Personally, I remember watching Julia’s show as a kid – mesmerized by the different foods and cooking equipment that I never saw in my own home. Her passion, her personality made a whole foreign cuisine accessible to millions of people who kept a date with her every week. It was start of something exciting – the globalization of home cooking.
True, James Beard was the first TV celebrity chef, having starred in I Love To Eat back in 1946, but Julia, with her crazy hair, wobbly voice and wonky charm is the person that most people credit with being their TV cooking muse. I’ve mentioned before that Julia was definitely a “not ready for prime time” personality. There were no Hollywood good looks or family connections to get her started on the small screen – just Julia and her love of cooking. I like to think that if she were still here, she would be blogging with us too…
It was really difficult deciding what to make for Julia’s Birthday – my hubby was lobbying for either a) recreating Julia’s show with the giant lobster or b) pate. (He lobbies for pate on a regular basis, but until I work up some confidence, he is gonna have to settle for store bought!) I poured over her books, looked at my fridge and pantry – what the hell could I do that would be a fitting birthday present for one of the most influential people in my culinary experience?
Chocolate? Nah – Glenna over at A Fridge Full of Food already did that…plus I didn’t need any influence to love chocolate.
Salad Niçoise? Nah – did salad compose in an earlier blog…
Hollandaise? no….that wasn’t right either…
Finally it hit me! Julia was all about fresh food cooked correctly. I happened to have some very fresh eggs, a good pan and a hubby willing to eat anything for breakfast. Problem solved.
Here is my tribute: a simple omelet made according to the proper method. It was great. Moist and perfect. Another successful dish thanks to Julia.
Happy birthday, Julia. Thank you so much.
(For those of you who wish to make a Julia omelet, her handling is in Mastering the Art of French Cooking and also in The Way to Cook. The Way to Cook has great photos showing how everything should look as you proceed with the recipe. Check it out!)
5 comments:
Rosie, what a lovely tribute. This is a great post. And the omelette -- perfect. Thank you!
P.S. I want to see you whip up some paté in the near future. :)
Thank you Lisa!
My hubby has been looking through all my Julia Child cookbooks and saying "Wow, this pate recipe looks pretty easy." or "I wonder if duck terrine would be good?" Bastage.
The omelet is genius! Whenever I read articles about the food Julia would serve a guest, it was always something simple, but delicious, like an omelt or a salad. So, Julia would love that. Looking at your picture makes me so hungry! Yum! By the way, she has a recipe for chicken liver pate in Julia Child And More Company. My sister loved it!
It looks beautiful and the tribute was moving.
I enjoyed reading.
It DOES look beautiful!
I took a cooking course in which we made a green peppercorn pate that was to die for. Still have the recipe...still have never tried to make it myself.
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