Mastering the Art of French Cooking / Cook Book for Entertaining

Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child is a detailed and thorough book that explains every aspect of a French meal, from eggs to entrees. The credibility is established first by the reputation of the author, Julia Child, who is now very famous because of the movie Julie & Julia. The book also contains a foreword which is very well written, giving it further credibility.

The book is very well organized, separated into seven sections covering topics such as "Kitchen Equipment", "Ingredients", and "Wine" and ten chapters covering every aspect of the meal, such as "Meats", "Soups", and "Desserts and Cakes." The author separates each page into two columns. The left lists the ingredients and equipment needed at each step; the right explains the steps to be taken. This allows the reader to easy switch back and forth between the supplies and the instructions.

The audience of this book is "the servantless American cook who can be unconcerned on occasion with budgets, waistlines, time schedules, … or anything else which might interfere with the enjoyment of producing something wonderful to eat." I take this to mean that this book is not intended for the average American to use on a regular basis. Instead, it is meant for special occasions.

Cook Book for Entertaining is a less formal, more diverse book than Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Also unlike French Cooking, this book does little to establish credibility. The foreword is only a few paragraphs long and it does not list the authors' names (it is "by the Editors of Sunset Books and Sunset Magazine").

One of the features of the book is the first section, which lists suggested menus. For example, there is an Italian fritter meal on page 48, which suggests four dishes which can be found in the later sections of the book. It also gives background information about every dish just before the recipe, such as the details of "the drawbacks of Chicken Kiev." (page 111) Both of these features would be vital for the target audience, inexperienced cooks.

It seems to be generally well-written, but can be wordy at times. It is also set up in a two column format, which is very convenient