primitives discuss Julia Child

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/115721739

Oh my.

pinto (96,722 posts)    Fri Feb 15, 2013, 05:21 PM

LOL. Watching Julia Child reruns. "Eggs should be hot out of the hen, then cooled or cooked."

On making a pretty complex salad. "So we mix it all, then we eat it."

She was a gem.

I wasn't aware the famous television personality of the 1960s was no longer in this mortal coil, and so had to nadin her.

Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing 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.

At six feet, two inches (1.88 m) tall.....Child joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) after finding that she was too tall to enlist in the Women's Army Corps (WACs) or in the U.S. Navy's WAVES.

On August 13, 2004, Julia Child died of kidney failure at her retirement community home, Casa Dorinda, in Montecito, two days before her 92nd birthday. Her last meal was French onion soup.

Okay, back to the primitives.

greatauntoftriplets (127,292 posts)    Fri Feb 15, 2013, 05:30 PM

1. Julia could say something like that without sounding pretentious and condescending.

Martha Stewart can't.

cbayer (117,710 posts)    Fri Feb 15, 2013, 05:32 PM

2. “No matter what happens in the kitchen, never apologize,”

That's my favorite.

I heard that she was once bringing a roast chicken to the table and it slipped off the platter and onto the floor. Unfazed, she picked it up, put it back on the platter, took it to the table and started slicing it.

kentauros (20,886 posts)    Fri Feb 15, 2013, 05:32 PM

3. I'm going to have to see if NetFlix has her shows.

I haven't seen them in so long, and usually it seems like what's shown any more are only the modern ones, where her guests were doing all the work.
 
Yeah, she was at least a gem, if not a national treasure

And then Ugly shows up:

Warpy (67,054 posts)    Fri Feb 15, 2013, 06:16 PM

5. She was great and taught me how to cook

My Irish mother hated cooking and it showed. Fortunately, we ate in decent restaurants just often enough to let me know what food was supposed to taste like.
 
Julia Child was a breath of fresh air on so many levels. Not only did she demystify French cooking, she made it completely accessible for the home cook. She wasn't TV friendly by today's standards (too tall, too plain, funny voice), but she was the greatest teacher TV has ever seen.
 
She also introduced people to the fresh food at the produce counter instead of all the canned stuff too many people relied on at the time.
 
I still use her recipes for many things. And I still prefer the closed off kitchen to the "cooking as theater" open plan kitchens because, as she said, whatever disaster happens in the kitchen, they'll never know.

Laura PourMeADrink (14,645 posts)    Sat Feb 16, 2013, 05:13 AM

7. I totally agree with the "Closed off kitchen" statement !

We have been getting ready to design and build a new house and almost every single canned plan I see has the kitchen in the center of the house. Maybe it's part nostalgia, but I too want a completely separate room - with windows and a door to the outside. I was reading an article about kitchen design and they interviewed a famous chef...He said if you are a serious cook and love doing it - you want a private place where you can get lost in your own world.....why would you want the distractions of TV and other people around?

Laura PourMeADrink (14,645 posts)   Sat Feb 16, 2013, 05:06 AM

6. Saw an real old show of hers the other day. She said "make sure you wrap this up in waxed paper and save." I was wondering if it was done before they invented Saran Wrap

And then Ugly butts in again:

Warpy (67,054 posts)    Sat Feb 16, 2013, 03:11 PM

10. People used waxed paper for everything

Plastic wasn't around yet, they either couldn't afford or couldn't get foil wrap during the Depression and WWII. So they used waxed paper and it worked for short term storage in the fridge, like resting dough. Bread was double wrapped in waxed paper. Kids loved the bread wrappers, they'd go down slides with them on their butts and get the slides really slick.
 
If you needed something saved in a bowl, you got a rubber, later a plastic, arrangement like a shower cap that you put over the bowl. It wasn't as tight a seal as plastic but it sort of worked as long as you didn't abandon it to the back of the fridge.
 
Freezer storage wasn't a concern. Freezers were the coils at the top that kept the fridge cold and would admit a couple of ice trays and that's it.
 
I'm old enough to remember a lot of this stuff. I'm even old enough to remember an ice box, drip pan on the floor. I was crawling and fascinated with it, much to my mother's disgust.
 
That's why women of the time relied so heavily on canned v*****s. Fresh v*****s were also hard to come by much of the year until the interstate highway system got built and it could be trucked in from Florida or California within days of picking.
 
I remember the week my mother discovered frozen v*g. It was a revelation to her.

Laura PourMeADrink (14,645 posts)    Sat Feb 16, 2013, 05:42 PM

11. Wow you brought back some cool memories Warpy !

I of course remember wax paper but had forgotten about putting an elastic around the top. I actually bought some not too long ago. It really is handy for stuff.
 
You did forget taking wax paper to school and ironing pretty fall leaves between two pieces?
 
I absolutely hated frozen peas !! And, I had to force them down before I could leave the table.

HappyMe (9,164 posts)    Sat Feb 16, 2013, 01:24 PM

8. I remember watching it years ago.

I can't remember what it was she was going to make. She said, "And don't burn the butter!". She checked the pan and said "I've burned the butter!" Then she picked up the pan and slung the thing off camera, grabbed a new pan and started over.
 
I love Julia Child. I still watch her show when I remember to put it on.

pinto (96,722 posts)    Sat Feb 16, 2013, 01:31 PM

9. She burned the butter more than once. Never took a step out of it. I loved her style.

[BEG]

I remember her lobster show, it was gross, funny and entertaining all in one.

[JohnnyReb]

Best use for wax paper....if you're a kid....sit on a piece on the sliding board....you'll over shoot the sandbox.

[miskie]

The missus got to speak to Julia Child once about a business matter. She was exactly the same person off camera as she was on.

[98ZJUSMC]

She also introduced people to the fresh food at the produce counter instead of all the canned stuff too many people relied on at the time.

Yeah, because no one knew fresh produce existed. 

[vesta111]

Yeah, because no one knew fresh produce existed. 

Not in the winter time, either home canned vegetables or store bought canned.

Mom tells me in the 1920's a great find in the Santa stocking was a semi fresh orange, lemon or lime.  Holliday treats were dried figs or dates stuffed with peanut butter and rolled in powdered sugar.

 I made up a few dozen one year for work pot luck dinner.  None of the Americans including me got to eat any, the Asians scarfed them down in 5 minutes.   Another family tradition was to stuff celery ribs with chive cream cheese.

Everyone if possible had a root cellar or shared one with a neighbor, Turnips kept best as I recall.

Ah Traditions with food in family's.   Hubby's family had the 2 Granny's cooking 24/7 for a week.  One Irish, One Italian, the cabbage sat next to the ravioli, Boiled potatoes next to the spaghetti and someone always snuck in sauerkraut and sausage.  Wonder who that was ?

I do tend to cook peasent French cooking, lots of tomatoes and heavy sauces but nothing Julia would ever make.   Kind or hard to picture that woman as a SPY, The DU poster that mentioned the show with the dropped chicken was my favorite.