Writing and publishing a cook book today can be fairly challenging unless you’re as established as Nigella Lawson or Otto Lenghi, who of which seem to have constant access to book deals due largely to their respective success. Considering there is a cook book out there for practically every cuisine on earth, you’ll struggle to stand out from the market, however sometimes the most repetitive and predictable of ideas work in the most effective ways.

When developing my concept for a collection of recipe’s made for E-book, I instantly wanted to focus on something classic and quintessential to the amateur household cook. The two cuisines that spring to mind with this in view, are French and Italian. Arguably the most recognisable and replicated dishes across Europe, I wanted to create an E-Book that would appeal to the masses. Scrapping out Italian (due to it being far too overdone within the cookbook market sector), I focused on French. With this nation, famous for its food, in mind I knew I could go one of two ways with it, develop an E-Book that explored modern French cooking or devote the digital title to the wonders and flavours of classical French cooking. Classical French it was! And by using the New York Times Cooking website to source my recipe’s, I quickly developed the contents of my E-Book.

I would be lying if I said a key inspiration to the approach of my E-book wasn’t taken from the extravagant Julia Child and her best selling cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking, like wise the recipes I chose hold nostalgic value not only to French homes across the world but also in association with Child and her iconic persona. The first recipe I chose was Ratatouille. To those who aren’t French, this dish will be synonymous to the much loved Pixar movie of the same name, but to those who are familiar with French food or grew up in France know this dish to be a comforting array of garden vegetables, roasted in a sweet red sauce, to warm you up even on the bleakest of days. Just like the importance of Ratatouille in French cuisine, Beef Bourguignon follows as a close contender. One of the most famous dishes coming from France, Beef Bourguignon takes its place at the centre of my E-Book and the most important amongst all recipe’s, purely because of its famous presence throughout the history of European cooking as a whole. The other recipe’s I chose were staples such as Coq au Vin, Bittersweet Chocolate Souffle, Madeleines and French Onion Soup.

All the recipe’s can be credited to Melissa Clark, Annemarie Conte and Philippe Bertineau at the New York Times Cooking website.