Archives

Dear Julia, Happy Birthday! #100, or, Why I Loved You

August 15, 2012 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Dear Julia, Happy 100th birthday! Today lots of famous food writers will write or post reams of flattering words about you. I know, I’ve already seen them, the New York Times leading the charge with three features about you, one by your friend Jacques Pépin. Like Jacques, many others will point out, once again, that you almost singlehandedly transformed the sorry excuse for food in the 1960s United States into the bounty and abundance that we see today in nearly […]

Categories: Chefs, Cookbooks, Cooking, France, French Cooking • Tags: Birthday, France, French cuisine, Jacques Pépin, Julia Child, Julie Powell, Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Julia Child’s “The French Chef, ” by Dana Polan

July 17, 2012 by Cynthia Bertelsen

“a history of early American television telescoped through the persona and history of Julia Child. . . . fascinating . . .” When you walk the streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts, you can’t miss the lingering traces of heroes and history. From the names of the men who brought you the Boston Tea Party to the dead in the Old Burying Ground near Harvard Square, the past perfumes the air. Nearly everywhere you’ll see pictures of a more modern hero, too. […]

Categories: Book Reviews, Cookbooks, Cooking, Food News, France, French Cooking, Uncategorized • Tags: Book Reviews, Dana Polan, Dione Lucas, Florence Hanford, Food Television, France, French Chef, French Cooking, Julia Child, Nigella Lawson, Paul Child

Cooking Classic French Food, the Easy Way

June 27, 2012 by Cynthia Bertelsen

If French cuisine, or at least the cooking of it, intimidates you, you’re not alone. A perception of too many fussy techniques and hard-to-obtain ingredients stops people who might otherwise wield a wooden spoon with Julia Child’s enthusiasm. The great popularity of Italian food testifies to people’s desire to take simple ingredients and transform them into delicious food. Unfortunately, most cooks don’t see French cooking in that light. In French Classics Made Easy, Richard Grausman shatters those preconceived notions about French […]

Categories: Book Reviews, Books, Cookbooks, France, French Cooking • Tags: Elisabeth Brassart, French Classics Made Easy, Julia Child, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Nora Ephron, Richard Grausman

Parsleyed Ham and Kitchen Breezes: The Letters of M. F. K. Fisher and Julia Child

June 22, 2012 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Today is the 20th anniversary of M.F.K. Fisher’s death, so in tribute and at the request of her friend Leo Racicot, I am reposting this, something I wrote last year after attending Barbara Wheaton’s “Reading Historic Cookbooks” seminar at Harvard. Sometimes words, both spoken and written, take on terrible power. Use the wrong word and, at the sound, someone’s heart may crash to the bottom of their chest. Whisper another word and the soul flies straight up to heaven, if […]

Categories: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food writing, France, French Cooking, Libraries, Lit & Food, Methods, Pork • Tags: Barbara Ketcham Wheaton, Cooking of Provincial France, Jambon Persillé, Julia Child, La Pitchoune, M. F. K. Fisher, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Michael Field, Schlesinger Library, Simone Beck

Give the Gift of Cooking French Food at Home: Some Cookbooks That Make a Seemingly Impossible Task Possible

December 8, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

I have to tell you that the cookbook lists that come out every year around Christmas time drive me crazy. Like you’re really going to savor, say, 101 Recipes Using ___________? (Fill in the blank.) Or you’re going to run out and buy another Italian cookbook when you already own somewhere in the neighborhood of 225? (I do. Really.) And since I am an unabashed Francophile, I cringe over the lack of French cookbooks on these lists. So I decided […]

Categories: Book Reviews, Christmas, Cookbooks, Cooking, France, French Cooking • Tags: Coco Jobard, Cuisine grand-mère, Culinary History, Food History, French cuisine, Georges Blanc, Giada de Laurentiis, Julia Child, Laura Calder, Lydie Marshall, Marie-Pierre Moine, Mario Batali, Stéphane Reynaud, Wini Maranville

Dreaming of Le Cordon Bleu Paris

July 25, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

When you dream, dream big. But remember that dreams mean a lot of hard work. People might help you realize your dreams by repeatedly nudging you forward or opening a door for you or mentioning an opportunity, but only you can make the dream happen. And sometimes if you help others with their dreams, they achieve their dreams and goals because they do the hard work and they follow through — you just provide the encouragement, the elbow in the […]

Categories: Cooking, France, French Cooking, Photography, Spinach • Tags: Boudin Blanc, Caul Fat, Champagne Ardenne, Chocolate & Zucchini, Cordon Bleu, Culinary Schools, France, French Cooking, Julia Child, Paris, Rethel, Spinach Quenelles

Acquiring Culinary Fluency

November 8, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Can a cook become truly fluent in a cuisine other than the one into which she is born? And, if so, what must she do to acquire that fluency? These questions crop up constantly, especially when it comes to Japanese food. In spite of cookbooks by Elizabeth Andoh, the popularity of Bento boxes, and the craze for sushi, Japanese cooking as a practice seems terribly elusive for most Westerners. Many Japanese culinary students attend culinary school in France or elsewhere […]

Categories: Cooking, France, French Cooking • Tags: As Always Julia, French Cooking, Julia Child

Will It Be French?

October 21, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

For most Americans (and Britons), French food means memories of the insipid Steak au Poivre or bland French Onion Soup served in a pretentious “fancy” restaurant. That’s enough to condemn French cuisine to staying put between the covers of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961 and 1970). The perplexing and continuous popularity of Italian cuisine shoved French cooking off to the side. After all, it’s the rare person who finds time these days to cook stock from […]

Categories: Cookbooks, Cooking, France, French Cooking, Pork, Potatoes • Tags: Cuisine grand-mère, French cuisine, Julia Child, Marie-Pierre Moine, The Wall Street Journal

Idylls of Cuisine, #75

August 15, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

[A photograph, and nothing more, for silent contemplation.]

Categories: France, French Cooking, Photography • Tags: Food Photography, Julia Child, Leek Tart, Leeks, Quiche aux Poireaux

Remembering Julia Child, “Our Lady of the Ladle”*

August 12, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

(Julia Child died on August 13, 2004. Her birthday was August 15; she would have been 92 years old. The following article originally appeared in The Roanoke Times on Sunday, Aug. 22, 2004, page 3 of the Horizon section.) “Julia Child dies at 91.” Stunned at the breaking news, I read the flickering words on my computer screen one more time, tears slowly welling up in my eyes. Why should I be crying for Julia Child? I only met her […]

Categories: American Cooking, France, French Cooking • Tags: French Cooking, Julia Child, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Obituary

Madeleine & Julia

August 10, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Appearances can be deceiving.* And in the food (foodie?) world, what smells of success — however minor — to one person may well reek like garbage to another. Take the case of Julia Child and Madeleine Kamman, for example. All the recent reminiscing about Julia Child (one of the Holy Trinity of female food writers of the 20th century — along with Elizabeth David and M. F. K. Fisher, although we might include Jane Grigson, making it a foursome instead) […]

Categories: American Cooking, Cookbooks, France, French Cooking • Tags: Cooks, Julia Child, Julie & Julia, Madeleine Kamman

Julie & Julia —

August 8, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

A kitchen, a bottle of wine, and a duck recipe. Easy, right? With the movie, “Julie & Julia,” now out, media commentators and critics find new fodder for chewing. One of the better perusals comes from The Boston Globe, written by Devra First and Wesley Morris. A video helps brings home the impact of cooking from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. After deboning a duck, can one be empowered? Probably. And for another tidbit of all things […]

Categories: Films, Food writing, French Cooking • Tags: Cooks, Films, French Cooking, Julia Child, Julie & Julia, Julie Powell, Mastering the Art of French Cooking

The Triumvirate of American Cooking

April 25, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

TRIUMVIRATE: Latin triumvirātus, from triumvirī, board of three [men] Americans owe a lot to the following three people — without them our grocery stores and larders and pantries would still be filled with cans of baked beans and boxes of Jell-O.* James Beard Julia Child Craig Claiborne *David Kamp’s The United States of Arugula (2006) supports this thesis. The more the merrier, I always say.

Categories: American Cooking, Cookbooks • Tags: American Cooking, Cooking, Cooks, Craig Claiborne, Culinary History, Food, James Beard, Julia Child

*Critics’ Corner: Yum-O Gal, You’re No Fannie Farmer, or Julia Child, for That Matter

August 23, 2008 by Cynthia Bertelsen

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” C. C. Colton said in 1828 in The Lacon: or, Many Things in a Few Words; Addressed to Those Who Think. But what about parody, rife with derision? On September 3, Elizabeth Hilts, author of Getting in Touch with Your Inner Bitch, releases her big bad bash of Ray: Every Freaking! Day with Rachell Ray, a parody of Rachael’s magazine, Every Day with Rachael Ray. Not bad for a woman who can’t cook. At least that’s […]

Categories: Critic's Corner, Food News • Tags: Cooks, Fannie Farmer, Food, Julia Child, Nutrish, Rachael Ray, Yum-O

Julia Child’s Benedictine-Infused Soul

August 12, 2008 by Cynthia Bertelsen

(Julia Child died four years ago tomorrow, on August 13, 2004. “Julie & Julia,” a film about “The Julia Project,” one of the first food blogs ever, is due out in 2009.) An upcoming movie, “Julie & Julia,” stars a be-wigged Meryl Streep as Julia and Amy Adams as depressed and bored NYC secretarial temp Julie Powell. The celluloid promises to be a real trip, hopefully delicious, but likely not. When I read Julie Powell’s Julie & Julia: 365 Days, […]

Categories: Food writing, French Cooking • Tags: Benedictines, Cooks, Food, Julia Child, Julie & Julia, Julie Powell

Gherkins & Tomatoes

Meditations and Photographs about Food, Cooking, and Life