Editing Simone Beck (section)

==Cooking career==
The start of Beck's professional career as a [[cook (profession)|cook]] and [[teacher]] was after [[World War II]], and after joining [[Le Cercle des Gourmettes]], an exclusive women's culinary club. She became involved in the world of cooking. She was inspired to write a cookbook for Americans by [[Louisette Bertholle]] and Fischbacher.

The first attempt at writing a cookbook wasn't successful, so Beck and Bertholle published the brief ''What's Cooking in France?'' in 1952. After that Beck published a [[book]]let ''Le pruneau devant le fourneau: Recettes de cuisine'' (ca. 1952), Beck's only publication in French. In 1949, after she had met [[Julia Child]], she became inspired to write a French cookbook for Americans again. She, Child, and Bertholle together wrote ''[[Mastering the Art of French Cooking]]'', which was published in 1961. ''Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. II'' (without [[Louisette Bertholle]]) followed in 1970, elaborating on several subjects (particularly baking and [[charcuterie]]) that the authors felt had received insufficient coverage in the first volume.

Both Bertholle and Child became members of [[Le Cercle des Gourmettes]]. After three years, the three women formed [[École des trois gourmandes|l'École des trois gourmandes]] to give lessons in French cooking to American women who lived in Paris. This school had been working up to the late 1970s. While Child became a successful television chef in the [[United States]], Beck continued her teaching practice at home. In 1972 she published her own [[cookbook]], ''Simca's Cuisine'' (with Patricia Simon), using some of the recipes that had not been mentioned in her previous books with Child and Bertholle. In 1979, she published the second volume, ''New Menus from Simca's Cuisine'', with Michael James, who was her student, friend, and assistant since the 1970s. ''Food and Friends: Recipes and Memories from Simca's Cuisine'', her autobiography and last cookbook (with Suzy Patterson), was published in 1991, the year she died.<ref name="Tribune">{{cite news | author1= Citron, Jane | url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1985-05-23-8502010869-story.html  |title=MADAME SIMONE 'SIMCA' BECK REMAINS THE GRANDE DAME OF FRENCH CUISINE | work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |date=1985-05-23 | df=mdy-all}}</ref>