Culinary art – Nittin' Ninja

The movie “Julie & Julia” became an instant hit for me when I first saw it in 2009. I ran out to get my copy of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and began a culinary journey. It didn’t last long. After spending a few hours-long sessions in the kitchen making Coq Au Vin, Daube de Boeuf, and Boeuf Bourguignon, I started scaling it down. Her mayonnaise recipe is delicious, as is the tomato sauce. There have been a few other forays into the world of traditional French cooking, but by and large, it’s not practical for your average home cook.

This brings me to the extraordinary effort the late Julie Powell put into her now-famous experiment of cooking every recipe in that book. In one year. And she had a full-time job. AND then she wrote about it probably on the same day or before she went to work the next day. Even if she skipped a recipe or two, that was some accomplishment.

Hearing the news that she died quite unexpectedly of a heart attack at the young age of 49 was a shock. As a culture, there’s a general assumption that around the mid-70s and beyond is about the time people make their exit. Anything before that seems premature. So much more a person can do!

Conversely, Julia Child survived to 91 years-old when she passed away, a not unexpected event at that time of life, but no less sad. She lived a full life as a passionate gourmand who shared her love of French cooking through books and television and was a seasoned world traveler. From an outsider’s perspective, she lived a life we all want – without compromise.

After reading a bit about Julia Child’s reactions to Julie Powell’s blog, it didn’t appear Mrs. Child believed Ms. Powell’s efforts were genuine because there were no detailed notes of what she learned nor did she appreciate the colorful phrases those of us in a (slightly) younger generation are accustomed to and expect in daily speech. If Julie’s online memoirs are to be believed (and I have no reason not to) she worshipped Julia. Hearing these reactions must have been emotionally crushing for the young blogger, but as all of us must do, in the end, she carried on with her work.

I watched the movie again this Saturday morning for the 50th time (more or less) as a remembrance of two women who were exceptional in their own worlds. With both personalities no longer with us, the Julie & Julia Project that began in post-war Paris in the late 1940s has truly ended.

Like so many people my age, we were aware of Julia Child in a peripheral sort of way. We knew she was a woman who cooked and had television shows and quite a number of cookbooks. The term “foodie” had not yet been invented, and the culinary arts weren’t the enormous enterprise they have become today. (Does anyone remember the Galloping Gourmet, Graham Kerr?) It wasn’t until I saw “Julie/Julia” that I had to run out and buy Julia Child’s co-written premier cookbook, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” at the tender age of 47. Unlike Julie Powell, I have not, and will not repeat her project of cooking every recipe in the book; however, I have dabbled in a few chapters here and there. I now know how to make an omelet, something I had been making totally wrong before. I can whip up a mean tomato sauce that works on spaghetti as well as chili (I can’t think of anything French that I have needed it for!) I have also served her famous Bouef Bourguignon and found it most tasty. Her mayonnaise recipe is wonderful and the directions that she gives are so intrinsically….her you can almost imagine she’s talking directly to you. I suppose it was this running narrative throughout the book that helped make it such a big hit. Well, that and the good food.

Anyway, I spent four hours in the kitchen concocting her Coq au Vin. I’m not a huge fan of mushrooms, but it didn’t seem to matter. The sauce was delicious! Even the onions were cooked in a special way for this recipe, which, incidentally, is the same onion recipe she employs in her Bouef Bourguignon recipe. I did double the amount so my husband could enjoy this for his dinner away from home. And I did use the instructions she gave for an electric skillet, because the amount we had was so huge it wouldn’t fit in a regular 10 or 12-inch pan. I may have misread the recipe, but I don’t think so. About halfway through her directions, she totally drops the ball on any electric skillet temperatures, so I had to figure it out myself. I was capable, of course, but if I had been a newbie cook and was really needing some numbers, this might not have turned out so well.

All in all, it was a good experience. If you’re looking for some old-school recipes that were devised before such widespread worries as calories, cholesterol, carbohydrates, etc., nip on down to your local bookstore or peruse your online book purveyor and grab this gem. Be prepared to spend some time in the kitchen, but also be prepared for callouses on your back as you pat yourself for creating such wonderfully rich and satisfying food!