Alex Prud'homme
Open Phones: Julia Child’s Birthday
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
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Julia Child
Today is the hundredth birthday of Julia Child, the American TV chef and author famous for her French cooking. We’ll take your calls and hear from Union Square Cafe chef Carmen Quagliata, one of the participants in Julia Child Restaurant Week.
Does Julia Child have a hand in your kitchen? Has she influenced the way you think about food and the way you cook? Do you have a Julia Child recipe that you return to for special occasions? Call 212-433-9692 with your Julia Child 100th birthday wishes and remembrances — or post here!
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Comments [7]
I never made any of the recipes, though I own all her books. One thing I learned from watching the shows was how to beat egg whites to perfect stiff peaks. I bought the most gorgeous copper bowl and a beautiful sculpted whisk. I still have.
As I see it, Julia Child believed that cooks have no reason to apologize for their food. This idea is liberating to a newbie. Even if I’d made something terrible, it was okay because cooking is about the process, the adventure and enjoyment of it- not just the final product. When I was learning to cook, reading and tackling recipes, I was emboldened by her and ready to try anything.
Mastering The Art of French Cooking has been a bible in my house. My dad has given my family decades of amazing cuisine, and it all started with him reading that book in the 70′s. I’m now a proud NYC foodie and I feel I’m somehow carrying the torch of my dad’s fascination for good eating, and I’m very aware of how it all started with that book.
Watching Dan Ackroyd’s hilarious rendition of Julia’s cooking show instilled a deep respect for kitchen knives.
I studied art in France for a year but what I really studied was great cuisine & wine. When I returned to North America with it’s instant, packaged industrialized food, she (and the Galloping Gourmet) became my mentor for recreating what I experienced overseas.
And she was so joyous to watch! “If you drop the roast in the kitchen…don’t fret, nobody will see you pick it up!” She was REAL!
Happy Birthday Julia! I’ve been using her book since the early ‘70s. Although the recipes are complex, they’re not complicated. I make her Tart Normand often, and it always gets ooos and ahhhs when I serve it.
There are so many aspects of Julia’s cooking that channel into my own. I live by her saying “Cooking is like love; it should be entered into with abandon or not at all.” I’m certain Julia would roll her eyes at healthy recipes that substitute apple sauce for real butter and low-fat yogurt for heavy cream.
Another quotation I love from her, “Everything in moderation… including moderation.” Bring on the butter!