Commemorating Julia Child’s 100th birthday
Inage courtesy of PBS.org/food
The talented and delightful Julia Child, who taught so many people to be more adventurous in the kitchen, would have turned 100 years old on August 15. Even though she died in 2004 (just two days shy of her 92nd birthday), fans of the “French Chef” are remembering her on what would have been her big day.
In particular, PBS has planned a big celebration featuring special programming and online features. They’re encouraging folks to cook a favorite Julia Child recipe and share pictures and comments about it on their website or Facebook page. They’ve also got some other commemorative coverage planned. Here are the details:
* Cook your own version of a classic Julia Child recipe, then share pictures or thoughts by tweeting with the hashtag #CookforJulia. Or you can post pictures and comments at PBS Food or on the PBS Food Facebook page.
* At PBS Food, you can see almost 100 “exclusive, limited-time full episodes from: In Julia’s Kitchen with Master Chefs, Cooking with Master Chefs, The French Chef Classics, Baking with Julia and three Cooking in Concert specials.” There’s also recipes, articles, links and a Julia personality quiz there.
* PBS has special programming planned for the month of August, including an encore showing of “Julia Child Memories: Bon Appetit!” and exclusive showings of “The French Chef Classics,” which are three episodes from her original program, “The French Chef.” There will be a Julia Child marathon on Aug. 18 and 19 on Create TV (distributed by American Public Television, not sure if we get this around here with all carriers). Check local listings for more details.
* Finally, you can find all of Julia Child’s cookbooks for sale at ShopPBS, as well as DVDs and biographies. My favorite Julia Child book is one that she penned, “My Life in France.” If you haven’t read it, I would highly recommend it. It’s only $7.99 on the PBS shopping site. I’ve also read “Backstage with Julia” by Nancy Verde Barr, and it was interesting. It’s not on the ShopPBS site but you can read more about it here.
Do you have a favorite Julia Child recipe? I think the best one I’ve ever made was her French onion soup. Yum!
July 23, 2012 - 1:40 PM
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Not so much a favorite recipe, but I just loved the way she approached food and her audience. Her approach was always “don’t worry, you can do this,” and she demystified both French cuisine and serious home cooking at a time when processed mass-market convenience foods were taking over the kitchen.
I agree, Jeff. Today’s “backlash,” for lack of a better term, against ultra-processed foods would have been right up Julia’s alley, wouldn’t it? Maybe she planted some of the seeds for today’s local food movement.
I think, more than the foods themselves, Julia railed against the prevailing attitudes behind the processed foods; that cooking was drudgery, an unpleasant household task no different from cleaning or doing the laundry, and anything to make it easier and quicker was a boon to the modern woman. This idea resonated with the burgeoning Women’s Lib movement, and with women increasingly working outside the home. Julia held that cooking could be enjoyable, that the effort itself produced something worthwhile, and she did it as a strong, independent woman. Moreover, she was having fun. She was not a sanitized, domesticated Betty Crocker preaching the gospel of the homemaker’s duty while espousing the joys of boxed cake mix to please that hard-working man.
I also tend to think Julia would probably be just as upset with the way modern foodie culture worships and fetishizes food as she would the corporations producing soulless boxes and cans of processed junk. Both ends of the spectrum tend to forget that food should be about people first, and food second. I think that was always obvious in Julia’s approach, that food was always about bringing people together and making them happy.
Very well said, Jeff.
I have my moments.
“My Life in France”
Whoops! Posted before I was done! That book was a very good read, it was like hearing her voice telling her story. I also loved the movie “Julie and Julia”, Meryl Streep was so Julia! I have a copy of Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom, it has some great recipes, tips, etc., the perfect basic cookbook for practically everything.
I met Julia once, in 1985, and she was just a hearty and buoyant in real life as she seemed on her show. She was my father’s personal hero for standing tall against the evil forces of “nouvelle cuisine” and continuing to cook unashamedly with butter and eggs.
I’ve made two recipes of hers, a creamy leek and potato soup that is simply to die for (we were living in Michigan at the time, and that soup with a crusty baguette was the perfect thing to take the edge off on a wintry Sunday) and a fruit tart that I modified (I used filo sheets instead of making a puff pastry by hand). I like that her recipes look complicated at first glance, but once you get into them they’re actually quite simple, and fun to boot.
Lindsey – my daughter and I have been cooking along with a group that is working its way through “Baking With Julia” by Dorie Greenspan. It is the companion book to the series mentioned above. On the show she hosted Master Bakers who showed how to create a variety of baked goods. We are having a lot of fun doing it – makes for good long distance blogging with my daughter! Here’s the link to the host website and also to my daughter’s blog where she has described out baking attempts!
Tuesdays With Dorie
http://tuesdayswithdorie.wordpress.com/
Baking Together (our favorite so far has been the Fresh Strawberry Cake)
http://katiethisdell.wordpress.com/category/tuesdays-with-dorie/