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The Magic of Julia Child

I finally watched Julie and Julia this evening. Along with most people, I could have used a little less Julie and a lot more Julia -- Meryl Streep as the famous Julia Child is simply a joy to watch. It's not Amy Adams was bad, or that her bits of the story weren't fun, they just faded in comparison with the exuberant and luminous scenes in Paris as Julia and Paul eat, love, learn, and triumph. And to suggest that the blog deserves to be placed next to Julia's towering achievement, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, is faintly embarrassing.

But still, it's an enjoyable movie -- a love letter to Julia Child and, ultimately, to cooking real food, with passion and care and love. It made me want to make boeuf bourguignon immediately. Which I think I will do this weekend! It'll be a wonderful antidote to the weather.

 

 

 

 

Best Cupcakes!

And I want to eat these! (My posts lately have been about my desires, haven't they...?)

Nerd Food

Every since Ryan and Carlos, his roomate and recent culinary school graduate, introduced me to Ferran Adrià and his lab/restaurant El Bulli (beautiful photos can be perused here), I've been fascinated with the idea of this experiment with food, which I consider an example of nerd food. What Adrià does is disassemble and recompile the elements of food - tastes, textures, smells, colors - to create something completely different and new. He reprograms food.

Here in the Bay Area, we live under a tyranny of Alice Waters - a benevolent dictatorship, to be sure, full of good intentions, but her basic philosophy, which has since spread to all parts of the U.S., strictly stipulates that food is naturally good and ought not to be tampered with more than necessary. Good, high quality food can shine best with minimal handling. Her techniques evince a deep respect for the natural structures of meat, vegetables, pastas, spices, and so on. Her food is delicious, and her work with farmer's markets and school's eating programs are very deservedly much admired.

But Adrià takes a different approach. He wants to challenge the eater, to mystify, to tease, to astonish; his way is controversial, perhaps, because it may be seen as elitist, anti-Julia Child, who gracefully imbued the home cook with the power to prepare masterful French dishes in her own kitchen. No home cook could prepare the bulk of Adrià's dishes, which were often developed after six months in a laboratory.

Forget A Hotdog or Pretzel Stand, Give Me Crepes!

My new food specialty/craving is crepes. That's right, I'm playing at being a French chef, well sort of. More like a glamorous pancake maker. Crepes are my new fav thing to whip up in the kitchen. All you need is some all purpose flour, 2 eggs, water, a pinch of salt, and a splash of crme if you have it on hand, some melted butter & I bought my own little crepe pan!