02 Apr The French Chef Series on DVD
by Julia Child/WGBH
It was with great excitement that I opened a special gift: WGBH (Boston Public Television) has started to release some of Julia Child’s original French Chef
Enter a culinary time capsule and not only master the art of French cooking, but also watch Julia master the television medium. For those of us who grew up under the tutelage of Julia Child, it’s hard to remember that she started in black and white. These lessons need your own interaction to add the color of parsley to a dish, or imagine what saffron and tomatoes will do to a Bouillabaisse à la Marseillaise. Then we leap into color programs with lime Jell-O-colored dining room chairs and a curious bouffant hairstyle. Julia becomes more fluid. Her knowledge and desire to teach is found in each show, and her passion for food and teaching is timeless.
In the Bouillabaisse à la Marseillaise lesson we encounter fish frames, mussels, eels, and a film clip of Julia in Nice buying ingredients in her unique sing-song cadence. From the kitchen to the dining room we are part of the bumpy process of cooking. At the end of the show it is as if she senses that the dish is intimidating: She opens a huge white napkin, ties it around her neck and shows us not only how to serve, but what a wonderful dish it is for entertaining. We are empowered.
There are theme programs such as The Potato Show, Elegance with Eggs or French Crêpes I. There are also single-dish shows including Salade Niçoise, Boeuf Bourguignon and Mousse au Chocolat. She constantly reminds us of how easy and quick cooking can be with proper planning, and each lesson is a challenge to create and enjoy.
Her programs were the original reality TV shows; she didn’t cook for a live audience, but invited us into her kitchen. She chatted to us and answered our unspoken questions. These weren’t home economic classes but shows with daring, and Julia made every task look doable. We shared her disappointment when she flipped a potato pancake and it failed, and later felt her joy when she tried it again with success. We cheered her bravura and knew that we also could be flipping with Julia. When she tasted a creation it was to evaluate; there was a nod of approval or a reach for seasoning to finish the dish. She didn’t swoon with delight or smack her lips – it was as if she was passing her own test, making the dish ready for us, her students and guests.
As the cocktail era wound down, Julia was teaching us to drink wine with dinner and splash it around in the kitchen: bottles of red wine went into Boeuf Bourguignon; she cooked with spirits; cognac was added to onion soup. We were empowered to seek out ingredients – if our grocery store didn’t have basil we were instructed to ask that it be ordered for us. We were taught not to be intimidated by a long list of ingredients, and to substitute, and while her measuring was haphazard, her dishes still turned out. Most significantly, Julia never endorsed a product throughout her career – in her early shows she took great pains to have the label covered and only the ingredient showing.
Television chefs today would turn up their culinary noses at the set from which Julia taught us (which was, at the beginning, the kitchen of the local utility company’s offices). Her early kitchen wasn’t filled with All-Clad cookware or fancy gas ranges. She was partial to the new non-stick Teflon pans – her favorite knife was an 11” Sabatier carbon steel that she wielded with authority. The rest of her pots and pans were a motley bunch, from enamel cast iron (never a mention of Le Creuset) to a copper-bottomed Revere Ware sauce pan. She would try tools, and as in the French fry lesson where she tried potato cutters, Julia would make a pronouncement yea or nay. Her knife won out against the cutters.
Julia was one to be trusted. Her technique was painstaking and thorough, and she inspired us to try new dishes and techniques. With laughs and gaffs her kitchen became a playground for creativity, and the result was a tasty dish. Through her spirit, we were taught how wonderful and rewarding the process of cooking could be.
When her dishes were finished they were always put on serving platters, and we followed Julia into the dining room. We sat across from her as she re-capped her lesson and served us a plate with wine, always the gracious hostess.
“This is Julia Child. Bon appétit!”
Review by Judith Bishop
Judith Bishop is a cookbook reviewer for the Gilded Fork, as well as a culinary writer and reviewer for In Good Taste in Portland, OR. She has cooked professionally in restaurants and catering, and now her passion for food keeps the larder full and her family happy.