Excel French Cooking: Get into the Art of French Cooking

This was an interesting introduction to French cooking. I think, like most people, French cooking and/or French food in general can seem quite daunting for an amateur or home cook. This book attempts to introduce a few French dishes and techniques, and does so well, if in a rather raw, "uncut" way. I enjoyed the Table of Contents being set-up like a menu (a little kitsch, but warmly received!) The Introduction needs a little editing, but, again, it is inviting - and (casually) informative enough to keep one wanting to read more. Throughout the book, recipes are interspersed with additional information relative to each one: there are cultural facts about France, and specifically eating/dining/cooking in France, as well as explanations of techniques. The most fun and interesting "addition" to each recipe (I think) is the included history or "Background" of each dish, because it explains why each recipe is specifically important to French cooking, and even as someone who has enjoyed French food for decades AND visited France, a lot of this information was new to me and fun to read. I found all of these "additions" to each recipe to all be quite helpful in the way that they eroded some of that distance between being a home cook and cooking "real" French food. The book is set-up, again, like a Menu...so recipes go from the beginning of the day to the end of the day, depending on what one is interested in cooking, or for whom (one person or a party?) Throughout each section, the casual nature of the writing is continued. If French terms are written, they are explained in a conversational way. At first I enjoyed the simplistic nature of the book, but after reading the whole thing, I wondered how serious it actually was because it seemed SO casual. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but to make an analogy: its like reading a children's book. The message and format and pictures are great, but at the end, I felt like I was comfortable, but not that I'd really been elevated in my cooking. This is juxtaposed, however, with the seriously complex recipes included! For instance: croissants are NO JOKE to bake by oneself, and so, combining serious recipes in a non-serious way kind-of ends-up balancing itself out in the end. I think this is a great, short and fun way to make a few French items AND learn a lot about French cooking and food and history along the way.