Cookbooks: 1970s to the Present: French Cuisine Reigns

Americans embraced all things French throughout the 1970s. Gourmet dinner parties morphed into gourmet cooking clubs. A certain amount of one-upmanship crept into the dinner parties of the time. Who could recreate Child’s pot-au-feu with finesse? Or do her daube without mishap? Talking and thinking about food no longer seemed a puritanical taboo. Cooking classes picked up new converts.

While Child may have introduced many Americans to French cuisine, it was Craig Claiborne who further spread the Gallic gospel through his books and weekly columns. Claiborne, the influential food editor and critic for The New York Times, wrote Classic French Cooking (1970) with the chef Pierre Franey for Time-Life Books, following the success of The New York Times Cook Book (1961), which Claiborne edited. Trained at the École Hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland, Claiborne knew the ins and outs of classical French preparations. However, he approached the subject with straightforward writing, which simplified the process for his readers. His recipes were concise, yet comprehensive enough for American cooks to duplicate the traditional dishes of France, from hearty pâtés to airy quenelles. Claiborne, with his writing and cooking partner, Franey, continued influencing American cooks for the next three decades.