WITH the success of “Julie & Julia” in movie theaters, and Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” storming best-seller lists, boeuf bourguignon  the film’s slow-braised culinary centerpiece  has probably never been made by so many American home cooks, at least not in August.

Ms. Child’s boeuf bourguignon is constantly cited for its authenticity. Her recipe is, completely and perfectly, French. (That said, her use of tomato is not strictly traditional.)

But although we’re suddenly a nation of pearl-onion-peelers, Ms. Child’s recipe is not the boeuf bourguignon that most French cooks would make.

“Mastering the Art of French Cooking” is actually a translation of French restaurant technique to American home kitchens. Ms. Child learned at a professional culinary school, not from home cooks. Her stew’s painstaking multistep method  cooking all the vegetables separately, straining the sauce, etc.  has chefly fingerprints all over it.