining." --Thomas Keller, The French Laundry

The beloved sequel to the bestselling classic, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume II presents more fantastic step-by-step French recipes for home cooks. Working from the principle that "mastering any art is a continuing process," Julia Child and Simone Beck gathered together a brilliant selection of new dishes to bring you to a yet higher level of culinary mastery. They have searched out more of the classic dishes and regional specialties of France, and adapted them so that Americans, working with American ingredients, in American kitchens, can achieve the incomparable flavors and aromas that bring up a rush of memories--of lunch at a country inn in Provence, of an evening at a great Paris restaurant, of the essential cooking of France. From French bread to salted goose, from peasant rago ts to royal Napoleons, recipes are written with the same detail, exactness, and clarity that are the soul of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.