Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Two-Volume Box Set {giveaway}

I have a lot of cookbooks to review and giveaway. I didn't get around to giving them away last year, but there's nothing like the reality of having to move out to force you to get rid of things...

Some of the cookbooks I received from the publishers or the authors, and some I bought myself.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child falls into the latter category, a two-volume set for which I shelled out my own money because it is a classic that every cook, novice to pro, should have, or at the very least, flip through once.

The cookbook has no photos, just a handful of sketches to illustrate techniques. The recipes are written in a half-narrative that is sometimes difficult to understand, different from today's ingredients-listed-in-order-of-appearance/numbered directions format.

But there is something about the whole experience of reading through recipes of foods that are mostly unfamiliar (at least, they were to me), trying to cook them without the regular hand-holding in modern cookbooks, step-by-step photos, and of course, the glamour shot of the final product, and enjoying the (mostly) successful final products that force you to be as fearless in the kitchen as Julia Child herself.

I owe a lot to Mastering the Art of French Cooking because in a somewhat roundabout way, it is one of the reasons why I started The Delicious Life. Way back, like nine years ago way back, when The Delicious Life was not yet a twinkie in my thigh, I read The Julie/Julia Project, a blog (then book, then movie) based entirely on author Julie Powell's tackling every single recipe in the cookbook. I wasn't necessarily motivated to cook anything, but that blog first, then the "OG" food blogs that came in the few years after, inspired me to try blogging myself.

Eight years later, I am still posting away on my blog and in a strange completion of the Circle of (the delicious) Life, there was a children's book titled Bon Appetit! The Delicious Life of Julia Child published last year (not related to me in any way). I am openly, publicly hoping that this is a sign that The Delicious Life (my blog) will one day, finally, spawn a real book.

I have my own copy of this cookbook, so I am giving away this set.

You have until Friday, February 22 at 5PM PST. Everyone is welcome to comment to enter, but I can only ship this set of cookbooks within the U.S. for no other reason than it is heavy and expensive to ship. (If you’re outside the US and win, you just need to provide me with a US mailing address to send!)

Good luck!

p.s. The two most terrifying things for me to make are 1) yeast-risen bread and 2) anything that is alive right before I cook it, which could technically include number 1, but really refers to most non-fish seafood. Like lobster. Yikes. And yes, the recipe for Lobster Thermidor is in this cookbook. I will probably never attempt it on my own.