French Classics Made Easy: More Than 250 Great French Recipes Updated and Simplified for the American Kitchen

by Richard Grausman

Classic French food is hotter than ever. But one thing hasn’t changed—few of us have the time, the patience, the technique, or the cream and butter allowance to tackle the classics as presented by Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The good news is—we don’t need to. For the past 40 years Richard Grausman, America’s premier culinary teacher, has been training American chefs in a simpler, better way of French cooking, and in French Classics Made Easy—a refreshed and updated edition of his original collection, At Home with the French Classics—he shares all of his extraordinary innovations and techniques. Golden soufflés in ten minutes. A light and luscious chocolate mousse that can be made as a cake, a chocolate roll, soufflé, or pudding. Plus Cassoulet, Boeuf Bourguignon, Coq au Vin, Bouillabaisse, Poached Salmon with Beurre Blanc—in all, 250 impeccably clear, step-by-step recipes in range of anyone who knows how to boil water or dice an onion.

When a step isn’t critical, Grausman eliminates it. If something can be done in advance, he does it. Plus he’s cut the amount of butter, cream, egg yolks, salt, and sugar; the result is health-conscious recipes that don’t compromise the essential nature of the dish. Techniques are illustrated throughout in line drawings. It’s the grandness of French cuisine, made accessible for both entertaining and everyday meals.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, France, Food

834 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 18, 2011

Reviews

[Toni · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a cookbook for someone who wants to learn about French cuisine. There are no pictures to help you visualize the recipes, and as a beginner it’s difficult to pronounce or know what the French words mean.

The recipes range from very simple (literally a recipe for scrambled eggs) to very specific and next level recipes that require 15+ ingredients, plus require an additional recipe from another page in the book for a sauce or crust. The author clearly states in the intro that he did his best to Americanize and “lighten” these classic French recipes. He states that he tends to use less eggs and sugar to cut calories and uses skim milk to substitute whole milk, etc. He strongly believes salt should be cut from recipes as to not numb your tastebuds and advises beforehand that you may want to salt on your own. He tries to substitute ingredients for things more likely found in the US. For example instead of using a particular apple that would likely be used in France, he tells you the next best variety to use that is common in the US.

[Lee · Rating 1 out of 5]

this is the kind of cookbook i don't like, no beautiful food pics, and i have difficulty pronouncing the french words, too fro-frooey for me, i'm simple folk...

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sure this is an excellent cookbook, but it has NO PICTURES! Sure, it has a few black & white illustrations here and there, but absolutely zero color photographs.
It is a dense book, and seems to be well written, but the layout is a major turnoff. It appears they tried to pack as many recipes into as few pages as possible. Some recipes begin halfway down a page where another recipe leaves off. This spells disaster for me when cooking as I'm easily distracted.

If you're interested in making French dishes in a simpler fashion, check out The French Slow Cooker.

[Rose Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather pedestrian advice. Real French cooking, done in the ordinary way, is easy. (Haut cuisine is another story.) If you know how to cook at all, you would have already figured out most of the things he tells you in this book.