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Julia Child & Company
Julia Child & Company
243 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1978
157 people want to read
About the author
Julia Child
99 books806 followersJulia Carolyn Child was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for having brought French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which premiered in 1963.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 9, 2009
Julia is incredible! A real life story of a woman who found herself in her 40s. Not only was she interesting, driven, and a caring woman, but she was a pioneer for single women in the 1940s when she joined the foreign service during WWII. She married in her late 30s and moved with Paul to Paris without any cooking skills. She fell in love with the culture and the food and delved into the career we know her for.
April 7, 2018
After reading Bob Spitz' biography, I wanted to work my way through some of Julia's non-Mastering-the-Art-of-French-Cooking cookbooks to get a feel for how much Julia made it on to the pages, especially since the biography mentioned how delightful all of Julia's little anecdotes are.
This is her fifth book, and it's interesting. Not great, but it has its moments. Most of these meals I don't think I'd ever make in total. What we eat in our family isn't as meat-centric as all of these meals are, and to be honest, her veggie dishes don't look that appetizing. Broccoli with Brown Butter and Lemon. Butter Lettuce Salad. Brussels Sprouts Tossed in Butter.
But I get it. People don't look to Julia Child for vegetables.
So what will I make?
I'm intrigued by her Fast French Puff Pastry, so I will give that a try soon. And the Choulibiac (a giant fish and mushroom concoction baked in a choux pastry crust) seems like something I'll try for a special occasion.
And her discussions about seafood, tomatoes, and rice were very informative.
I am curious about her giant chunks of meat. She clearly knows her stuff, and clearly has fun interacting with old-timey butchers and getting the best cuts of the best stuff. We try to eat responsible meat, which is expensive, and some of Julia's dishes would be very expensive (e.g. rib roast, butterflied leg of lamb).
I think that my path to Julia Child is a path through sauces and pastries. Eggs Benedict. Her fast puff pastry.
Perhaps I'll start with her Le Gateau Victoire au Chocolate, Mousseline:
"Here is a very tender, moist, and delicate, and very chocolatey, dessert confection that is more like a cheesecake or custard than a cake, yet it is a cake, almost...Its components sound like custards makings, its airiness suggests a mousse, and yet, it is a cake: a cake with no butter, no flour at all, a simple method, and an incredibly sparse list of ingredients. Sparse but sumptuous: it includes on whole pound of chocolate."
[Make sure to read that in her warbling voice]
Two additional gems:
"Cooking, I do strongly feel, expresses love more by fastidious everyday care than by festival bursts of effort."
"It therefore follows, with cast-iron logic, that I am now doing funny things with chickens."
P.S. How can an Aspic be anything other than an unpleasant experience?
This is her fifth book, and it's interesting. Not great, but it has its moments. Most of these meals I don't think I'd ever make in total. What we eat in our family isn't as meat-centric as all of these meals are, and to be honest, her veggie dishes don't look that appetizing. Broccoli with Brown Butter and Lemon. Butter Lettuce Salad. Brussels Sprouts Tossed in Butter.
But I get it. People don't look to Julia Child for vegetables.
So what will I make?
I'm intrigued by her Fast French Puff Pastry, so I will give that a try soon. And the Choulibiac (a giant fish and mushroom concoction baked in a choux pastry crust) seems like something I'll try for a special occasion.
And her discussions about seafood, tomatoes, and rice were very informative.
I am curious about her giant chunks of meat. She clearly knows her stuff, and clearly has fun interacting with old-timey butchers and getting the best cuts of the best stuff. We try to eat responsible meat, which is expensive, and some of Julia's dishes would be very expensive (e.g. rib roast, butterflied leg of lamb).
I think that my path to Julia Child is a path through sauces and pastries. Eggs Benedict. Her fast puff pastry.
Perhaps I'll start with her Le Gateau Victoire au Chocolate, Mousseline:
"Here is a very tender, moist, and delicate, and very chocolatey, dessert confection that is more like a cheesecake or custard than a cake, yet it is a cake, almost...Its components sound like custards makings, its airiness suggests a mousse, and yet, it is a cake: a cake with no butter, no flour at all, a simple method, and an incredibly sparse list of ingredients. Sparse but sumptuous: it includes on whole pound of chocolate."
[Make sure to read that in her warbling voice]
Two additional gems:
"Cooking, I do strongly feel, expresses love more by fastidious everyday care than by festival bursts of effort."
"It therefore follows, with cast-iron logic, that I am now doing funny things with chickens."
P.S. How can an Aspic be anything other than an unpleasant experience?
April 30, 2011
Another great book from a truly great person and teacher.
Sure there is overlap in cookbooks when one person writes many of them over decades, but the style, wit, and her introduction of new methods makes all such negatives mere quibbles.
Julia was both a teacher and a student; throughout her life she was always seeing how others created dishes in ways that were different or novel. Like she herself when co-writing "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", people attack "classic" recipes with an eye towards predictability, simplification (when possible), and clarity. So, while she may have already known five ways to poach an egg, she paid attention to another chef's methods six and seven. Ultimately, she would then report back to us in a book (or show) how to do this new skill. And that's why having a bookshelf full of Julia is not a boring or wasteful thing.
Sure there is overlap in cookbooks when one person writes many of them over decades, but the style, wit, and her introduction of new methods makes all such negatives mere quibbles.
Julia was both a teacher and a student; throughout her life she was always seeing how others created dishes in ways that were different or novel. Like she herself when co-writing "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", people attack "classic" recipes with an eye towards predictability, simplification (when possible), and clarity. So, while she may have already known five ways to poach an egg, she paid attention to another chef's methods six and seven. Ultimately, she would then report back to us in a book (or show) how to do this new skill. And that's why having a bookshelf full of Julia is not a boring or wasteful thing.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews