With easy-to-follow instructions and simple explanations, this portable guide covers the most important basics.

From omelets to soufflés, NYT Cooking presents a definitive guide to the French dishes that every modern cook should master. A companion book to our immersive digital experience, The New Essentials of French Cooking is your complete introduction to the world of French cooking today.

Long before anyone on this side of the Atlantic was devoted to eating seasonally and locally, the French were doing precisely that, just as they had been for centuries. Although the high-end haute cuisine of Paris exported itself far and wide many decades ago, the varied regional cooking styles of France continue to reveal themselves to the world and dazzle those fortunate enough to experience them firsthand. Williams-Sonoma's Essentials of French Cooking takes you on a meandering food lover's tour of France, from the windswept coastline of Brittany, where the lamb tastes of the salty fields on which it grazes, southward through Gascony, with its bracing Armagnac and rib-sticking cassoulet, to the delicious fish stews of Marseilles and the Mediterranean, and back up through Burgundy, where the wine flows from some of the world's greatest vineyards and the local Dijon mustard makes a perfect sauce for the local rabbit. In these pages you'll also explore the fascinating intersections of culture and gastronomy in Alsace, where potatoes, cabbage, and beer lend a Germanic heft to the traditional menu; sunny Provence, where dishes made with tomatoes, garlic, olives, and basil link its cooking to that of neighboring Italy; and the Basque country, where Spanish flavors and Moorish spices like saffron and cumin have seeped over the Pyrenees. In addition to presenting a wide range of traditional, regional main dishes to build meals around, this collection of more than 140 carefully selected recipes covers a full range of courses and techniques, from silky baked farm-fresh eggs to brilliantly simple preparations for every season's vegetables through the most luxurious chocolate creams and satisfying rustic fruit tarts. And while terroir plays an undeniable role in this cuisine, true French cooking is comfort food for family and friends, which translates everywhere. A comprehensive glossary and a section on basic stocks and sauces help you fill your pantry with the authentic elements and bring one of the world's most admired cuisines home to your table.

DIVLogical, developmental presentation includes all the necessary tools for speech and comprehension and features numerous shortcuts and timesavers. Ideal as an introduction, supplement, or refresher. /div

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The beloved author of Dinner in an Instant breaks down the new French classics with 150 recipes that reflect a modern yet distinctly French sensibility. “Melissa Clark’s contemporary eye is just what the chef ordered. Her recipes are traditional yet fresh, her writing is informative yet playful, and the whole package is achingly chic.”—Yotam Ottolenghi NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • Delish • Library Journal Just as Julia Child brought French cooking to twentieth-century America, so now Melissa Clark brings French cooking into the twenty-first century. She first fell in love with France and French food as a child; her parents spent their August vacations traversing the country in search of the best meals with Melissa and her sister in tow. Near to her heart, France is where Melissa's family learned to cook and eat. And as her own culinary identity blossomed, so too did her understanding of why French food is beloved by Americans. Now, as one of the nation's favorite cookbook authors and food writers, Melissa updates classic French techniques and dishes to reflect how we cook, shop, and eat today. With recipes such as Salade Nicoise with Haricot Vert, Cornmeal and Harissa Soufflé, Scalloped Potato Gratin, Lamb Shank Cassoulet, Ratatouille Sheet-Pan Chicken, Campari Olive Oil Cake, and Apricot Tarte Tatin (to name a few), Dinner in French will quickly become a go-to resource and endure as an indispensable classic.

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

A comprehensive introduction to the French language that offers effective strategies, exercises, and advice on learning how to speak, write, and understand basic French.