La Cuisine: Everyday French Home Cooking Hardcover – September 16, 2014

This fabulous book came super fast and in almost new condition. Thank you!!

Had previously borrowed this book from a public library and was very impressed with the recipes. They are simple, tasty and foolproof.

French cooking with no pretensions.

Francoise Bernard started writing simple recipes and testing products in France in the 1950s. Her twenty plus cookbook recipes are very simple, very delicious French home cooking. Very simple. A lot of the recipes have less than around eight ingredients. This new book is a collection of the best recipes of the last fifty plus years. Think of it as, maybe, a French Joy Of Cooking. A lot less complicated than Mastering The Art Of French Cooking by Julia Child and Simone Beck.One word of warning, even though the recipes are simple, be sure to read the introduction. They explain that when it says butter, they mean unsalted butter, when the recipe simply says vinegar, they mean red wine vinegar, ect...seasoning is implied that you season to your taste. Basiciy the author's recipes are simple, but think you know how to cook a little.

I am quite pleased with this cookbook. Each recipe begins with the English & French name. The next line clearly outlines the how easy or difficult it is to prepare along with how expensive. It also outlines approximate preparation times and how many are served. The servings are accurate French servings and are generally smaller than most Americans will expect.Many of the dishes are so amazingly easy and with a few ingredients. Very much like a great deal of French cuisine.This is a translation of French recipes into English. The measurements are presented in cups, tablespoons & other American friendly forms. This cookbook does NOT Americanize the dishes. Personally, I think that is one of its greatest strengths. I bought this book to prepare French dishes at home in America and not turn steak tartare & frites into a hamburger & fries!

This book was a gift for my daughter who has books by Elizabeth David, Julia Child, the Cuisine of the Rose/Sun books, Pomiane, and a myriad of other French cook books of all levels. This one seemed over simplified and sometimes very dull. There were a few recipes that were too silly almost, such as store bought vanilla ice cream with (a recipe for) chocolate sauce. Putting a recipe for chocolate sauce is terrific but make the store bought ice cream a suggestion for the sauce not part of the recipe.The book seemed as though, over time the recipes just got more and more diluted and dummied down by adjustments made to them. It does not have the interesting recipes that are generally easy and "real cooking" that say, Elizabeth David, "Clementine in the Kitchen" by Phineas Beck, Pomiane, or Richard Olney offer.Even if there are a few good recipes (we stopped looking when the weak points of the book started to outshine any strong points) it is not really worth having a mostly mediocre (and fat!) book take up valuable real estate on one's cook book shelves!

I thought the translation of Francoise Bernard's cookbook disappointing. No attempt was made to gear it to American kitchen and the American market. Too much creme fraiche and rabit, etc I also feel that many of the recipies appear appear slip-shod. Maybe that is the meaning of "everyday."

I was looking for a cookbook on "cuisine ordinaire" -- one that would show me how the French population cook for themselves on a daily basis -- homey recipes that would be easily prepared on a weeknight and have the great flavors that French cuisine is know for. Unfortunately, "La Cuisine" disappoints. One of the problems with comprehensive cookbooks with recipes numbering in the thousands is that the quality of the recipes invariably becomes uneven, probably due to lack of individually testing each recipe. "La Cuisine" has been called the "Joy of Cooking" of French food, and the comparison is apt. Both books suffer from a lack of consist quality -- a few recipes are home runs, while an alarming number get my dreaded X -- "do not make this again." It's true, the recipes have been simplified, but many suffer from over simplification, e.g. substituting water for stock, with a resulting insipid flavor to the dish. Or lacking a simple addition such as a bit of fat (butter, sour cream, creme fraiche) that would provide a much -needed enrichment without loading it down with excess fat. The dishes are simple and mostly easy to prepare, that is true; but too many are bland and tasteless. Do I really need a recipe to tell me to boil cauliflower in water? (Which results in water-logged vegetables -- steaming is much better.) Save your money on this one and look elsewhere.