Master recipes

Mastering the Art of French Cooking is a two-volume French cookbook written by Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, both from France, and Julia Child, who was from the United States. After World War Master recipes, interest in French cuisine rose significantly in the United States. Through the late 1940s and 1950s, Americans interested in preparing French dishes had few options.

Gourmet magazine offered French recipes to subscribers monthly, and several dozen French cookbooks were published throughout the 1950s. In the early 1950s, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, French cooking teachers who had trained at Le Cordon Bleu, sought to capitalize on the American market for French cookbooks and wrote and published a small recipe book for American audiences, What’s Cooking in France, in 1952. Beck, Bertholle, and Child wanted to distinguish their book from others on the market by emphasizing accurate instructions and measurements in their recipes, and authenticity whenever possible. 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.

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. Volume 2 expanded on certain topics of interest that had not been covered as completely as the three had planned in the first volume, particularly baking. In an otherwise laudatory review of Volume 1, Craig Claiborne wrote that Beck, Bertholle, and Child had conspicuously omitted recipes for puff pastry and croissants, making their work feel incomplete. Child became increasingly frustrated with the project as work on Volume 2 went on.

Not only was she agitated by the demands of the publisher, she was growing tired of working with Beck, who she felt was too demanding. Volume 1 covers the basics of French cooking, striking as much of a balance between the complexities of haute cuisine and the practicalities of the American home cook. Traditional favorites such as beef bourguignon, bouillabaisse, and cassoulet are featured. Some classic French baking is also included, but baking had already received a more thorough treatment in Volume 2, published in 1970. Volume 1 of Mastering the Art of French Cooking received overwhelmingly positive reviews when it was first released in 1961. On its release in 1970, Volume 2 was also well received. Critics praised the book’s comprehensiveness, but some felt that it was far too ambitious for the average home cook.