A word from Julia Child

"You'll never know everything about anything, especially something you love."

As I said before I have been very remiss about keeping up with this blog of late. I have lacked inspiration and discipline. It's a bit like walking - you don't really feel like doing it when you start out - all a bit too daunting - but then you do it and you really enjoy it, achieve something and maybe even think the odd interesting thought along the way, or in the case of the blog, learn something new. But in the case of the blog I just have not been able to get myself started. And so I decided to do a lucky dip. This is part one of the lucky dip because I chose Julia Child's massive tome, The Way to Cook. And since I had not don an 'A Word From ...' feature on her, I thought I would start with that.

My chosen book was written in 1989 when she was back in America after her years in France, and after Mastering the Art of French Cooking, volume 1. In a way it's a sort of American version of Mastering the Art because it's aim is very definitely to teach. For having learnt to cook herself in France, she spent the rest of her life teaching others.

These days most people are familiar with Julia Child through the film Julie and Julia, the Julia part of which focussed on the French years and the wonderful relationship that she had with her husband Paul - seen in the photo above.

I do own Mastering the Art of French Cooking, volumes 1 and 2, and they were instrumental in teaching me (and the world) to actually master French cooking. In particular I remember Navarin Printanier, which was absolutely delicious and which I have never been able to replicate - well that's how it seems to me. I also remember some sort of complicated layered pancake dish, and various desserts. Anyway I used it a lot. But not The Way to Cook - most likely because I had done it all, or thought I had anyway. Which is not to say I haven't used it all - just not a lot.

I suppose she was important because she was a woman who had not cooked much at all until she went to France, and fell in love with the French and their food. She taught herself, well, went to the Cordon Bleu school and learned from scratch, found that she could cook and moreover loved it, and determined to pass on the skills and this love to the world at large - in particular the ignorant Americans of the time. Mastering the Art of French Cooking written collaboratively with Simone Beck and Louise Bertholle was the result and is one of the all-time classic cookbooks. Do not be put off by the length of the recipes. It's because they explain very clearly in great detail, every step of the dish you are preparing, so that you make no mistakes. With these two books and Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking you will soon be cooking like the French.

I also have her earlier paperback book The French Chef Cookbook which is based on her famous American television series. Indeed it's sort of the text of the shows. I'm pretty sure I have never used that at all. Which is shameful. But I don't want to throw it out.

I include the photo below because it spoke to me somehow. Here she is young, and not the joyful, confident, cheery lady that the cooking world knows. She looks more like my sulky teenage self, though she is not a teenager here. And yet she is rather beautiful in a way.

I read the introductions to her two books (Mastering the Art of French Cooking is a joint effort, so I thought the words would not necessarily have been hers), but there was really not much to quote as most of the words were explaining the books themselves rather than her thoughts on cooking - or anything else for that matter. Except for the following two.

"While attitudes about food have changed through these last years, fortunately the principles of good cooking have not. The more one knows about it, the less mystery there is, the faster cooking becomes, and the easier it is to be creative and to embrace new trends and ideas - in addition, the more pleasure one has in the kitchen." 1989 (still relevant today don't you think?)

"The technique is what's important here, and when you realise that a stew is a stew is a stew, and a roast is a roast whether it be beef, lamb, pork or chicken, cooking begins to make sense."

But she is well-known for witticisms and other quotes, and so I surfed the net for a few. The following are some of my favourites. Some of them I chose because they were funny, or practical. Some were about her and my beloved France, some about life in general.

“Always start out with a larger pot than what you think you need.”

“The sweetness and generosity and politeness and gentleness and humanity of the French had shown me how lovely life can be if one takes time to be friendly.”

“I would far prefer to have things happen as they naturally do, such as the mousse refusing to leave the mold, the potatoes sticking to the skillet, the apple charlotte slowly collapsing. One of the secrets of cooking is to learn to correct something if you can, and bear with it if you cannot.”

“If you drop the lamb, just pick it up. Who's going to know?”

“I suddenly discovered that cooking was a rich and layered and endlessly fascinating subject. The best way to describe it is to say that I fell in love with French food- the tastes, the processes, the history, the endless variations, the rigorous discipline, the creativity, the wonderful people, the equipment, the rituals.”

A cookbook is only as good as its poorest recipe.”

She had a long and amazingly happy marriage - perhaps her greatest achievement. Her husband was her greatest friend, and friendship she valued above all else. As should we all.

Tomorrow I'll finish the lucky dip with the page I flicked open - stews, and in particular chicken simmered in white wine. A dish that, coincidentally, she considered to be absolutely basic and the inspiration for endless variations.