By Julia Child - Julia's Menus for Special Occasions: Six menus for special celebr (1998-10-14) [Hardcover]

by Julia Child

Julia Child dishes up more helpful cooking tricks in Julia's Menus for Special Occasions, the second in her four-part retelling of Julia Child and Company and Julia Child and More Company. Like its predecessor, Julia's Delicious Little Dinners, this book centers around six meals. But this time, Julia tackles some of the real challenges of entertaining, such as serving a fancy dinner to vegetarians, making an impressive meal when you don't know how many guests are coming, and feeding dieters. Some of Julia's suggestions border on lifestyle choices. For example, when throwing a cocktail party, she suggests "more cheer for fewer people"- lots of food (served in the kitchen, to promote a casual atmosphere), lots of wine, and not too much booze. Ample color photos make even complex dishes such as Ham Pithviers- homemade puff pastry with ham filling- seem possible (if a bit ambitious for a cocktail party). It's a special occasion indeed when the average home cook will set aside a weekend to make cassoulet, but just reading Julia's recipe is mouthwatering fun. With tips on shopping, presentation, cleaning up, and leftovers, Julia offers graceful solutions to daunting party problems.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking

Hardcover

First published September 29, 1998

About the author

Julia Carolyn Child was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for having brought French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which premiered in 1963.

Reviews

[Meryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing in this book was wonderful--informative, funny, and detailed enough that I felt like I could really cook a whole duck or make a cassoulet....But I'm just not sure why I would want to. I think our modern tastes have gone so much the way of simple and unfussy that the idea of making these elaborate meals just seems like making work for the sake of making work....