Happy 100th Birthday, Julia Child

Before the days of the Celebrity Chefs, she started a food rebirth and revolution , then came Emeril. They started it, but they had years of practical know how.

Today ??? Sandra Lee, Give me a break

Julia and Emeril ,. They new their onions and could cook. no BS or cake testers.

HooRay!

   Happy Birthday to the Queen of Cooking!

My teacher, she taught me to cook, to chop, to do things using hand and eye, and to trust myself in the kitchen, even when things went wrong.  She cooked with food flying and pleasure in the air.  And she was NOT mean to people and not snobby!  (You'd think this would be the easiest part but apparently not.) 

No no!  Kaneohegirl!  She was my tv teacher, shared with everyone else who watched her on TV.  I watched her show when i was in high school/college and learned all the techniques.  Though i do have something very precious, a personal letter from her.  I was having a problem with one of her cake recipes from mastering the art of french cooking.  It was the first and only time one of her recipes didn;t work so i said, what the heck, i'll write to her through the publisher.  She sent me a lovely letter, where i could almost hear her voice saying OH, How WONderful!  you live in ITaly, with those WONderful tiny ARtichokes! etc etc.  Then gave me advice on how to make the particular cream filling set. 

When i lived in Cambridge Mass for a while i lived up the street from her, but never ran into her, not even in - what was her local grocery store? savenors?  Though that was a little expensive for me to frequent very often. 

Julia Child: Brilliant Mentor, Coach, Chef, Professor - Teacher, Co--Author and Authoress, and a most visionary woman ...

Thank you for posting this thread.

Margcata

Siduri...

"When I lived in Cambridge Mass for a while..."

We too lived in Cambridge from the fall of 1957 to the spring of 1961. First on Sacramento Street (just over the line in Somerville, actually) and then on Avon, near the Radcliffe dorms. I didn't cook then, and indeed we didn't own a TV during that time, and I don't think Julia had started her program then, but I think she lived fairly near us when we were on Avon street. I remember her programs with great fondness, and I learned a lot from her later in my life when she got me interested in cooking.

She had a great appetite not only for food, but for the other fine things in life as well.  In one of her books she told how in her OSS days, when she ran the office at headquarters, her husband the spook would come home every day for lunch; they didn't eat lunch, though, but hopped into bed and had  a grand old time!  Must have worked up a great appetite for dinner. 

I miss her.

Mike

Oh wow, mike, my husband lived on prentiss street when i met him.  I loved that area. Remember the cambridge coffee tea and spice house - the lovely smell it had, the wonderful things you could get there?   It was actually affordable to live in that area then, even if there were expensive houses side by side with the cheaper ones.  Nice times.  Now cambridge has become yuppieville and high end and has lost all of its charm, all the old wooden buildings in the center of harvard square torn down and glitzy office buildings to replace them.  sad.