French cuisine, which has got a long history, is very well-known for its complexity and the exquisiteness of their taste. So for the average chef, having a cookbook on French cuisine is necessary.
If you are looking for a cookbook to help you out in your adventures in French cooking, then we have got the recipe books for you. In our list of the top French cookbooks, you will be able to find some of the most delicious, accessible, and most importantly, authentic French recipes around. So without further ado, here are some of the best French cookbooks that we have found.
French Cookbook Review Center 2021
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Now that you’ve seen our top 5 recommendations, we’ll give you more detail on each of them, including why we liked them. When you’re ready, click the yellow button to get the best price on Amazon!
#1 – Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simon Beck
Julia Child’s cookbooks are considered a classic amongst enthusiasts of French cooking the world over. And for good reason too, this is because included in Julia Child’s cookbook are some of the most recognizable French recipes there are. Classic French cooking such as chicken cordon bleu, is introduced to an English-speaking audience. If you have never had any experience with cooking any kind of French cuisine in the past, then you most definitely have to get this cookbook. Julia Child goes through all of the steps that you will need to take, from buying the ingredients to finally dressing your plate. This is all to help the average cook learn how to master French cuisine. You certainly must have this cookbook, if you would like to tackle learning a French style of cooking. All of the steps that you will need to take in order to make authentic French recipes can be found here.
What we like about it: We loved the fact that all of the complete steps to French food preparation and cooking are included in this cookbook. And despite having such a dense subject matter, Julia Child’s recipes are still very easy to follow and fit for a beginner cook.
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#2 – The Little Paris Kitchen: 120 Simple But Classic French Recipes by Rachel Khoo
The author of this cookbook trained and studied in a culinary school in Paris. So you can rest assured that you are getting classic and authentic French recipes when you purchase this cookbook. And best of all, the one hundred or so recipes that are featured here are all pretty easy to make. The author of this French cookbook wanted to emphasize simplicity, so the recipes are pared down versions of what you would normally find when compared to other complex French recipes. There are main dishes such as duck à l’orange, which has got a more simple way of preparing the sauce. And you can even find French patisserie recipes that are meant to be much easier to emulate for the average cook. If you are not in France yourself, then the recipe book will help you find substitute ingredients that you can use in place of the French ingredients.
What we like about it: The simple way to prepare all of the French dishes and recipes listed in this cookbook was really helpful. Not everyone has got the same access to authentic French ingredients, so we appreciated the fact that the author took the time to help her readers find some sort of alternative to more expensive French ingredients.
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#3 – Around My French Table: More than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
Packed with over 300 home-cooked French recipes, this Gallic cookbook has got everything from Veal chops to Basque potatoes. The author of this cookbook wanted to focus more on actual dishes that people in France really ate on their own dinner tables. So the recipes that are written in this cookbook are meant to be simple yet flavourful, which truly reflects French cuisine. After all, most of the modern French cuisine originated as peasant cooking prepared by farmers. So it stands to reasons that some of the most traditional French dishes are simple to prepare, which you can find all of them here in this cookbook.
With the three hundred French recipes that are listed in this book, you can have a new French dish that you can prepare for every day of the year. The huge number of French recipes here makes this more than worth buying.
What we like about it: We were stunned by the huge number of recipes that we found in this French cookbook. There is a recipe for any occasion that you can think of. So if you want to serve a French dish for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert, you can find all of them here.
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#4 – The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller
This is a cookbook that is based on recipes made in Keller’s famous French restaurant. Located in Napa Valley, his restaurant’s cooking was very well-known for putting their spin on some of the more traditional methods of French cooking. So in this book, readers will find recipes that put a modern spin on dishes such as Lobster Consomme and even Vegetable Gnocchi. From seafood to fruits, you can find it all within Keller’s French cookbook.
There are a little over one hundred fifty recipes that are found in this cookbook on French cooking. So you will not find this French cookbook lacking in any way. There is bound to be a recipe or dish that you will love making that is in this cookbook. And who knows? You may even find a new favorite French recipe after you have tried out the many recipes found in Keller’s cookbook.
What we like about it: We loved the fact that Thomas Keller included his take on classic French cuisine. This meant that some of the more classic and older French recipes had a contemporary flavor added to them. This transformed how some of the dishes ended up tasting.
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#5 – Let’s Cook French, A Family Cookbook: CuisinonsFrancais, Unlivre pour toute la famille by Claudine Pepin
This is a cookbook that introduces a simpler version of French cuisine to readers. All of the recipes found in this cookbook are geared to be more family-friendly, and therefore easy to make. If you are a bit daunted by the complexity of some French recipes, then this cookbook is a good place to start for you.
Gazpachos and Canapes are all included in this French book, and the recipes for those dishes are also introduced in an easy to read manner, meaning that even kids can follow these recipes. And the one thing that is unique about this cookbook is that it is written in both English and French. So your kids can read along to the bilingual recipe instructions.
What we like about it: Family-friendly is the best thing that we have found in this French cookbook. Some parents are naturally hesitant about preparing French recipes for dinner, since their kids may not like it. So we recommend this cookbook to any parent that wants to introduce French cuisine to their children.
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How we choose the top French Cookbook?
We carefully looked through hundreds of different French cuisine cookbooks in order to find the best ones. We wanted to ensure that the French cuisine cookbooks that we ended up choosing for this list actually were the top ones, so we based our decision on the top French cuisine cookbooks using our own special criteria.
We choose these French cuisine cookbooks based on how long-running they are. We wanted to make sure that we choose classic French cookbooks, so some of the cookbooks that we included on our list are in their tenth or even twentieth edition printing.
We also choose the top French cookbooks on this list based on the uniqueness of their dishes. French cuisine has got a long history, so it is understandable that there are some dishes that are more common than others. So the cookbooks on this list were carefully chosen based on how they presented older French recipes, and if whether or not they added their own style to those recipes.
Finally, we also based the inclusion of the French cookbooks on this list based on how beginner-friendly they were. We choose all of the cookbooks on this list because we wanted to ensure that readers would find it easy to prepare the French recipes that they found in them.