Great Recipes and Great Food

The premise of the hit movie, Julie and Julia was simple: a woman challenges herself to cook every recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year. With the renewed focus on Julia Child, her cookbook is again selling at a brisk pace, with aspiring cooks excited to take on the challenge of French cooking.

French cooking can be, at first, a bit daunting. For instance, some of the ingredients found in copies of Child’s cookbook are unfamiliar to many. The book was published 50 years ago, when different ingredients were readily available. Still, one must not fear; French cooking staple ingredients are familiar: potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, eggs, seafoods, beef, pork, and veal. French cuisine is filled with many different delectable ingredients found all over the world. Many will be delighted to find many, if not all, of the ingredients at their local supermarket.

If you’re familiar at all with French cuisine, you’re surely aware of the intense focus on cheese and French wine. French wines are usually made to go with a delicious meal, which helps to underline the complex tastes within the wines. Often, fine French cheeses are served with wine, a combination that most “foodies” find hard to resist. Many wines that you find at your local store originated in France, including merlot, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, and syrah.

Alongside wine and cheese, French breads are popular and delicious. Stores commonly carry French baguettes and pain poilanes – a large circular loaf – even outside of the biggest cities. These scrumptious crusty breads complement meals of all kinds – not just a French meal.

If you decide to try French cooking for yourself, you could do worse than starting with Julia Child’s classic book. Julia Child’s vision was to bring French cooking to the common American kitchen – not just upscale ones! Begin with a simple dish with few ingredients, and with ingredients that you know you already enjoy.