Sad Day in the Food World [Julia Child, 1912-2004]

Julia Child has died.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking was the first cookbook I ever bought. I followed the recipes carefully and, building on experiences in a cooking class I took in France during a college foreign study experience, I became quite proficient at making pate, coquilles St. Jacques, and a number of other semi-classic French foods, all with the help of Julia Child, whose landmark volume I still refer to regularly.

During the 60s, Child introduced such exotica as garlic to American viewing audiences, and it would be difficult to imagine how American at-home cooking would look today were it not for her.

My favorite line from Child: during one of her recent shows (maybe the one with Jacques Pepin), she was adding big dollop of butter and she said, "Now, we add the butter, and if you're afraid of butter - and I know some of you are - then you can just add cream instead."

My favorite Julia line was during a Julia and Jacques (Pepin) cooking show where they were preparing similar dishes side by side. When Jacques suggested perhaps adding some garlic she loudly proclaimed "You're just a garlic FREAK!".

It is a sad day but that memory still brings a smile.

A very sad day indeed.

I started cooking from my father's copy of Mastering as a little kid. I started with crepes when I was barely tall enough to reach the stove. Both volumes are the first thing I reach for for reference on almost anything.

Perhaps her passing might mean availability of all the old "French Chef" shows. I'd love to be able to see those again.

girlmoxie wrote:A very sad day indeed.

I started cooking from my father's copy of Mastering as a little kid. I started with crepes when I was barely tall enough to reach the stove. Both volumes are the first thing I reach for for reference on almost anything.

Perhaps her passing might mean availability of all the old "French Chef" shows. I'd love to be able to see those again.

Girlmoxie,

Check this out -- videos from Julia's shows, free, online (you can search by menu part, ingredients...it's pretty incredible):

http://www.pbs.org/juliachild/video.html

Julia Child has passed away in her sleep at the age of 91.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... e_child_dc

The first of the "cook while staring down at the table" TV chefs, she'll be sorely missed.
[Sorry for the duplicate post, but the other one didn't have a descriptive title]

[Mods' note: two threads have been merged and title changed to reflect additional info]

Julia Child: Thank you.

Julia Child... Everyone in this country who loves to cook knows of and admires her and her extraordinary contributions to the culinary life of this country.

I'm not sure what it was about her original show but there was something oddly engaging about it. As a kid, when I wasn't playing ball or street hockey or getting into fights, I'd watch Julia Child, write down the recipes, and occasionally talk my mother into letting me try to make something.

Back in those days, cooking wasn't especially cool -- if anything it had in male circles a bit of the sissy-stigma attached to it. Though it is true that I had the model of my grandfather as a male figure who regularly cooked, there was something about Julia Child that taught me at a relatively early age that cooking was not only a necessary private activity but that it was also an art and a science.

My first culinary 'triumph' was a reasonably successful rendering of a strawberry soufflé. I watched the show on WNET-Newark, wrote out the instructions carefully and when the show was aired the second time that week, I revised and completed the recipe. Then I got my mother to get the ingredients and, one Saturday evening, cooked the thing with virtually no help from her. The accolades this soufflé earned -- heck, the mere fact the thing actually rose in just the way it was supposed to -- amazed me and this event was without doubt one of the thiings that got me hooked on cooking. I think I was ten at the time, maybe twelve.

I was lucky in having parents and grandparents who were/are great cooks but whatever inclinations toward cooking I got from them were vastly strengthened by Julia Child.

Antonius

Hi,

I just learned from Scott Warner, Program Chair of Culinary Historians, wrote a story about Julia Child published this week in the Chicago Tribune; registration required. Scott is also a friend of mine.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/ ... 8440.story

Regards,

Now this is strange, but kind of cool.

The Food Network will be having a tribute to Julia Child on Sunday, August 22 all day.

"Bon Appetit"!

Julia will indeed be missed. My earliest memories of TV cooking, however, was watching Francois Pope on local Chicago TV. He predated Julia by several years. As a kid, I would come home from school for lunch and, unlike my fellow youngsters who watched Bozo's Circus, I would watch Francois Pope's cooking show which was on at the same time. I guess my Chowist roots were germinated very early.

A story in Julia Child's honor...

A woman diagnosed with a terminal illness was given three months to live, so she set about getting her "things in order." As part of the process, she contacted her pastor and asked to meet with him to discuss certain aspects of her final wishes. She told him which songs she wanted sung at the service, what scriptures she would like read, and what outfit she wanted to be buried in. She also asked to be buried with her favorite bible. Everything in order, the pastor was about to leave when she suddenly remembered something very important.

"There's one more thing!" she said excitedly.

"What's that?" the pastor responded.

"This is very important," the woman continued. "I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand."

The pastor just stared at her, not knowing quite what to say.

"That surprises you, doesn't it?" she asked.

"Well, to be honest, I'm puzzled by the request," said the pastor.

"In all my years of attending church socials and potluck dinners," she explained, "I always remember that when the dishes of the main course were being cleared, someone would inevitably lean over and say, 'Keep your fork.' It was my favorite part because I knew that something better was coming ... like velvety chocolate cake or deep-dish apple pie with rich vanilla ice cream. Something wonderful, something with substance! So, I want people to see me there in that casket with a fork in my hand and to wonder 'What's with the fork?'."

Then I want you to tell them: "Keep your fork....the best is yet to come."

Tears of joy welled up in the pastor's eyes as he hugged the woman goodbye. He knew it would likely be the last time he would see her before her death, but he also knew that her grasp of heaven was exquisite. She KNEW that something better was coming.

At the funeral, people walked by the woman's casket, saw the pretty dress she was wearing, her favorite Bible, and the fork in her right hand. Over and over, the pastor heard the question "What's with the fork?" And over and over, he smiled.

During the service, the pastor told the congregation about their conversation, the fork, and what it symbolized to her. Since then, he said, he had been unable to stop thinking about the fork, and suggested that they probably would not be able to get it out of their minds either.

He was right.

So the next time you reach down for your fork, let it remind you, oh so gently, that the best is yet to come.

Rest in peace, Julia.

Hi,

There was a blog I followed which chronicled a woman named Julie cooking her way through all the recipes of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. This blog was referred to as The Julie/Julia Project "Nobody here but us servantless American cooks..."

This blog concluded in September, 2003 with Julie driving to Washington, D.C. to leave a stick of butter at the Julia Child Kitchen exhibit at the American History Museum of the Smithsonian.

Now, if you are faint at heart at colorful language, then please read this blog with your mental blinders zapping the colorful language. I am one of those who kept hoping she would rev up her vocabulary a bit to use imaginative language rather than 4-letter shortcuts.

What did entertain me was her search for obscure ingrediants, fretting about her weight, balancing her work interests with her hobby and her monumental temper tantrums. To accomplish everything, she and her husband were regularly eating dinner at 10 or 11 PM.

Anyway, I learned from following this blog it does pay to follow Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I learned you could achieve a very solid cooking education.

HI,

I was just reading on another board and found something of interest:

The American Institute of Food and Wine, an organization Julia Child helped to found, has a nice area devoted to memories of Julia Child.

HI,

On WTTW Channel 11 this evening at 8 PM will be a documentary on Julia Child which was originally scheduled for broadcast next year. Related article offers additional information.

Regards,

This was in today's ChicagoMag Dish, formerly Morsels, email. As a retro kitchen fan, I appreciated it.

Julia's kitchen: http://www.wbur.org/photogallery/news_juliachild1107/panorama.asp

Take a look around.[/u]

Hi,

Julia Child's kitchen at the Smithsonian will be moving to in a more expanded space, more details here.

Just in time for her 100th birthday anniversary next year.

Regards,

HI,

There is a new book on Julia Child I am very intrigued about: A Covert Affair:
Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS By Jennet Conant.

Here is a video clip interview with the author: http://authors.simonandschuster.ca/Jennet-Conant/17628764#author_video

A description of the book here: http://books.simonandschuster.ca/Covert ... 1439163528

This same author has another book which interests me: The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington. I loved Roald Dahl's children's books. I adore his adult short stories, too.

Regards,

Smithsonian American History Museum has a blog, whose purpose is to give the backstory to various exhibits. This is related to the artifacts in Julia Child's kitchen: http://blog.americanhistory.si.edu/osay ... tchen.html