Le Cordon Bleu at Home

I would echo another reviewer who suggested that Julia Child's "The Way To Cook" is the ultimate learn-to-cook book, and her "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" is the ultimate learn-to-cook-French book, but this is a good introduction, too. I've been using this cookbook for years, even before I went through a Cordon Bleu culinary program here in the U.S. I'd also recommend getting the Cordon Bleu Practicial Techniques Book, which is excellent and has step-by-step photos of a lot of the techniques talked about in this book. My favorite practical book is probably La Varenne Practique. I've made about half of the recipes; if you follow the directions carefully, you usually learn something new and it's cheaper than going to Paris!

Many think of cuisine as a creative art. They see their favorite chefs tossing in a bit of this, a bit of that, and voila! A magnificent masterpiece! Anyone who has put in the hours to learn an art of any kind, be it playing the piano, painting, or yes, cooking, knows: technique comes first. What is technique? It is the efficient coordination of movements/actions, applied in a consistent way, to produce a desired effect. In cooking, it is trussing a chicken, chopping in various ways, creating a stock, simmering a sauce. It is creating your mise en place, understanding how long each step of a recipe takes. As an avid home cook (a pure amateur), I heartily recommend this title from The Cordon Bleu. Using a progressive program of instruction, based on their own diploma program, it incorporates technique into a set of classic recipes. Techniques are developed and elaborated where necessary, and in graded steps. For example, a basic white (Bechamel) sauce can be embellished with cheese (Mornay). The Cordon Bleu is known as a conservative bastion in the world of cooking. As such, I felt that some of the recipes are for dishes better placed in a museum than served at home, much less a restaurant. (A summer salad made with tomatoes, boiled carrots and cauliflower. Not my choice to serve at a dinner party. But the accompanying fresh mayonnaise recipe is fantastic!) And yet, even these add to the charm of the collection as a whole. Le Cordon Bleu at Home is a one stop volume for classic French cooking, and is a great stepping stone for more advanced cookbooks, many of which assume a thorough knowledge of French techniques (e.g. the Charlie Trotter series).

The basics of the french cooking. Most of the internationally known french dishes are here. The recipes don't call for lemon cake in a box or frozen puff pastry, ...everything has to be done from scratch, even ice cream. The recipes and the instructions are clear and the results are amazing. I highly recommend this book to people who love cooking. The recipes are organized in very well balanced menus in three chapters according to the level, from basic to professional.

I had worked through three lessons and invited friends for the Lesson # 4. They liked the idea so much that my friend's husband bought her the book and we teamed up with a plan to work through all 90 lessons, alternating as hostesses and dividing up the dishes. We invite a couple of friends to act as 'guinea pigs.' We request guest comments and autographs on the menu page. We are now on Lesson # 10. The guests we had for the ninth lesson want to join us in the culinary fun also. So, this order is for yet another copy of the book. Alternating three hostesses, we may finish the next 80 lessons sometime in the coming decade! I recommend the book to anyone who loves to cook. It is NOT a low-calorie cookbook. (Some menus use cream in two or even three dishes.) It is an delicious way to master the classic recipes and techniques and makes a fun Gourmet Club when done with friends.

This cookbook is a printed version of the curriculum taught at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. It contains 90 progressive lessons (techniques learned in each lesson are applied in later lessons) covering the full range of French cuisine and pastry. Each lesson presents a first course, a main course and a dessert. The courses within each lesson are complimentary in both preparation (you don't need two different things in the oven at the same time at different temperatures) and results. The instructions were easy to follow for someone with basic cooking skills, the recipes contained both the "why" and the "how" of preparation, and the results were the most consistently reliable of any cookbook I've used. I prepared all 90 lessons over a period of three years and served the results in 90 five-course dinner parties (adding a salad course and a cheese course between the main course and dessert) to rave reviews of my friends and relatives. The only difficulty at times was finding the ingredients, but my local merchants were always able to offer reasonable substitutions when the specified item wasn't available locally or over the Internet. I very highly recommend this cookbook to professionals and serious amateurs interested in classical French cuisine.