La Cuisine: Everyday French Home Cooking - Tapa dura

A culinary bible featuring 1,000 recipes from the legendary woman who revolutionized French cooking by simplifying recipes for the home cook. With the revival of interest in Julia Child, everyone is hungry for French food again. But why does French cuisine have to be so complicated? Well, it doesn’t. Not according to Françoise Bernard. Beginning in the 1960s, Bernard revolutionized French cooking by writing cookbooks aimed at the modern woman. Until that time, the only cookbooks available were full of fussy recipes handed down by the grand chefs of the past. Bernard set out to make classic dishes accessible to everyone, paring down to a recipe’s true essence. She continued to publish and teach, building her forty-year career on the principle that good food can be simple, easy, and economical. This grand volume is the culmination of her work, a collection of the best, most tried-and-true recipes. Each recipe is labeled with degree of ease, prep/cooking time, and cost. The book overflows with charmingly homey recipes that take you back to the basics: onion soup, croque mignon, steak au poivre, coq au vin, tuna provençale, and potatoes boulangère. This is the ultimate reference book, not just for those who love French cuisine, but for anyone who craves simply delicious food.

Françoise Bernard is the grande dame of France's popular cuisine. She began her career more than 50 years ago by creating and publishing thousands of easy, clearly written recipes for housewives. She launched a successful magazine of her recipes and advice, and hosted one of the first cooking shows on French television, and her first cookbook, Mes Recettes Faciles, published in 1963 and still in print, has sold more than one million copies.  In 1982, she published Les Recettes Faciles de Patisserie.

Jane Sigal is a contributing editor at Food & Wine and has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Fine Cooking.