Today, on the French Chef!

This year my wife and I flew to Germany for twelve days, followed by another three days in Paris.  For the flight over, we picked up two books: Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdaine and My Life in France by Julia Child.  Because my wife has just started culinary school (which causes me jealousy to no end), we've really ramped up our unabashed "foodie" status.  Hey, at least one of us will be a professional, and I suppose that makes me half a professional in the same way I'm jokingly half Australian now.

I never really knew much about Julia Child other than some vague memories of her speaking (I thought she was British...) and being an old-school culinary TV personality.  I never attributed much worth to her show or cooking, for whatever reason.  Perhaps because so many TV personalities these days, like Rachel Ray, don't really inspire awe or even interest.

The book was a little slow to begin, and often read like I was reading a paper for school-work, but I slowly began to get a glimpse at a woman who was really quite remarkable.  She hadn't begun cooking until her mid to late thirties.  She was obsessed with food and was, in all adoration, a complete geek when it came to cooking.  She thrust herself into a major culinary academy and pushed herself to become a legitimate and accomplished home cook.  And she happened to write an absolute tome of French Cooking.

Here was someone who found her passion later in life than most people think they could.  Not only that, but she turned her passion into something that had a profound impact on the world around her, mostly through hard work and determination.  

I always enjoyed watching "Good Eats" with Alton Brown due to his scientific take on cooking.  By learning the science behind what you were doing, you quickly learned the "hows" and "whys" of what you were cooking, and that sort of knowledge readily applied itself to other meals and methods you might be using later on.  In the same way, I always enjoyed watching or reading America's Test Kitchen for their scientific experiments on which tomato paste was the best, or how to make the best roast.  They didn't do it by hearsay, they simply tried the recipe quite a few different ways and determined what they liked the most.  In the same way, Julia Child took a scientific approach to her cooking.  She always wanted to know why something failed to turn out correctly, or if old methods based on seeming superstition actually carried any weight.  The sheer amount of time and effort she put into her recipes made her confident that they not only worked, but worked well.

If you haven't seen Julia, you should definitely take a look.  And pick up "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"; it's sure to be at your local library no matter where you are.