It appears I may have gone and fallen back in love again. With cooking, that is. More specifically, with French cooking. And all it took was for me to watch “Julia & Julie”. Screenwriter and Director Nora Eprhon’s Midas touch is clearly evident in her latest offering which tells the tale of two true stories.
The characters in question are none other than kitchen legend Julia Child, who began her foray into cookery upon her arrival in Paris in 1948, and of Julie Powell, a disgruntled office worker who, in an effort to change her life and give it structure, challenged herself to prepare recipes from Child’s book ‘Mastering The Art Of French Cooking’, everyday for a year. Powell begins to blog about her kitchen escapades which results in massive popularity with many supporting her efforts.
Played by Meryl Streep and Amy Adams respectively, I have to be honest and admit that I wasn’t all that fussed about Julie Powell’s portion of the movie as the film switches back and forth between both women.
I was instead, thoroughly fascinated with Child’s first steps towards cooking thanks to a move to France with her husband Paul who was an envoy with the US Embassy in Paris.
Upon their arrival and while on the road to Paris, the Childs stop off at the ancient city of Rouen, famous for the burning of one Joan of Arc.
While there they dine at Restaurant La Couronne (The Crown) housed in a medieval quarter-timbered house built in 1345. It is at this very restaurant where Julia Child describes the revelation of discovering French cuisine. She was embarrassingly unaware of the existence of shallots, let alone the briny flavours of fresh oysters which were unlike anything she had ever tried at home.
The epitome of traditional French cuisine, in my humble opinion, was then presented by way of sole meunière – a true classic using original and uncomplicated flavours.
For this, sole is lightly dusted in flour, browned off in butter and garnished with parsley. In her book ‘My Life in France’, Child perfectly describes the moment when she takes her first bite: “The flesh of the sole was delicate, with a light but distinct taste of the ocean that blended marvellously with the browned butter. I chewed slowly and swallowed. It was a morsel of perfection.”
Meryl Streep plays Child effortlessly, and I for one would have been perfectly happy to have watched a movie based solely on the start of Child’s delve into cooking, consequently followed by courses in the centre of the gastronomy universe, Le Cordon Bleu. This then led to her founding L'Ecole des Trois Gourmandes (The School of the Three Food Lovers) with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle – a club dedicated to teaching French cuisine to American expat wives.
The three gourmands realised that at that point, there was no dedicated book on French cooking written in English so they researched and tasted recipes. Though their initial efforts were rejected by publishers, Alfred A. Knopf released it in 1961 to critical acclaim.
Child has stated that this may also have had something to do with an American fascination over French culture that was evident in the 60s.
Her popularity was further cemented in 1963 when Child appeared on her first televised cooking show, ‘The French Chef’, which ran for 10 years. Support for ‘The French Chef’ was immensely solid, and saw this show winning several Peabody and Emmy awards. Julia Child was clearly an icon to the television watching public of America, with several more books, shows, accolades and an honorary
Degree from Harvard University under her belt.
What endeared me to “Julia & Julie” was Child’s open expressions of pure joy at discovering a medley of new and real tastes and flavours in proper French cooking – a cuisine where bread is taken as seriously as politics and real butter has varying ‘crues’, much like wine.
At the risk of offending fans of Asian food, I’m going to go out on a limb and admit that I like French cookery. I enjoy the attention to detail. There is so much love that goes into this particular cuisine it boggles the mind. I have always understood that the French respect the fine art of gastronomy and take their food and appreciation of it, very seriously. “Like a national sport,” I read somewhere.
Not many people know this but I too donned the kitchen whites a long time ago. I spent four years training as a chef and learning about the wide, varied, wacky and wonderful world of fine culinary arts and everything related to food. My favourite period was the time spent in French cookery classes under the guise of our revered Head Chef.
This is where I learned about roux, demi-glace, bavaroise, concasse and most important to any cook worth their weight in salt, the mise en plas. The sweating of onions and garlic as a base for most recipes, was also a wonderful tip to pick up.
We were taught about the importance of butter and the regular and ample use of it in almost every dish. There is no such thing as too much butter according to purist of the French cuisine. And I am very happy to second that notion. Butter makes everything taste better. It is that simple.
I learned how to julienne, brunoise, to sharpen my knives on a daily basis, to knot my chef’s tie appropriately and to ensure my double breasted chef’s jacket was Cloroxed regularly – least I incur the wrath of Chef, who kept high standards and rightly so.
But the main thing I took away with me from my years dabbling in the kitchen was very simply passion. There is so much love that goes into food. The planning of a menu and the pairing of accompaniments. Taking hours upon hours for preparation prior to cooking. Ensuring that ingredients are as fresh as humanly possible. Knowing what is required for the cooking process and seeing it through. And then hoping that the finished product, with so much time and care behind it, will be enjoyed.
It’s been a good 12 years since I worked in a kitchen. And while it was backbreaking at times, I look back on those days fondly. I am quite out of touch with cooking these days and while I do love food, I tend to eat out regularly.
But “Julia & Julie” has definitely stirred something up in me and I think I’m going to be donning the apron a lot more from now on. If anything my friends, ever ready to put their stomachs to the test, will be more than happy to be my proverbial guinea pigs. The first recipe will be none other than Julia Child’s much loved Beff Bourguignon. Respectfully, sans her trademark pearls of course.
