Simone (“Simca”) Beck is known to millions of Americans as Julia Child’s French partner in the creation of the two classic volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Now, she gives us her own delectable recipes—the ones she most treasures out of a lifetime of cooking creativity that has made her one of the great cuisinières of her day. Here are recipes that were inspired by old French family specialties found in her mother’s and grandmother’s well-thumbed notebooks; recipes that grew out of Simca’s life in the provinces (particularly Normandy, Alsace, and Provence) where she has gardened, cooked, dined out, and entertained; simple delights and fabulous concoctions all set down with a beautiful French clarity. Skillfully adapting her French ways to American needs, she presents over 100 recipes in 31 alluring menus designed for every sort of occasion—a warming dinner after a winter walk in the woods, a feast to dazzle your friends, a buffet for winter and one for summer, even an elegant picnic. For each menu Simca has written a charming, altogether personal introduction filled with nuggets of useful information, like what can be cooked ahead of time or how long last-minute preparations will take. Specific wines are always suggested with the menus, along with specific cheeses when called for. In addition, this volume features a small collection of other favorite dishes that did not fit into the menus but were simply too good to leave out. All in all, Simca’s Cuisine is a lasting treasure for everyone in search of new delicacies to serve, new menus that will enchant, new aromas and flavors in the French tradition, and new ways to find expertise in the kitchen and joy at the table.

View recipes from Food and Friends.The coauthor of Mastering the Art of French Cooking shares an irresistible feast of reminiscence and recipes. Simone "Simca" Beck first met Julia Child in 1949 in the women's cooking club Cercle des Gourmettes in Paris. Soon afterwards, the two began collaborating on what would become Mastering the Art of French Cooking. During her extraordinary career, Simca was mentor and friend to a generation of cooks and food writers. In Food and Friends, she interweaves tantalizing recipes and menus with a wonderfully evocative account of her Normandy childhood, her madcap escapades in 1920s Paris, her work with Julia Child, and her friendships with James Beard, Craig Claiborne, M.F.K. Fisher, and Richard Olney, among others.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The definitive cookbook on French cuisine for American readers: "What a cookbook should be: packed with sumptuous recipes, detailed instructions, and precise line drawings. Some of the instructions look daunting, but as Child herself says in the introduction, 'If you can read, you can cook.'" —Entertainment Weekly “I only wish that I had written it myself.” —James Beard Featuring 524 delicious recipes and over 100 instructive illustrations to guide readers every step of the way, Mastering the Art of French Cooking offers something for everyone, from seasoned experts to beginners who love good food and long to reproduce the savory delights of French cuisine. Julia Child, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle break down the classic foods of France into a logical sequence of themes and variations rather than presenting an endless and diffuse catalogue of dishes—from historic Gallic masterpieces to the seemingly artless perfection of a dish of spring-green peas. Throughout, the focus is on key recipes that form the backbone of French cookery and lend themselves to an infinite number of elaborations—bound to increase anyone’s culinary repertoire. “Julia has slowly but surely altered our way of thinking about food. She has taken the fear out of the term ‘haute cuisine.’ She has increased gastronomic awareness a thousandfold by stressing the importance of good foundation and technique, and she has elevated our consciousness to the refined pleasures of dining." —Thomas Keller, The French Laundry

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Julia's story of her transformative years in France in her own words is "captivating ... her marvelously distinctive voice is present on every page.” (San Francisco Chronicle). Although she would later singlehandedly create a new approach to American cuisine with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her television show The French Chef, Julia Child was not always a master chef. Indeed, when she first arrived in France in 1948 with her husband, Paul, who was to work for the USIS, she spoke no French and knew nothing about the country itself. But as she dove into French culture, buying food at local markets and taking classes at the Cordon Bleu, her life changed forever with her newfound passion for cooking and teaching. Julia’s unforgettable story—struggles with the head of the Cordon Bleu, rejections from publishers to whom she sent her now-famous cookbook, a wonderful, nearly fifty-year long marriage that took the Childs across the globe—unfolds with the spirit so key to Julia’s success as a chef and a writer, brilliantly capturing one of America’s most endearing personalities.

Millions know Simone "Simca" Beck as Julia Child's French partner in creating the two unforgettable volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Simca's Cuisine offers the delectable recipes that Beck personally treasured most. She presents family specialties from the well-thumbed notebooks of her mother and grandmother as well as recipes from her life in Normandy, Alsace, and Provence where she gardened, cooked, and entertained. Skillfully adapting French ways to American needs, Simca's Cuisine gives us both simple delights and fabulous concoctions presented with elegant clarity and delightful illustrations. Menus range from informal dinners that include a beef, lamb, and pork stew from "After a winter walk in the woods" and a baked apple dessert from "Autumn in Normandy" to more formal lunches and dinners that include "A gala Sunday lunch" with its sautéed trout with an almond cream sauce and "A spectacular dinner with champagne" that begins with salmon in brioche. With a charming foreword by Julia Child--her student, co-author, collaborator, and friend for forty years--here is a cookbook truly for every occasion.

Provence, 1970 is about a singular historic moment. In the winter of that year, more or less coincidentally, the iconic culinary figures James Beard, M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, Richard Olney, Simone Beck, and Judith Jones found themselves together in the South of France. They cooked and ate, talked and argued, about the future of food in America, the meaning of taste, and the limits of snobbery. Without quite realizing it, they were shaping today’s tastes and culture, the way we eat now. The conversations among this group were chronicled by M.F.K. Fisher in journals and letters—some of which were later discovered by Luke Barr, her great-nephew. In Provence, 1970, he captures this seminal season, set against a stunning backdrop in cinematic scope—complete with gossip, drama, and contemporary relevance.

With her outsize personality, Julia Child is known around the world by her first name alone. But despite that familiarity, how much do we really know of the inner Julia? Now more than 200 letters exchanged between Julia and Avis DeVoto, her friend and unofficial literary agent memorably introduced in the hit movie Julie & Julia, open the window on Julia’s deepest thoughts and feelings. This riveting correspondence, in print for the first time, chronicles the blossoming of a unique and lifelong friendship between the two women and the turbulent process of Julia’s creation of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, one of the most influential cookbooks ever written. Frank, bawdy, funny, exuberant, and occasionally agonized, these letters show Julia, first as a new bride in Paris, then becoming increasingly worldly and adventuresome as she follows her diplomat husband in his postings to Nice, Germany, and Norway. With commentary by the noted food historian Joan Reardon, and covering topics as diverse as the lack of good wine in the United States, McCarthyism, and sexual mores, these astonishing letters show America on the verge of political, social, and gastronomic transformation.