See I don't think it's the French alone. You look at Larousse and its amazing. And has taught many people to cook.
Word. The French totally deserve their rep for cooking. Their modern North African and Indo-Chinese influenced food is awesome too.

I love my French Country Cookery book. Simple, yummy farmer food.
You can't get much simpler than La Cuisine. It's written by a woman who has written recipes for Women's mags most of her life so she's all about making it easy (a bit too easy at times maybe).

I think that masterchef has kind of made people have some funny expectations about home cooking. I don't expect or want the same meals in a home that I do in a restaurant.