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 … More Will It Be French?
[A photograph, and nothing more, for silent contemplation.]
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 … More Madeleine & Julia
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 … More Julie & Julia —
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) … More The Triumvirate of American Cooking
“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! … More *Critics’ Corner: Yum-O Gal, You’re No Fannie Farmer, or Julia Child, for That Matter
CYNTHIA D. BERTELSEN 
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