A delightful treasure trove of the baking wisdom of Julia Child, America's foremost culinary authority, covering everything from breads and pastries (both sweet and savory) to cakes and cookies.

Review

Whatever the objectives of the television series may have been, the book, written by Dorie Greenspan in a literate, patient but exuberant style, is more than strong enough to stand on its own. It's the product of a tremendous collaborative effort, yet it achieves a clear authorial tone. To my ear, it sounds as if Ms. Greenspan has spent so much time with Julia Child that she's assimilated her accent and eloquence, although it may be be own natural voice. . . . The 200 recipes are organized as a course in baking, with an early, energetic section on the basic batters and doughs or cakes and pastries. The book moves on to recipes of varying degrees of complexity. In the bread section, you start off easy, with simple compositions, like white bread or a buttermilk loaf for your bread machine, and then it's on to more painstaking creations that might include tricky wild yeast and meticulous braiding. But the book's success is due to more than organization: the text never misses a chance to explain, expand and entertain. The reader is told, for instance, that the molded cookies called "tuiles" are a reference to French roof tiles; chiffon cake was named for the airy costumes of the flappers in the 1920's. And the tutorials that accompany recipes are models of clarity. . . New York Times

Biography

Before celebrity chefs like Emeril and Nigella came onto the culinary scene, Julia Child was teaching America how to flambé. When her groundbreaking television program, The French Chef, came into our kitchens, thousands of viewers tuned in to watch Julia flip crepes, blanch beans, and sear steaks, and to hear her signature sign-off: "Bon appétit!"