Simone Beck - Simcas Cuisine

BY SIMONE BECK , LOUISETTE BERTHOLLE , AND JULIA CHILD

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume One

(1961)

BY SIMONE BECK AND JULIA CHILD

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume Two

(1970)

These are Borzoi Books published in New York by Alfred A. Knopf

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF , INC .

Copyright 1972 by Simone Beck and Patricia Simon All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Distributed by Random House, Inc., New York.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Beck, Simone. Simcas Cuisine.

1. Cookery, French. I. Simon, Patricia. II. Title.

TX719.B389 641.5944 72-2234

eISBN: 978-0-8041-5047-7

v3.1

To Judith Jones, editor extraordinaire

N o book is the work of one person; this is especially true of a cookbook. We wish particularly to acknowledge our indebtedness to the following people whose assistance was invaluable in helping to bring this book from conception to realization.

Simone Beck wishes to express her appreciation as follows:

I wish to thank, first, my beloved husband, Jean Fischbacher, who helped me daily. Next, Julia Child, my partner and friendly sister for twenty-three years: also her husband, Paul. The experienced counsel of these two friends is represented in this book.

James A. Beard, generous friend and great American cook, and his collaborator, John Ferrone, were invaluable and expert aids.

To these must be added other friends in America: Mrs. Malvina Kinard of Westport, Connecticut; Dr. Selma Hyman and Mrs. Mildred Tuhy of Portland, Oregon, who made it possible for me to talk to my first American audiences; Mrs. Lucille Tyree of Grosse Pointe, Michigan; Mrs. Grace Gadsby of Allentown, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Bernard Cutler of Washington, D.C.; and Mrs. Florence Bolton Love of Orlean, Virginia, all of whom were faithful and generous with their time and advice.

I add to them with pleasure my compatriots and fellow members of the Cercle des Gourmettes: the president of the club, Mme. L. Poussard; our vice-president, Mme. Jean Rgnier; Mme. Marcheix Thoumyre; Mme. Louisette (Bertholle) de Nalche; and Mme. Robert Glaenzer, whose enthusiasm and knowledge have been immensely helpful over the years.

Two others of my countrymen must be included: Messieurs Pierre Androut of Paris and Jean Ferreyrolles of Monte Carlo. One specializes in cheese, the other in Cognac; each is an expert in his field, each is a friend, and each was willing to share his expertise with me.

I am particularly grateful to Nancy Nicholas, not only for her skillful help in testing some of the recipes, but also for her valuable editorial assistance.

Patricia Simon wishes to express her appreciation to Claire S. Felix, Nancy J. Cunniff, and Jeanne M. Simon, of Philadelphia, and Henrietta G. Susser, of Leonia, New Jersey, for their assistance in testing recipes; and to Lois Straub, of Philadelphia, for her work in typing the manuscript.

Contents

T his is a book for those, no longer quite beginners, who adore to cook and partake of la vritable cuisine la franaisethe true French cuisine.

To be sure, I had no thought of writing such a book on the occasion of my last visit to the United States. That trip, in the fall of 1970, was for the publication of Volume II of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the book on which I had collaborated for so many years with my colleague and dear friend, Julia Child. And we had vowed, Julia and I, to terminate our collaboration thereshe to pursue her television program and other work, and I to devote myself to my private life. At the age of sixty-six, and after twenty-two years in the professional practice of the cuisine, I wanted a rest!

But during the tour of cooking demonstrations that I gave that yearin New York City, at the school of my friend James Beard; in Connecticut at the invitation of my friend Malvina Kinard; in Portland, Oregon; and at the homes of friends in Washington, D.C., and Virginiait seemed that a great many people were urging me to do one more book, a book all my own. I ended by taking the course of least resistance (and undoubtedly giving in most of all to my own real desire) in undertaking to write this little bookwhich would, finally and in truth, be my last.

I wanted to collect some menus of the kind that I serve to my family and friends in France, chosen especially as being suitable for Americans. Through these menus I hope to conveyalthough so much has changed and is changing every dayhow many of us still live and dine in France in a style that still differs in many respects from that of any other country in the world.

I wanted also to publish certain recipessome very old, but most of them newwhich would not be strictly classical (because all of that has been done and done), but would reflect the individual cuisines of the three provinces that have formed the basis of my own cuisine.

First, the province of Normandy, where I was born and where I lived for more than eighteen years in the home of my parentsthe beautiful province of orchards and pasture land, whose apples, butter, and cream are the finest in France. And many of the normand recipes in this book go back fifty years or more to the black notebooks of my mother and of my grandmother Beck before her.

Second, the province of Alsace, whose many interesting dishes I have come to know and appreciate through my husband, Jean Fischbacher, whose family came from there. (And some of these recipes have come directly from his mother and his grandmother and his aunt.)

And, finally, Provence. This ravishing southern province became my own twelve years ago when my husband and I acquired a house and land there. And it is in Provence that I have made what I feel have been the most interesting culinary experiments. Provence, full of sunlight, brings forth vegetables and herbs with magnificent perfumes and flavors that allow of combinations so various as to be inexhaustible. One can change the same recipe twenty times over, replacing one seasoning with another, and the dish will be completely different. The Provenal flavor remains for me the most exciting with which to experiment and create.