People who are critical of Julia Child lose sight of the primary fact that she was, more than anything, a teacher of home cooks. Her recipes, which are filled with loads of tedious directions, teach French techniques plus a large dose of general cooking skills. Her recipe for cream of mushroom soup is a prime example of that methodology.
Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking commences with an excellent chapter dedicated to soups. She starts with potato soup followed by vichyssoise. Classic french onion soup shows up further in the chapter and, at the end, there’s a recipe for ultra-involved and complicated bouillabaisse. Somewhere in between you’ll find her recipe for potage velouté aux champignons a/k/a cream of mushroom soup.
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