Julia Child sure is all the rage of late, but that’s a really great thing. I still haven’t seen the movie Julie & Julia, but hubby and I recently watched old episodes of The French Chef (her cooking show from the 60s and 70s) on 3 DVDs. They were great! If you want a good laugh, I highly recommend them. One thing I love about Julia Child is that she’s REAL. None of her pots and pans match — not even all of them have lids, in fact! She improvises and substitutes, and tells her audience how they can, too. (Click below to continue reading…)
On her cooking show, the camera rolled for 30 minutes and whatever happened in that time is what got broadcast — mistakes most certainly included! In one episode the camera zooms in on the raw chicken Julia is about to cook. While she’s talking away, she doesn’t even notice that there’s a fly crawling all over it!
Probably the thing I love best about Julia Child is that she actually gives reasons why certain things are done a particular way. I, personally, need explanations and a reason why if I’m going to follow a suggestion that seems arbitrary. Not only does she teach you how to cook, but she tells you why you’ll get the best results if you do things the way she shows you.
My wish is that Julia’s cooking show would have a regular spot on TV again. Her show is such a far cry from the glossy, smoothed-over cooking shows of today, and I think people would absolutely love them. It’s time to bring Julia back!!
On our trip to Washington, D.C., we saw her actual kitchen at the Smithsonian, which was transferred from her Cambridge, Mass. house in 2002. The kitchen, and everything in it, is just as it was when she used it.
A plaque on the wall at the Smithsonian read:
“Through her teaching, Julia Child invited Americans to move beyond the packaged, instant convenience of the 1950s and 1960s and return to the kitchen. As she had learned to appreciate the world through food, she asked Americans to come out of their postwar insularity into that larger world. She asked them to reconnect to friends and family through cooking and sharing the pleasures of the table.”
Yes, yes, YES!!! The woman is/was a classic and nobody today can even hold a candle to her. So many of today’s TV celebrity “chefs” are nothing but hacks that lack both skill and substance.
I love the part about none of her equipment matched! She cooked; she didn’t sell All-Clad. I actually like her kitchen. It wasn’t slick; it was a KITCHEN that she cooked in.
Thank you so much for inspiring me today. And thank you, Lindsey!
Yes!! Thank you! Bring back Julia Child!
AMEN Mary!!!!! I agree a thousand percent!! Haahaa, yeah — she cooked; she didn’t sell All-Clad. I love it! So true 🙂 And I love her kitchen, too. It’s homey.