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Julia Child's culinary legacy
By Holly Ramer |
August 9, 2009, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
FROM the time-saving tools and French techniques she loved to a famously dropped dinner, Julia Child (1912-2004) left a lasting impression on a generation of cooks. In the forthcoming biographical movie, "Julie & Julia," Meryl Streep channels America's first celebrity chef.
As the movie opens, chefs and food magazine editors remember the real Child's vast contributions to American home cooking -- a scholarly yet accessible approach to recipes, an enthusiasm for efficiency and, above all, a spirited sense of fun.
At the most basic level, Child introduced home cooks to their stoves, knives, pots and pans, said chef Jacques Pepin, Child's longtime friend and collaborator. "We're in a country where we have to cook very, very fast with the microwave or very, very slow with Crock Pot cooking. Then you have the regular stove that's lost in the middle," he said.
He said he most remembers Child's great love for life and the great pleasure she took in cooking as well as eating. "You often see people cook and never taste. For her, it was cook, taste, cook, taste, cook, taste. With a little sip of wine on the side," he said.
Chef Alice Waters of Chez Panisse said Child emphasized that cooking was important but need not be serious business.
"I think of her sense of humor, her joie de vivre about cooking and really about her interest in gastronomy -- her academic insistence on writing the recipe right," said Waters. "It was curiosity and exploration and learning all folded together to make food an art. That's what she did."
And she gave novices the confidence to try, added Art Smith, former personal chef to Oprah Winfrey. He made a whole meal out of blanched asparagus for his first girlfriend after watching Child on TV. "Julia Child was not only an amazing cook but taught America that it could learn to cook," said Smith. "That spirit continues to this day, and this why we have great cooking shows."
Tina Ujlaki, executive food editor at Food & Wine magazine, said she often thinks of Child when she has kitchen mishaps.
"I don't think, 'What would Julia do?' I just do what she would do: keep on going," she said. "That was a really big part of the Julia liberation. Not only did she teach the techniques ... she said, 'It's OK. Relax. It doesn't have to be perfect."
That said, there are certain processes or gadgets that Ujlaki associates with Child. "I can't cut up a chicken without thinking of her and how lovingly she would cut it up," she said.
And Child did not shy away from modern appliances or tools if they made cooking easier, she said. She put her blender to work on a variety of classic soups and once told Ujlaki that she even used a stand mixer to make mashed potatoes for a crowd instead of the food mill she favored for smaller amounts.
"She probably used more gadgets than they used in typical French cooking," she said. "She was always very quick to embrace anything that made sense, but I don't think she had silly gadgets or gizmos. She didn't like clutter."
Child had a sure, unpretentious confidence in knowing who she was and what she loved, said Christopher Kimball, publisher of Cook's Illustrated magazine.
"She wasn't hopping around like so many food magazines doing the hot, latest thing," he said. "It was just about the food and the company. If something worked well, for example, she really couldn't care less if it was traditional or not; efficiency in the kitchen was always to be embraced."
As the movie opens, chefs and food magazine editors remember the real Child's vast contributions to American home cooking -- a scholarly yet accessible approach to recipes, an enthusiasm for efficiency and, above all, a spirited sense of fun.
At the most basic level, Child introduced home cooks to their stoves, knives, pots and pans, said chef Jacques Pepin, Child's longtime friend and collaborator. "We're in a country where we have to cook very, very fast with the microwave or very, very slow with Crock Pot cooking. Then you have the regular stove that's lost in the middle," he said.
He said he most remembers Child's great love for life and the great pleasure she took in cooking as well as eating. "You often see people cook and never taste. For her, it was cook, taste, cook, taste, cook, taste. With a little sip of wine on the side," he said.
Chef Alice Waters of Chez Panisse said Child emphasized that cooking was important but need not be serious business.
"I think of her sense of humor, her joie de vivre about cooking and really about her interest in gastronomy -- her academic insistence on writing the recipe right," said Waters. "It was curiosity and exploration and learning all folded together to make food an art. That's what she did."
And she gave novices the confidence to try, added Art Smith, former personal chef to Oprah Winfrey. He made a whole meal out of blanched asparagus for his first girlfriend after watching Child on TV. "Julia Child was not only an amazing cook but taught America that it could learn to cook," said Smith. "That spirit continues to this day, and this why we have great cooking shows."
Tina Ujlaki, executive food editor at Food & Wine magazine, said she often thinks of Child when she has kitchen mishaps.
"I don't think, 'What would Julia do?' I just do what she would do: keep on going," she said. "That was a really big part of the Julia liberation. Not only did she teach the techniques ... she said, 'It's OK. Relax. It doesn't have to be perfect."
That said, there are certain processes or gadgets that Ujlaki associates with Child. "I can't cut up a chicken without thinking of her and how lovingly she would cut it up," she said.
And Child did not shy away from modern appliances or tools if they made cooking easier, she said. She put her blender to work on a variety of classic soups and once told Ujlaki that she even used a stand mixer to make mashed potatoes for a crowd instead of the food mill she favored for smaller amounts.
"She probably used more gadgets than they used in typical French cooking," she said. "She was always very quick to embrace anything that made sense, but I don't think she had silly gadgets or gizmos. She didn't like clutter."
Child had a sure, unpretentious confidence in knowing who she was and what she loved, said Christopher Kimball, publisher of Cook's Illustrated magazine.
"She wasn't hopping around like so many food magazines doing the hot, latest thing," he said. "It was just about the food and the company. If something worked well, for example, she really couldn't care less if it was traditional or not; efficiency in the kitchen was always to be embraced."
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