Hi eG’s After months of reading over your shoulders, a question re: Julia Child’s Mastering the Art finally gets me to post… Octaveman, yours is an interesting question. Great cookbooks—those that truly teach—aren’t just descriptive in technique. I’m sure that for most people reading this forum there’s a cookbook or two (or three) that proved influential in both how they cook as well as how they think about food. That question would be worthy of a post in its own right! For me, as for so many others, that was Julia’s MTA. I could go on, but I can still say that almost 20 yrs since I first read it, I still turn to it as the baseline for many techniques and recipes. Yes, the culinary world has changed immeasurably since it was written. But the fundamentals of French cooking are endlessly useful and not just for French cuisine. And Julia’s literary voice is a joy to read. That as much as the clarity of her recipes is reason enough to own Mastering the Art of French Cooking. You will never regret having it on your shelf. As to your other choices, I own and use Peterson’s Sauces, it’s encyclopedic and reliable. I don’t have the CIA book—should I? Esvoboda’s recommendations are all solid, though personally I use Marcella’s Italian Kitchen more frequently than Classics.
