Who is our next Julia Child?

Big shoes to fill, literally and figuratively: who can serve as the cooking inspiration for the next generation of home chefs? At one point in my life The Frugal Gourmet was a major influence in my cooking -- I never really watched Julia much. Alas, he's gone too.

PBS really isn't the source anymore, it's mostly smaller shows, and folks like Rick Bayless will never make the big time, on presentation skills alone. FoodTV is most likely the place where someone of this stature will come from. But it's still not that easy.

Emeril? Hardly. He's a showman, not an educator

Alton Brown? Better, but his show is often more about food engineering than thinking about what to cook for dinner -- special or everyday.

Mario Batali has the charisma, humility and history, but I'm not sure that his depth of Italian will become a national phenomenon. Similarly, Ming Tsai, though a great presenter, is still mostly showing food a little far off the main stream.

I think the TV Chef Most Likely to Influence a Generation could be Sara Moulton. She's got the presentation skills, enthusiasm and depth of knowledge. My Food TV watching has been at odd hours that always seem to feature Emeril (aside from the TiVo subscription to Good Eats), so I'm not sure how much "face time" she's getting these days.

Anyone else care to pitch in?

Hi,

You know what, as I was scrolling down reading your post, I was thinking Sara Moulton. Sara did work with Julia Child for a number of years, so passing the Julia mantle to her is like from teacher to student; there is a traceable legacy. (Sara has a new book coming out next year. She will be visiting Culinary Historians once it is out.)

I evicted cable television from the house over 10 years ago. I found it masterfully sucked time away from other activities; similar to the internet actually. I'm just awful in hotel rooms if I have the tv remote, I flip between food channel, history channel and American Movie Classics (what happened to Black and White?). If I did install cable again, there would be turf wars over Food TV or C-Span. Some things are better left alone.

I think it's like asking who's going to be the next Beatles. You mean, like who's going to be the next hot band? That's easy. There's a new one every week-- call them all Limpkast.

Who's going to be the next harbingers of a totally transformative youth culture emerging from the pent-up energy of postwar shortage-wracked industrial England to rebel against suffocating mainstream monoculture? Nobody can be, it already happened.

Emeril is arguably as famous as she was in her day, as easily parodied, but there's no sense of a whole secret world being revealed to people who didn't realize how badly they wanted it until she showed it to them. The foodies know they like good slow food by now. The non-foodies'll eat any crap that's shoveled in front of them.

Sarah Moulton is not an imbecile -- almost my highest praise for t.v. chefs these days-- but she has all the stage-presence of a gnat and gaping holes in her knowledge and sense of humour. God bless her for not being Rachel Rae (sorry David, but she is an ignoramus, though admittedly supremely perky) or Giada De Laurentis, the only Italian woman -- no, check that -- the only human on the face of the earth who cannot pronounce properly the word 'spaghetti'.

There will be no other Julia Child. What is past is past.

The future lies with cyborgs.

Uh oh, I just realised, Giada De Laurentis is a cyborg!*

A

*If you don't believe me, watch her hands... Oh wait, now I understand why she can't pronounce 'spaghetti'! It's a human shibboleth!!!

If you don't believe me, watch her hands

I can tell who has a very poor television presence: Debbie Fields of Mrs. Fields. Yes, she is lovely, well put together and perky. However, when she is 'cooking' she spends an inordinate amount of effort preserving her manicured nails. Her hand movements are so stiff and everything seems new-to-her and ackward, it is difficult to believe she cooks with any regularity. I have to turn off the television.

I do enjoy watching Jacque Pepin cook with his daughter Claudine. There are moments when you can see he is getting royally ticked off and cannot make the quick irritable comment he really wants to make. As one of the most impatient teachers around, I fully understand his desire to spit tacks if the camera would just drift away for a moment.

&&&

As for Julia Child, she was in the right place at the right moment. Her book came out during the Kennedy Administration when Jackie as a young First Lady took Washington by storm. She not only redecorated the White House with period furniture, she hired a French chef to refine the formal menus. Julia Child happened to be properly situated to ride the tide of this revived enthusiasm for French food and desires to really learn to cook.

There were people just as worthy as Julia, such as Chicago's Alma Lach whose tomes on French cooking were published just prior to this time. In the timing is everything department, she missed the boat of the wider popular culture. I happened to read about her when in high school and obtained her book, which I used as a teaching manual for a while.

You may be rather surprised, but there were many people in professional cooking circles who felt Julia Child was an inferior cooking talent. Julia was not considered a Chef. Interestingly neither did Julia consider herself a Chef; rather she identified herself as a cook. I was quite stunned the first time I encountered this opinion of Julia as inferior cooking talent. However, it was not unique to this person as I later heard these same sentiments from a number of others. I have a better understanding where they come from, however these same (critical) people could not inspire anyone else to cook.

So if Julia was responsible for inspiring a cooking muse in people, then that by itself is quite a gift. Though I would hardly consider this ability to inspire a one-of-a-kind unique experience. Julia had her moment in time, like Francois and Antoinette Pope or Epicius had theirs. All contributed in their day an inspiration to cook and eat well.

A few names/shows that come to mind (mind you, not all of these are American):

- The "Naked Chef" - okay, probably not a great sign that I can't recall his name at the drop of a hat, but his show seems to blend a combination of "how to shop/get the ingrediants" with basics of preparation, with a focus on dishes (at least on the shows I have seen) that are easy to make at home and designed for sharing with friends in a casual environment. i.e. a show that I can see being inspired by, and one that often, I find, is also informative and "useful"

- Mark Bittman (author of "How to Cook Everything" - okay, I think he has the ego thing down pat). Hasn't been a huge presense on TV yet, but I do know that he has shows upcoming on PBS in the near future (full disclusure, my sister's boyfriend is a associate producer on the shows and works for Mark's production company on those projects and many others). In terms of cookbooks I own, "How to Cook Everything" is by far one of the most useful. Lots of simple, easy to prepare recipies, and a cooking style and attitude that incorporates a love of experimentation and modification - i.e. besides the recipies he usually offers many variations and ways to experiment from the base recipie he offers. This is my type of cookbook, one that offers insight and instruction on techniques or preparations I am unfamiliar with, but which also realizes that I may want to modify/adjust the recipies and even helps with that process. (the panne cotte I cooked for a chowhound dinner came from this cookbook).

- "Food Channel" in general has a potentially powerful influence in American homes. Especially with the success of a few shows, such as "Iron Chef" and Emiril, more and more people will recognize and identify various "famous" chefs.

- Alice Waters - her cookbooks are beautiful (and sell well) but more to the point she is one of the very active proponents of the "eat local, in season, and organic" movement - sure, perhaps not going to be the cookbook that every married couple gets given, but her influence I think is spreading.

Anyway, just some names that come to mind - certainly there are others that are contenders - Wolfgang Puck & Rick Bayless are too that immediately come to mind.

Shannon

Shannon:

I'll agree that all the people you mention have a certain level of influence and, in some cases, the potential for having more influence, but none comes close, in my opinion, to the stature of JC. Alice Waters is an impressive figure but not all that public and a little too low key for the broader audience. The Naked chef, whose name is Jamie Oliver, I believe, finds his place in a four part analogy as follows:

Jamie Oliver is to Julia childs as the Monkees were to the Beatles.

He spends lots of time doing Italian things and in my opinion does nothing worthy of note. He also needs to find a new barber.

Emeril has a very broad following but I suspect that most of them are no more serious about cooking than he is. I find it kind of sad in a way -- not that I ever looked upon him as a guiding light -- but I do have the feeling that he has become more and more caught up in his own hype and less and less interesting as he becomes more and more a showman first and a cook second.

C2 mentioned Jacques Pepin and to my mind he is the real deal as far as someone who not only really knows how to cook but can also explain things pretty clearly. Unfortunately, I doubt a foreigner such as Jacques -- and a Frenchman, no less -- could ever capture these days the hearts and culinary imaginations of Americans as JC did.

I fall back on my previous position: the future lies with cyborgs, but hopefully a better model than Giada De Laurentis.

A

No, wait, I have it....


IT'S MISTER FOOOOOD!!!


A

Antonius wrote:I fall back on my previous position: the future lies with cyborgs, but hopefully a better model than Giada De Laurentis.

A

That could explain her overly large head (compared to the rest of her body).

Antonius wrote:...God bless her for not being Rachel Rae (sorry David, but she is an ignoramus, though admittedly supremely perky)

Her shows are certainly enjoyable -- she's having fun, and that may help people get back into the kitchen and cook.

However, they tend to have this 'drinking game' structure to them:
* One sip of cooking sherry every time she giggles "hu heh!"
* Two sips of cooking sherry every time she mentiones the garbage bowl
* Three sips of cooking sherry for every "Mm mm mm mm mm"

The other FoodTV chef I forgot to mention was Bobby Flay. His food looks great, sounds great, but he just rubs me the wrong way (and it's not just his disrespect for Kitchen Stadium in the first Iron Chef American specials). He's just not somebody I'd invite to a dinner party, to cook or eat. Most of the rest I've mentioned, I'd be happy to host.

JoelF wrote:Her shows are certainly enjoyable -- she's having fun, and that may help people get back into the kitchen and cook.

However, they tend to have this 'drinking game' structure to them:
* One sip of cooking sherry every time she giggles "hu heh!"
* Two sips of cooking sherry every time she mentiones the garbage bowl
* Three sips of cooking sherry for every "Mm mm mm mm mm"

The cutesy act and the speech peppered with youth slang and such I find too obviously fake not to render me more irritated than amused and only sometimes do I hang around and then just to see what she's making. But I think the cooking show has its merits for teaching beginning/intermediate cooks some things. Where she really comes across as a knucklehead is the travel show, I think. The travel tips she gives are quite amazing (or is the general public really that stupid?). Anyway, she's laughing all the way to the bank, I'm sure.

The other FoodTV chef I forgot to mention was Bobby Flay. His food looks great, sounds great, but he just rubs me the wrong way (and it's not just his disrespect for Kitchen Stadium in the first Iron Chef American specials). He's just not somebody I'd invite to a dinner party, to cook or eat. Most of the rest I've mentioned, I'd be happy to host.

There was once a thread on Gotham-oriented food site that went on for metres and metres and yards and yards. Much of it was devoted to expressions of dislike for Mr. Flay. He rubs a lot of people the wrong way and I've started to think that that is precisely his 'charm', that's why he is watched enough to keep getting new shows scheduled.

Very strange.

A

JoelF wrote:Similarly, Ming Tsai, though a great presenter, is still mostly showing food a little far off the main stream.

I agree with you that Tsai isn't the next Julia, but in her day, she was showing food quite off the mainstream.

Anyway, Julia was unique, and there could no more be a next Julia than a next Elvis. The next person who might have the impact they had, we won't know until it happens. But I think in our overhyped, jangly world, where people compete to have that level of impact, the noise level prevents it from happening.

Someone that hasn't been mentioned that presents good information, has good techniques, is personable, isn't overly showy and can teach is Tyler Florence. His show Food 911, How To Boil Water, and others are pretty good. I enjoy watching him.

Although, I don't think anyone will have the impact of Julia overall. Emerill despite what many think is the man on Food TV. He made the network and the network has grown around him.

I had stopped watching Rachel Rae, but now may start again given this new drinking game format that JoelF pointed out.

Bobby Flay annoys me as well. I think his ego is big as all outdoors. If his behavior on Iron Chef wasn't bad enough, the spread on him in Bon Appetit's July issue was really the kicker for me.

Kim

What a grumpy and dispeptic lot you are!

As another curmudgeon, the only point that applies is - the world is a different place and thus the conditions that gave rise to Julia Child no longer exist. So she will not be back, any more than Cafe Bohemia (or any other artifact of past Chicago dining) will.

I just wonder how Julia would have be treated in these pages before she died. Would the reverence have been the same, or has her death silenced those who might have compared her to Rachel Rae (or is it Ray)?

Anyway, the new Julia Child is the host of Iron Chef. That's easy. Emeril is just the new Wolfgang Puck. And the rest of them are just talk show hosts, or new versions of Bill Kurtis.

And I am the new Rex Reed, or is it James Beard? So hard to keep these things straight.

Actually, I miss Flay's earlier show, "Grillin' and Chillin'" just for his partner (whose name I can't recall) who was the country mouse to his city mouse (real charcoal to gas, big pig parts to grilled fruit, etc.), and gave him exactly zero slack in the BS department (Probably why he's not on the air anymore). His eye rolling and wisecracks really kept the show balanced.

While it's not Julia, MSNBC thinks Alton Brown will be the next Martha...

I fall back on my previous position: the future lies with cyborgs, but hopefully a better model than Giada De Laurentis

I still think she's hot!!

Now, my $.02,

I can only think of two TV chefs/cooks who wouldn't say that Julia influenced their decisions to become cooks themselves (Jacues Pepin and Graham Kerr).

If it wasn't for the pioneering efforts of these TV personalities we wouldn't even have the Food Network. So, maybe the next Julia isn't going to be one individual, but an emulsion of the ideas which are presented on all formats ie: PBS, FoodTV, etc...

Around ten or so years ago my father thought that the idea of his son going to culinary school to be ridiculous. Believing me to be an engineer, and since he was paying the tab, I listened. With the advent FoodTV he would complain when someone was watching it. Eventually, he saw something he thought to be interesting and started downloading recipes. Today, I would have to tie him up to keep him out of the kitchen on any holiday, most weekends too. btw he has since apologized for his culinary school comments, and is currently encouraging me to go.

I guess that I am trying to say that Food TV is the Julia Child of the 21st century. Not just one personality, but many combining to inspire people to put down the takeout menu and cook something. The more knowledge we gain the more adventurous we become in our kitchens.


Flip

Edited not to add anything, but to apologize for rambling. Anybody want a side job proofreading my posts?

Flip wrote:I guess that I am trying to say that Food TV is the Julia Child of the 21st century. Not just one personality, but many combining to inspire people to put down the takeout menu and cook something. The more knowledge we gain the more adventurous we become in our kitchens.

Flip:

Though it was part of a list of several possibilities, I think Shannon suggested something along those lines earlier in this thread. Reading your more explicit suggestion, I think it's a point well taken. Though in a sense then, that's also saying perhaps that there is no real Julia Child replacement.

I didn't know you were attracted to cyborgs...

All these things will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Rutger Hauer in Bladerunner

Antonius

Cathy2 wrote:Julia was not considered a Chef. Interestingly neither did Julia consider herself a Chef; rather she identified herself as a cook.

Technically, a chef is a professional cook in charge of a kitchen in a restaurant, hotel or other such establishment. The term also applies to some classically trained cooks in large private homes.

Julia Child never worked at cooking professionally, beyond her TV demonstrations, so she correctly didn't think of herself as a chef. Since she was all about encouraging amateurs to cook at home, she would never have given herself such a title.

As for what some chefs may have thought of her cooking, it's true that she wasn't really an originator of dishes. She was a gifted teacher, and skilled at writing clear explanations of cooking techniques, but the food she wrote about had all, pretty much, been invented by others. Julia was not so much a creator of recipes as a recorder of them.

Never having eaten anything she prepared, I can't say whether she was really a good cook or not.

Interesting thread. Thoughts today?

hoppy2468 wrote:Interesting thread. Thoughts today?

You can't go home again. Julia found her passion at a time when the world was far more local and people were less sophisticated. She was the pipeline to a different way of looking at food for the average homemaker and led countless others into looking at a career in food as a calling. Not the first, not the only one, but the one who was there at the right time. She was a phenomenon.

There's no way to recapture the Beatles, your first kiss or Julia Child.

Rachael Ray, der-hey, next question?

Not sure Julia Child and Rachel Ray should ever be mentioned together . . . unless we're talking opposites.

On another note, I wonder if a modernish version of Julia is Fuchsia Dunlop. Like Julia with respect to France, she's someone who went to China for reasons other than the food, but became immersed in cooking and has since published several cookbooks. Granted, her books (and name) will never have the reach or find the following that Julia's did, but in some ways I think she has demystified Chinese cooking in a slightly comparable way that Julia did with French cooking. I'm not saying she's the next Julia or anything at that level (she's not even on tv), but there are some comparisons (and she's still rather young).

Roger Ramjet wrote:Rachael Ray, der-hey, next question?

Julia and Rachel are apples and oranges:
Julia brought new cuisine, and an attitude toward fine dining at home.
Rachel is telling people that they can manage to cook at all.

Important, influential, but not at all the same thing. Jamie Oliver is perhaps a little closer to Julia, but not as well known outside of the UK. Dunlop's made difficult things accessible, but is still relatively unknown -- Martin Yan might have been on a trajectory to reach Julia-levels of influence at one point.

I still miss Molto Mario, and Batali also might have been on that trajectory... but these days he's a food mogul instead of an instructor, and although he's having a lot of fun on The Chew, it's more gushing about what he loves rather than instruction and enlightenment.

Jacques Pépin would be an obvious choice, although he's not really the future.

Pepin recently had a stroke. Anyone know how he is doing?

Elfin wrote:Pepin recently had a stroke. Anyone know how he is doing?

Hi,

He had it the weekend before IACP, where they had an 80th birthday party for him. He was present via streaming audio due to his health. People who were there said he looked good.

I follow him on facebook. He had a fairly ambitious menu for Easter, which was maybe two weeks after this mild stroke.

Knock on wood, he may be ok.

Regards,