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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19257 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-14
• Released on: 2000-11-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

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

From Publishers Weekly
This slender book from the doyenne of gourmet cooking is a boon for those who need a refresher course in, or a handy source for, basics. These notes come from Child's own kitchen notebook, years in the making. Generally, each recipe is included in "master" form with numerous variations; for example, a section on potatoes explains the ins and outs of Mashed Potatoes, as well as provides a recipe for Garlic Mashed Potatoes. Child's voice is always welcome, and never more so than when she is providing no-muss-no-fuss advice like this. A quick section on dried beans covers soaking as well as cooking in a pressure cooker or Crock-Pot, and some more esoteric treats, such as homemade bread and souffl?s, have their place here. Helpful tips proliferate throughout: Sea Scallops Saut?ed with Garlic and Herbs are followed by a paragraph on scallops that exude too much juice, and a section on tarts explains how to prebake a shell. Even Hamburgers (plain and flavored) are covered here.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Julia Child's career has now come full circle. Her newest book assumes the reader's mastery of the kitchen skills outlined in her previous tomes. Julia's Kitchen Wisdom offers few traditional recipes; instead, the grande dame of chefs shows how a real cook operates, cooking from ideas and from techniques polished during years of working over a stove, not from a formal recipe. This short book will appeal to anyone whose imagination is as central to cooking as technical skill. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

The greatest ever, and her culinary last will and testament
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
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!
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.