The Hands On French Cookbook by Elisabeth de Châtillon was an interesting cookery book and if you love French food or want to learn how to prepare and cook it this is a book for you. It was easy to follow and has lots of interesting recipes throughout especially as it is well organised throughout. Each recipe includes a list of utensils, that you would need, as well as the list of ingredients, Plus, the background of each dish you are creating which was brilliant!

I had to go out and purchase this book which I am still working through with no complaints from my Husband!

Big Thank you to Netgalley for my ARC

What a great cookbook! The material is well written and presented in an easy to follow manner. I look forward to trying out several of these recipes.

This was an excellent book that teaches you how to make french food simple but still delicious.
I have always thought french cuisine was tedious to make but I have made a dish or two from this book and it's just so easy and incredibly tasty.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and learn with this book.

I love the recipes in this book and the ideas behind it. It is very helpful to be able to practice my French in a real-life setting.

What a great idea to combine learning the French language with cooking. I enjoyed reading the explanation of learning a language via Total Physical Response (TPR) and the subsequent explanation of using 'command verbs' e.g. mix, pour, add. This is a bilingual text, and Elisabeth provides literal and more natural language translations. There are recipe codes e.g. gluten free and measuring and safety tips, plus explanations on the Metric system, and buying seasonal fruits and veg. The recipes are grouped into main dishes, desserts and variations of these recipes (i.e. using different ingredients). The layout could be improved, so that it's easier to read as there's a lot going on with the text (different colours, upper and lowercase, italics and Roman font). The recipes are clear and easy to follow with okay images, so it's a shame the formatting is like this.

Such a wonderful book, offering French recipes using healthier options. Even learning French seems to be easy in this amazing book. Recommended.

As a person who has struggled to learn French for several years, I found Elisabeth de Châtillon’s cookbook, The Hands On French Cookbook: Connect with French through Simple, Healthy Cooking (A unique book for learning French language) a great way to help a person learn to read French recipes in a fun way, as well as help understand the language. de Châtillon’s idea to make a cookbook with instructions and cooking basics in both French and English is fabulous. There are good instructions for reading the recipes, which is helpful.

The recipes are easy-to-follow in step-by-step instructions written in both French and English. Once learned, readers will be able to cook from other French cookbooks. This is a good book for beginning French students who want to learn to cook. It certainly isn’t going to teach anyone to be fluent in French, but is a good start.

It would be nice if there were more recipes, but the ones that are included are good, and the photographs are beautiful. By learning the cooking terms and seeing them written in French, almost anyone can learn to use French cookbooks and turn out French dishes that are picture perfect.

Although this cookbook isn’t a substitute for serious French language studies, it’s fun and will help anyone learn important cooking terms. It’s a fun cookbook for older children, and would make a good and unique gift.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

I love this book because it is also written in French. And I understand better french term of cooking, since I read those in university. So if you want to learn French, this is one of the good option to start, a bilingual book to create something yummy.

Though French food looks so difficult to make, this book will make you think again. And while having my education in France made me learn so much about the country and their food, also how they manage to get the best of the ingredients, the author also explained them to you, like a good French she is.

This was great! It had a ton of simple French recipes that I will definitely be trying out! I've never tried to cook French dishes before, but this cookbook made me feel like I definitely could.

Want to learn French or French cooking? This book is the best of both worlds! I've never worked with a bilingual cookbook before, but this one makes me want to find more. The author has clearly separated the two languages with English in black text and French in blue. They even included icons next to the recipes that show which are gluten-free, dairy-free, or vegetarian. As someone with lots of friends and family with different dietary needs, I cannot say enough how much easier this makes things!

The recipes themselves are first entirely in French with key words translated below the line to help readers learn French as they go. After the recipe, different advice, tips, or substitutions are included along with some relevant questions and statements in French and English one might say about these items (ex. Qu'est-ce que c'est la quiche lorraine? / What is quiche lorraine?).

Truly, the amount of information in here between the recipes, the French learning, and the additional tips mentioned above is unparalleled. I have never seen a cookbook like this before, but now I'm tempted to get this for foodie friends (or myself) as a Christmas present! If you've ever dabbled in the French language, French cuisine, or just want something to pair well with a glass of wine and Emily in Paris , this is the move.

Thank you to Elisabeth de Chatillon and Netgalley for the advanced copy. This is not a sponsored review, but my honest opinion.

The recipes in this book look amazing! But unfortunately, the layout is all for actual cooking instruction. It's a nice concept, trying to learn French from cooking, but the French, then the literal English translation, then English directions were way too distracting.

I received a copy from NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

I loved getting to read more about French cooking and cuisine. I hope to try out some of these recipes soon.

I didn't expect this cookbook to also be a French language lesson, but as a Francophile I was happy to see it! The book provides the golden rules of French cooking and 10 easy to follow, traditional French recipes, such as quiche, crepes, lentils with goats cheese and hazelnuts and chocolate mousse. The book includes 2 versions, 1 in English and 1 in French, so a good opportunity to practice my French and still cross reference my interpretation against the English version. Thanks to NetGalley and the author for an advance copy of this book.

J'adore absolument cette livre... as a home chef and francophile, I appreciated the bi-lingual approach so much!

The recipes and narrative aspects were equally matched in how they explained but also engaged the reader, leading to not only delicious results but a confidence in the language of both amour et gastronomie.

French cooking is one of my favorites so thank you for letting me review this book. I liked that it had the French translation for some of the works and phrases. I would say this is set up more for a younger audience, maybe middle school into high school? I made the yogurt cake and it was very tasty.

What a great concept and the recipes lol delicious. I love that the author gives alternate ingredients that you can use. For example, if you’re gluten free substitute with almond flour instead of spelt. She also gives different spins on the recipes or ways to use the recipes with different ingredients. However, I was very disappointed by the amount of recipes, not nearly enough!

This is actually a really neat idea - learning the French language through cooking to French instructions. It uses a technique called Total Physical Response to encourage the reader to pair a physical action with a written or spoken command, in this case, that command is in French. The author provides lots of resources if you're interested in researching this topic more, but explains it in good detail before actually getting to the food. All of the recipes in this book sound delicious and there are beautiful color photos in each section as well as labels that identify any dietary restrictions that apply to each recipe. There is also a helpful chart that converts measurements and temperatures. This is a fun way to get into French cooking without the stress of typical French cooking. *Advance copy provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Learn to cook a few French recipes (both in French and English), and learn the language at the same time! This is NOT what I expected out of this book, but it was still interesting and educational if you'd like to learn French!

Hmmm a recipe book with only 10 recipes?

I think if you take the book as a lesson in french culture and language demonstrated and made practical by funamental French recipes you will love the book. If you think it is a simple cook book you will be disappointed.

This for me was a beautifully illustrated journey into the rich and diverse corners of France and I felt compelled to say the phrases, learn the history and truly embody the intention of the author.

As a vessel to learn the language in a practical way this cookbook is an art, and despite it not being what I thought I actually loved it. .

VERDICT: The most yummy book I have read this year. Cook and learn French at the same time!
In the introduction, Elisabeth de Châtillon shares about her life and how she got to start her Hands On French business, and the pedagogical vision behind this book, that is, TPR (Total Physical Response), which is basically how you learned your own language.
With all this in mind, the book packs a lot of goodies:
you can learn basic grammar, basic French, especially related to food and cooking, as well as get a nice introduction into French culture and history related to food.

The book is bilingual, with either French and English on odd/even pages, or two parts on the same page. Or even a line by line translation; when it’s the case, the translation is more literal, so you get to understand better the order of words in a French sentence.

The book offers ten recipes. For each of them, you have a page on ingredients, on utensils, on the verbs used in the recipe, and then the recipe itself. The translation is first offered literally, and then in good English.
The recipe is not fully translated, to encourage you to memorize the words you just saw on the previous page for instance, in the ingredients section. The context makes it easier to remember the words. Then there are ideas and tips, offering variations (plus the last twenty-five pages offer even more variations), so you actually get many more than ten recipes.
The last section of each recipe is cultural, explaining for instance the origin of the quiche.

I am French, so I cannot say I discovered any brand new recipe here, but I can tell you the author is offering a well chosen selection.
I especially enjoy preparing une quiche sans pâte (crustless quiche), un gratin de pommes de terre (potato gratin), un clafoutis, and I’ll keep my favorite for the final word: la galette des rois !