I Know How to Cook

Mastering the Art of French Cooking is certainly having a great run thanks to the film "Julie & Julia." Will the best-seller bring about a revival of French cooking, or will the books ultimately languish on the bookshelves of home cooks?

Who knows. But, if sales do result in a sole meunière stimulus of sorts, budding French chefs may also want to get their hands on Ginette Mathiot’s I Know How to Cook ("Je Sais Cuisiner"), due out this October for the first time in an English translation. The New York Times' Julia Moskin recently referenced the book as a "bold and authoritative cookbook for French housewives first published in 1932, continuously revised, and often described as the French 'Joy of Cooking.'"

The cookbook even comes with its own bloggish connections: Press materials indicate that "the recipes have been carefully updated to suit modern readers and their kitchens" by none other than French food blogger Clotilde Dusoulier. Pre-order for $29.70 (with free shipping [not bad considering it's 1000+ pages) at amazon.com.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking Rises to #1

Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which got a gig boost in sales from the film "Julie & Julia," will debut next week at #1 on the New York Times best-seller list in the "advice and how-to" category.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking Is a Bestseller

Sales of Julia Child's masterwork are booming as Julie & Julia arrives in theaters. According to a press release from Random House, Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking rose to #1 at both Amazon and B&N.com over the past weekend and is currently #3 at independent booksellers across the U.S. The 1961 cookbook also debuts today on USA Today’s best sellers list. Next week, it will appear on Publishers Weekly’s hardcover nonfiction best sellers list at #6.

Eat Like a Roman

GlobalPost recently featured a profile of Fernanda D’Arienzo, a Roman restaurant critic whose Roma nel Piatto ("Eat As the Romans Do") guides that aim to help travelers navigate the Italian capital's restaurant landscape and avoid the dreaded menu turistico. Says D'Arienzo:

Rome is not particularly famous for the quality of its restaurants, and besides, tourists often find themselves all eating in the same restaurants that cater specifically to them: restaurants that have very little in common with the more authentic places where Romans eat out.

DIY Cookbooks: Reviewed

The Wall Street Journal rates websites that will help you publish your own cookbook.

"The Hunan Stain" and Other Novel Nosheries

Cooking for Michael

Kai Chase, Michael Jackson's personal chef, has penned a book about cooking for Jackson tentatively titled Fit for a King. Via Grub Street.

COCO: Chefs on Chefs

Another massive cookbook is due out from Phaidon in October 2009. Clocking in at 448 pages, Coco: 10 of the World's Greatest Chefs, 100 Emerging Culinary Stars is based upon Phaidon's 10x10 series presenting emerging artists in the fields of contemporary art, architecture, photography and graphic design.

"Super-Size Me" to Become a Graphic Novel

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Morgan Spurlock, director of the 2004 documentary "Super-Size Me," is partnering with Dark Horse Comics to create a graphic novel adapting true "tales from the fast-food underbelly" that never made it into the film.

The book, entitled Supersized: Strange Tales From a Fast Food Culture, will feature "MC Supersized" (right) -- an obese Ronald McDonald-esque clown created by artist Ron English to promote the film -- as a "guide through the stories, in the same way the Crypt Keeper hosted the ghoulish stories in EC Comics' 'Tales From the Crypt.'"

"As great as they were on paper, I think they'll be better told in a graphic-novel form," Spurlock said of the stories that will comprise the comic. "They're funny, they're gross, and hopefully they'll be informative too."

Story via @atlantic_food.

What Would Mandela Eat

A "gastro-political biography" of Nelson Mandela explores the political life of the former South African president from a culinary perspective: Hunger for Freedom: The Story of Food in the Life of Nelson Mandela. Via Daily Dish.