Rating: 
Summary: Makes a great coffee table book
Review: A beautiful book to look at and to read, but confusing to cook from. The recipes are excellent, but the layout is disappointing.
Rating: 
Summary: Loving the cooks, but not the book...
Review: Along with many of you, I am an ardent admirer of both Julia Child and Jacques Pepin - and in my kitchen I would ordinarily follow them to the end of the culinary earth. But not with this cookbook. It is neither for amateurs nor well-versed cooks and that is the problem. The recipes, for the most part, are good classic ones in simplified form. The format of the book is busy and confusing, although one page is in an identifying pastel color for Julia and another page in a different pastel color for Jacques. Recipes are often written in two columns and continue onto the following page. A sauce, for instance, will follow this recipe or that and not be catoregized. The dessert section is very limited. Those who are not familiar with techniques are instructed to follow photographs which are 1 1/4" by 1 3/4" and badly reproduced. If you care about how Gourmet magazine used to look or have read a book or two by M.F.K. Fisher or just want to learn a straight-forward recipe without being distracted, I can't recommend this book. It's all over the place. And Julia and Jacques, published individually, have each done far better.There are few cooks of their calibre. Their talent "ensemble" just doesn't work here. Or the concept doesn't.
Rating:
Summary: Almost perfect - great food talk, annoying lack of pictures
Review: As a cookbook, this book serves very well - lots and lots of recipes, but not as many as you might think from the 430 pages. But, I'm glad - what I love about the book is that on the left part of the left-hand pages is a running commentary by Julia on the recipe under consideration, and on the right side of the right-hand page is Jacques' running commentary. Very interesting to read their words on the same subjects - sometimes they disagree! It's great, and explains a lot about what food is, and the history (or folklore) of some recipes, etc. Fascinating to read, and the recipes are great. As always, Julia brings the recipes to you in a way that is very easy to follow them and know what to do.The only thing keeping this from five stars is the lack of pictures of the final dishes (or even the preparing of dishes), and the fact that the vast majority of pictures that are included are not on the same page with the recipe. Sometimes the pictures are after the recipe, sometimes before. Very annoying! If you just want a cookbook full of recipes, this is not your book. But if you want to learn about how to cook, and what food means, and expand your ablity to improvise, then could be a good first start (because of the wonderful commentary from Julia and Jacques), but I would suggest starting with Julia's "How to Cook" which is a great cooking-theory book with other fantastic recipes.
Rating:
Summary: I found the beef but where is the water?
Review: As a gourmet diner stuck in a town with no decent restaurants I took things into my own hands and this book has rewarded me with tastes that I only find in NYC or Europe. But as a beginner this book sometimes assumes I know as much about cooking as eating. Wrong! A perfect example was in preparing a Beef Stock. All went well into I was instructed to put the bones et al into a pot. And then do what? No mention of water! No mention of how long to cook or anything else. Finally had to resort to the NY Times Cookbook to discover that it needed 3 quarts of water and 4-5 hours of simmer and more. Otherwise all was cool.
Rating: 
Summary: cooking for dummies
Review: As a huge fan of both Julia and Jacques,all I can say was it wasn't the kind of book I expected from either of one of these culinary geniuses. It was literally "cooking for dummies" or first time wanna-be cooks.The step be step procedures,(from both of them on the same item)was tedious and boring.But I'm sure it would be fine like I say for "novices"in the kitchen.I personally returned it..T.R. Redding
Rating: 
Summary: It's the food, stupid
Review: Economy be damned, it's food that enriches our lives! In this book, we have finally found the elusive solution to cooking great food from simple recipes and techniques. Buying the right ingredients, trimming and preparing it properly, and creating "home-cooked" dishes that are out of this world. Think of a home-cooked dish you love, and they show you how to do it right -- pot pie, stuffed cabbage, meatloaf, grilled cheese (croque monsieur), onion soup, the whole lot -- nothing pedestrian about these recipes. They are elegant, simple to do, with easy to follow instructions and endlessly amusing to read. If a person can love a cookbook, this is the one.
Rating:
Summary: No-nonsense, no pretense
Review: Having grown up with "The French Chef" series, and seeing how it transformed the American kitchen and palette, Julia Child is an icon in American home cooking. That influence continues with this book. Having almost religiously watched the series and then buying the cookbook, Julia and Jacques make no excuses for the ingredients, but also take the pretension away, especially with Julia's humorous asides about butter (in the series) and following recepies to the T (also in the series). Both impart in the home cook the confidence to improvise and the recepies provide room to do so and also serve as a basis for imparting your own personal tastes and preferences into them. I just wish i had the set-up to make Steak Diane at the table. It is a really fun recipie and brings back the old fashioned supper club. I also really like the roast pork loin first rubbed with Herbes de Provence, then seared and finally roasted on a bed of golden delicious apples and served with braised cabbage. This is a very basic recipie, sort of a cuisine des meres(mom's cooking), that has numerous variations and possibilities--soaking raisins in dark rum and adding them to the apples along with the rum deepens the flavor as does wrapping the loin with thick slabs of good bacon (after the herb dusting and quick searing). Or you could add apples to the cabbage, and serve with whipped potatoes made with creme fraiche instead of milk.
Rating:
Summary: No-nonsense, no pretense
Review: Having grown up with "The French Chef" series, and seeing how it transformed the American kitchen and palette, Julia Child is an icon in American home cooking. That influence continues with this book. Having almost religiously watched the series and then buying the cookbook, Julia and Jacques make no excuses for the ingredients, but also take the pretension away, especially with Julia's humorous asides about butter (in the series) and following recepies to the T (also in the series). Both impart in the home cook the confidence to improvise and the recepies provide room to do so and also serve as a basis for imparting your own personal tastes and preferences into them. I just wish i had the set-up to make Steak Diane at the table. It is a really fun recipie and brings back the old fashioned supper club. I also really like the roast pork loin first rubbed with Herbes de Provence, then seared and finally roasted on a bed of golden delicious apples and served with braised cabbage. This is a very basic recipie, sort of a cuisine des meres(mom's cooking), that has numerous variations and possibilities--soaking raisins in dark rum and adding them to the apples along with the rum deepens the flavor as does wrapping the loin with thick slabs of good bacon (after the herb dusting and quick searing). Or you could add apples to the cabbage, and serve with whipped potatoes made with creme fraiche instead of milk.
Rating:
Summary: Great reference on gourmet American cooking
Review: I accidentally bought this book, planned to return it, and now intend to keep it as a handy reference for all the basics of gourmet American food. Every kind of food that belongs on a well-groomed American table is explored in loving detail by both chefs, from salmon gravlax to the perfect omelet to quick stocks and fine chowders, hamburgers, roast chicken and turkey, fish, creme caramels and other simple desserts. There are great tips all over the place, from how to turn out a perfect omelet to seasoning food in stages, as it cooks, so that all the flavors are brightened instead of ending up with a salty, overseasoned dish. You could plan buffets and banquets from this one book, and while you won't be congratulated on the extraordinary originality of the food, both conservative eaters and gourmands will enjoy the quality and simplicity. Therein lies the greatness of Julia and Jaques. There is a lot of information here, not only on how to cook but also on how Julia and Jacques think and feel about food, in the margins and in the recipes. They don't hesitate to explore their differences of opinion, from seasonings to what to do if you make a mistake. As a weekend gourmet cook, I find this extremely helpful. It has already enhanced my comfort and ease with the food I cook, and that, to me, is worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: I bought this book 4 months ago because as an aspiring chef I have the need to learn as much as possible for lack of teachers in my area. I have learned how to make mayonaise, most of the basic sauces and the PATE and the crowd pleaser, Turkey Gallantine. I am thrilled to have this book amongst her other books in my collection which i refer to daily. I recommend this book to anyone who is wanting to learn from the masters (as there is not very many of them left)the art of cooking and making french and any other type of food. As for people who claim some sort of health knowledge like tereshina (which she obviously does not posses), I think she is one of those bitter people that needs to add some sugar and spice to her already depressing and pathethic life or better yet keep eating that darn styrofoam junk!
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