Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking - Books

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com Review
What would you give to see the notes Julia Child keeps in her handwritten loose-leaf kitchen reference guide? Your wish is granted! This clever little volume was inspired by Child's notebook, compiled from her own "trials, remedies, and errors."

Organized by large category and technique, it's a very handy reference guide for anyone reasonably comfortable in the kitchen. Each section contains a master recipe followed by variations. The emphasis is on technique, so if you occasionally find yourself trying to remember at what temperature to best roast a duck, the best way to cook green beans and keep them green, or how to save your hollandaise, then this is the book for you. And what good is a reference guide without an index? As always, Child comes to our rescue with a fantastic, comprehensive index, 19 pages long for 107 pages of text, so we can find the answers to life's burning questions in a flash.

Part of what makes Julia Child such an icon is that she can describe a complicated dish, and in the next breath convince us to make it. Classic Chocolate Mousse, Sabayon, Scalloped Potatoes Savoyarde, and Butterflied Leg of Lamb sound manageable when they follow recipes for Roast Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, and Scrambled Eggs. And with Child's help, they are. "Quick, snappy answers" for both basic and complicated cooking questions make this a work we'll never outgrow. And if Julia can use a cheat sheet, so can we! Fans of Child will love that her personality shows through in comments like, "Don't crowd the pan... or you'll be sorry," and, to introduce her Basic Vinaigrette Dressing, "I use the proportions of a very dry martini." Eight pages of photos taken by her husband, Paul, including one of Child with the famous dancing goose, make this even more of a treasure.

If there is anyone qualified to offer kitchen wisdom, it must be Julia Child. After a lifetime of cooking and teaching, her knowledge is a perfect gift for fans, novices, or anyone responsible for putting dinner on the table every night. --Leora Y. Bloom

Product Description
Julia Child has given us answers to these and other questions in the ten masterful volumes she has publishedover the past 40 years. But which book do you go to for which solution? Now, in this little volume, you can find the answers immediately.

Information is arranged according to subject matter, with ample cross-referencing. How are you going to cook that small rib steak you brought home? You'll be guided to the quick saute as the best and fstest way. And once you've masteree this recipe, you can apply the technique to chop, chicken, or fish, following Julia's careful guidelines.

And here is equally essential information about soups, vegetables, and eggs, and for baking breads and tarts. It's all waiting for you in this delicious, priceless, comforting compendium of Julia's kitchen wisdom.

Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

A little-known culinary treasure! (details) November 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

The late Julia Child produced MANY cookbooks but this one, in my opinion, is second only to her Magnum opus, Mastering the Art of French Cooking (make sure to acquire either the 1961 edition, or the 1966 one which is a reprint and be aware that "Volume II" has nothing much to do with "Volume I" which is this one).

I'm a huge fan of Julia's common sense approach to cooking, which is also tenoned with her professional knowledge. The cookbook which I'm reviewing here represents a maturity of Julia's years of cooking knowledge, rarely found elsewhere. The book's subtitle is, "Essential Techniques and Recipes from A Lifetime of Cooking," which is significant to understanding what is to be found in the text. Only Jacques Pepin and one other rivals her in this realm: Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques. James Beard, yet another contemporary of Julia, also produced some terrific cookbooks -- here's one of his best: Beard on Food: The Best Recipes and Kitchen Wisdom from the Dean of American Cooking.

Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking is a relatively diminutive document in terms of length, only 128 pages, but every word counts in this fine edition. Here are the essential chapters:

-- Soups and Two Mother Sauces
-- Salads and Their Dressings
-- Vegetables
-- Meats, Poultry, and Fish
-- Egg Cookery
-- Breads, Crepes, and Tarts
-- Cakes and Cookies

The simplicity of this work is astounding, given the detailed information which is conveyed. The book is brilliantly conceived, covering the chief areas of scratch cooking. I also much appreciated how the very nice photos of Julia in her studio kitchens, found throughout the book, punctuate her common sense attitude toward her art. There is a nicely organized index at the end to help you find the recipe that you need. It's tough to pin down exactly how many recipes are in here (lots!) because Julia offers us so many variations and alternatives to each of her basic dishes.

The recipes herein can be prepared by even the beginner to cooking. Julia has made it that simple for us. And when you taste her French Onion Soup (page 7) you'll come to realize why Julia was head and shoulders above the pack of television chefs which followed her. The French Onion Soup is a simple and amazing appetizer. All these recipes bear the hallmark of her apparently limitless culinary knowledge.

In summary, I have never been more pleased with a foundational cookbook and I believe that neither home cook nor the professional chef should be without a copy. Highly recommended.

5 out of 5 stars

The greatest ever, and her culinary last will and testament May 13, 2008
In just over a hundred pages, Julia Child wrote down everything she thought absolutely essential to cooking the way she taught her viewers to cook over four decades of television experience. From her very first TV dish, boeuf bourgignonne, to authentic French bread, to roast chicken, souffles, and quiche, to steaks and cakes and french fries and vegetables and even American-style biscuits, the best of a dozen cookbooks and many TV shows appear here in a simple, readily accessible book that provides the basics of French cooking, American-style.

Mastering The Art of French Cooking is epic, From Julia Child's Kitchen is cozy and pleasantly rambling, Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home is reflective and lots of fun in its tag-teaming approach. All of those, and many others, are essential reads for any serious cook, useful for both the quick-and-dirty weeknight cook and the epic gourmand. But when you need the best, written by the best, and you need it now, this barely-larger-than-a-FAQ book should be right at your fingertips.

4 out of 5 stars

Julia's personal notes January 21, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking

While this book has many basic techniques and basic recipes, it is essentially a condensed version of the more-comprehensive book by Julia Child: The Way to Cook. If you purchase The Way to Cook, this book will disappoint you in comparison. It's a great cookbook on its own, but an unnecessary purchase if you already own The Way to Cook, since every recipe in Kitchen Wisdom is included in The Way to Cook.

5 out of 5 stars

What a wonderful cookbook! July 5, 2006
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

This instantly became my favorite cookbook and I use it so much that it doesn't spend much time on the shelf. This cookbook transcends the "collection of recipes" style of most cookbooks; its style is more "how to improve your cooking skills."

Even so, some of my very favorite recipes are in this book. All the recipes adaptable and are presented in a way to make your own adaptations easier. For example, I love the braised rice recipe and found it easy to adapt the recipe for brown rice by a few minor adjustments. And this rice is good! Really, every recipe that I have tried is good.

In addition to producing wonderful tasting food, these recipes aren't the type that take hours of elaborate preparation. You can use this book to prepare full, decent meals after work in a reasonable amount of time.

This book is suitable for nearly all levels of cooking skills. It assumes some familiarity with basic cooking techniques, so a first-time cook might need a little help.

5 out of 5 stars

Just a Wonderful Little Cookbook June 29, 2006
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

I have an enormous cookbook collection, but I still buy more... The title of this book says it all - Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking. It's slim but every page has valuable wisdom from Julia Child - you can almost hear her as you read each page. I have already purchased three additional copies of this cookbook as gifts for my two daughters and my mother. It is totally appropriate for the beginning cook as well as the most experienced.

Good Grape Wine Company