Part 2...

Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume Two-Julia Child, Simone Beck,

This is the forgotten sibling of the ground breaking volume one. People know it is out there but the first volume gets all of the glory. It is like that Baldwin brother that you have seen in something but can't quite place and doesn't get mentioned by the others. Not that it in anyway is undeserved. It was the book that launched Julia Child and got America into cooking. And like a 'part 2' of a classic film it will always be looked at with some scepticism.

Following the phenomenal (and continuing) success of their first book Child and Beck after buying out the third author in the project Louisette Bertholle, published this follow up book. While the format and layout remain the same it is genuinely considered to be not quite as user friendly. Perhaps it is. Not that all of volume 1 was is entirely for beginners. Volume Two takes into account the it's readers have gotten the basics, which were the platform for volume 1, in hand. This book intently moved beyond all of that and looks at things, to name two, such as bread baking and charcuterie. While both these things are certainly staples of the French table they are not the basics that the average home cook will be needing on a daily basis.

Certainly the reader, weather challenged by the recipes or not, will experience first hand the passion and drive that set Julia Child so far ahead of all others.