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A little-known culinary treasure! (details)

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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, Crêpes, 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.

The greatest ever, and her culinary last will and testament

Customer Rating:
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, soufflés, 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.

Julia's personal notes

Customer Rating:
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.

What a wonderful cookbook!

Customer Rating:
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.

Just a Wonderful Little Cookbook

Customer Rating:
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.