I Know How to Cook [Anglais] [Relié]

Last July, the Washington Post excerpted a recipe from Ginette Mathiot's French classic and, in the covering article, compared it a French "Joy of Cooking" and compared it the books of Julia Child. On the strength of that article, I ordered the book, and my copy arrived yesterday. I am going to enjoy cooking from it. It is a classic of great depth and we can be thankful to Phaidon for publishing this huge volume. And yet, in my opinion, it is not quite what the Post article touted it to be. It lacks the extraordinary technical precision of Julia Child and "Joy of Cooking." Nor, do I think that, as an introduction to cooking technique, it can be compared to Madeleine Kamman's "New Making of a Cook." The closest American comparison I would make to it is the classic "American Woman's Cookbook," which was my mother's cooking bible and the cook book I first learned to cook from. As a collection of recipes, the Mathiot book deserves a place of honor in the kitchen. Yet the book suffers from some odd editorial shortcomings. As a translation from the French, ingredients are given in equivalent U.S. measurements (mostly by weight); but straight metric conversions lead to odd amounts in the ingredients columns. For example, one recipe calls for 4 1/4 ounces of bacon, 9 ounces of chestnuts, and 1 1/4 cups of Madeira. Readers would have been better served by a list of the original metric amounts and a parallel column that recalculates the recipe in more standard U.S. measures--as for example the U.S. editor of Elizabeth David's books has done with her British measures. Secondly, there is no French-to-English glossary; and, in some cases, trying to find a technique known by a French name is hopeless. Where is "poele," for example? Equally annoying is the lack of information about some ingredients or ingredient substitutions. Recipes often call from creme fraiche, an ingredient not as yet found in many U.S. markets. It is easy to prepare at home, but no instructions are given. Readers should also be aware that many of the recipes call for main ingredients not easily found--for example, where does one get hare? Finally, the many photos on matte paper are not particularly inviting. Yet with all these limitations, I hope this book will sell well enough for the publishers to invest a little more editorial effort in a second edition. As good as this book is, it hasn't quite made it all the way across the Atlantic. We need a U.S. edition, not just a U.S. translation.

My jaw hit the floor when I saw this book. I have the French version and I had no idea that Phaidon was working on one of their now-classic spruced-up translations. If nothing else, Phaidon has the cookbook thing down by now -- this is a typically beautiful cookbook, with stunning photography and illustrations derived from the blocky line art typical of books from the 50s and 60s.

The original book is certainly not a learner's book; if anything it's more of a complement to something like Mastering The Art of French Cooking, to be used as a reference after working through the more technique-oriented books. Comparisons to Joy of Cooking are apt; while very few books on the market are quite as ambitious as Joy (which has a level of information density that is intimidating even by most professional standards), Mathiot certainly cast her net wide for traditional French cooking, even adding a few foreign recipes (one situation where the book sadly underachieves). This book does take some liberties, fleshing out some of the recipes for overseas audiences and adding the now-traditional selection of specialties from overseas French chefs (including, among others, Daniel Boulud, but sadly fewer other A-listers than you'd expect).

What does irk me, though, is something I thought Phaidon had abandoned with Vefa's Kitchen -- the practice of translating all the measurements into American terms while dropping the metric measurements entirely. Overall, though, if you're a fan of Phaidon's international cookbooks, or Phaidon's books in general, "I Know How to Cook" makes for a rather nice addition to the bookshelf.

The most valuable information in this book can be found between pages 14-37 (cooking methods, wine, seasonal items, flavorings, spices, and glossary), and between pages 914-929 (author's kitchen advice, menu planning, picnic planning, dining etiquette, table setting, and recipe notes).

The recipes between pages 38-913 have been so "modernized" and "simplified" by the "team of international cookery experts" that they are essentially stripped of all flavor. Every recipe I've tried has required considerable alteration to bring it to life, including adjusting cooking temperatures and times to avoid charcoal.

If you want to try some GOOD french recipes, check out the "French Farm House Cookbook" by Susan Loomis, or even the 'diet' book "French Women Don't Get Fat" by Mireille Guiliano. Many family favorites have come from these two books. "I Know How To Cook" was supposed to expand that list of favorites, but was a complete waste of the full bookstore price of $45.