A 'French Chef' Whose Appeal Doesn't Translate

By MAÏA de la BAUME

International Herald Tribune

PARIS - Julia Child may have been America's best-known "French chef,"
but here in Paris few know her fabled cookbooks, let alone her name.

Posters for the movie "Julie & Julia" were plastered across the city
before its release here on Wednesday. But the movie was being
anticipated more for Meryl Streep's performance as Ms. Child than for
any particular interest in Ms. Child, the principal author of "Mastering
the Art of French Cooking," who died in 2004.

Ms. Child's book - beloved by American cooks for almost 50 years and now
a best-seller because of the film - has never been translated into
French, said Anne Perrier, a manager at Galignani, an English-language
bookshop here. "It's the vision of a revisited France, adapted to the
American taste, at a time when tastes were lifeless," she said.

In an interview in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro last week, Ms.
Streep said: "What surprises me is that the French don't know her at
all. While for Americans, she was one of the best ambassadors of France
.... since Lafayette!"

French food experts are divided about Ms. Child and her cooking. Some
say she caricatured French cuisine in her book and cooking show, making
it seem too heavy and formal. Others believe she demystified it and see
her as a role model in France, where cooking shows are rare and cuisine
is not necessarily viewed as something anyone can interpret.

"Julia Child's cuisine is academic and bourgeois," said Julie Andrieu, a
television personality and cookbook author. "It shows that in America,
the cliché of beef, baguette and canard farci remains."
For Jean-Claude Ribaut, the food critic at Le Monde, Ms. Child was more
like "a mediator who promoted the French lifestyle in the United States,
but had no influence on restaurateurs."

But some chefs say they hope that the film will rehabilitate French
cooking in the United States. Gilles Epié, a chef who met Ms. Child in
Los Angeles at a birthday party for her in the early 1990s, thinks
French cooking has been tarnished as stodgy.

"Americans have really slammed French cuisine," Mr. Epié said. "They
think we only eat boeuf bourguignon and rabbit stew, which is wrong."

Before taking over the Citrus Étoile, in the Eighth Arrondissement, Mr.
Epié ran the Los Angeles restaurant L'Orangerie for more than three
years. He remembered with distaste the strictness of American health
rules about food.

"My fish shop in Santa Monica smelled like a pharmacy" instead of like
fresh fish, he said. "And when I asked for a three-month-old baby lamb,
like you can find here, they thought I was crazy and nearly called the
police."

But some French chefs say they believe that Ms. Child, through the film,
could have an impact on contemporary French cooking, or at least make
boeuf bourguignon, a traditional dish currently absent from most French
menus, fashionable again.

"She explains her recipes like a housewife, but she knows how to do it
and she does it genuinely," said Guy Savoy, owner of the restaurant that
bears his name in Paris. He met Ms. Child in 1981 in Massachusetts and
remembered her as "a real character, gentle and affable."

Ms. Andrieu, the cookbook author, said that despite Ms. Child's clichéd
recipes, her style could be defined as a "combination of scientific and
empirical virtues" that helped explain why Americans wrote better
cookbooks than the French.

"The French think that they are natural-born cooks; they prepare a dish
off the top of their heads, without testing it," she said. "In France,
we rush over explanations."

After watching "Julie & Julia," Ms. Andrieu said, she felt compelled to
go home and make boeuf bourguignon according to Ms. Child's recipe. "I
cut the flour in half, and it turned out to be the best I had ever
made," she said.

Mr. Epié even thinks that Ms. Child's story should encourage the French
to discuss their cuisine in a more democratic way.

He is one of the few respected chefs in Paris to offer American food on
his menu, including his signature dish: a crab cake à la française,
prepared with shellfish oil instead of mayonnaise.

"I want to do Julia Child, but Julia Child with real fish, real lobster,
with eels to shuck and rabbit to bone," he said. "That's my dream."

On Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:51:10 +0200, Victor Sack wrote:

> A 'French Chef' Whose Appeal Doesn't Translate
>
> By MAÏA de la BAUME
>
> International Herald Tribune
>
> PARIS - Julia Child may have been America's best-known "French chef,"
> but here in Paris few know her fabled cookbooks, let alone her name.
>
> Posters for the movie "Julie & Julia" were plastered across the city
> before its release here on Wednesday. But the movie was being
> anticipated more for Meryl Streep's performance as Ms. Child than for
> any particular interest in Ms. Child, the principal author of "Mastering
> the Art of French Cooking," who died in 2004.
>
> Ms. Child's book - beloved by American cooks for almost 50 years and now
> a best-seller because of the film - has never been translated into
> French, said Anne Perrier, a manager at Galignani, an English-language
> bookshop here. "It's the vision of a revisited France, adapted to the
> American taste, at a time when tastes were lifeless," she said.
>

i would be interested to know if there is the same interest in fine cooking
at home in france as there is in (some) households in the u.s. i somehow
have the idea that the french may eat better when they eat out, but that
there is not that much interest in home cooking.

"in France, where cooking shows are rare and cuisine
is not necessarily viewed as something anyone can interpret."

i'm probably completely wrong, but does anyone have a handle on this?

your pal,
blake

"blake murphy"
> i would be interested to know if there is the same interest in fine
> cooking> at home in france as there is in (some) households in the u.s. i
> somehow
> have the idea that the french may eat better when they eat out, but that>
> there is not that much interest in home cooking.

In my experience cookery is done with considerable respect in most homes,
but home cookery is not at all like haute cuisine. Many city kitchens are
tiny and underequipped by our standards, like no oven? Cassoulet might be
made at your family's country house, but it would sound absurd to many to
make it in a Paris apartment.

Things are altering, and maybe even faster than here, but instant foods
don't have the same hold in France or Italy that they have in the US.

On Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:37:38 +0200, "Giusi" >
wrote:

>
>"blake murphy"
>> i would be interested to know if there is the same interest in fine
>> cooking> at home in france as there is in (some) households in the u.s. i
>> somehow
>> have the idea that the french may eat better when they eat out, but that>
>> there is not that much interest in home cooking.
>
>In my experience cookery is done with considerable respect in most homes,
>but home cookery is not at all like haute cuisine. Many city kitchens are
>tiny and underequipped by our standards, like no oven? Cassoulet might be
>made at your family's country house, but it would sound absurd to many to
>make it in a Paris apartment.
>
>Things are altering, and maybe even faster than here, but instant foods
>don't have the same hold in France or Italy that they have in the US.
>
I recall dining at a friend's apartment in Paris many years ago. The
kitchen was barely a large closet. Sink, half-fridge with a counter
top above it, small, 4 burner stove (although IIRC, it did have an
oven). Only one person could be in the kitchen at a time.

My friend made a fabulous meal of salt cod (think of that soaking!)
with new potatoes, haricots verts, and a heavenly garlic aioli. What a
wonderful meal. Everything was from scratch.

Boron

Giusi wrote:

>
> In my experience cookery is done with considerable respect in most homes,
> but home cookery is not at all like haute cuisine. Many city kitchens are
> tiny and underequipped by our standards, like no oven? Cassoulet might be
> made at your family's country house, but it would sound absurd to many to
> make it in a Paris apartment.
>
> Things are altering, and maybe even faster than here, but instant foods
> don't have the same hold in France or Italy that they have in the US.
>
>

Do you suppose it may be because most French or Italian women don't work
40+ hours per week and 50 weeks per year? It would not surprise me if
the lack of leisure (or family) time is one factor.

gloria p

Gloria P wrote:

> Giusi wrote:
>
>>
>> In my experience cookery is done with considerable respect in most
>> homes, but home cookery is not at all like haute cuisine. Many city
>> kitchens are tiny and underequipped by our standards, like no oven?
>> Cassoulet might be made at your family's country house, but it would
>> sound absurd to many to make it in a Paris apartment.
>>
>> Things are altering, and maybe even faster than here, but instant
>> foods don't have the same hold in France or Italy that they have in
>> the US.
>>
>>
>
> Do you suppose it may be because most French or Italian women don't
> work 40+ hours per week and 50 weeks per year? It would not surprise
> me if the lack of leisure (or family) time is one factor.


Interestingly, there is a large and well - established grocery chain in
France that sells exclusively frozen food (I forget the name) and IIRC
France is McDonald's most profitable market...

Many of the French peeps that I have met prefer to entertain guests at a
restaurant instead of at home...not a problem when you have a plethora of
great eateries to choose from.


--
Best
Greg

"Gregory Morrow" > ha scritto nel messaggio
> Gloria P wrote:
>
>> Giusi wrote:
>>> In my experience cookery is done with considerable respect in most>>>
>>> homes, but home cookery is not at all like haute cuisine. Many city>>>
>>> kitchens are tiny and underequipped by our standards, like no oven?
>>>
>>> Things are altering, and maybe even faster than here, but instant>>>
>>> foods don't have the same hold in France or Italy that they have in>>>
>>> the US.
>>>
>> Do you suppose it may be because most French or Italian women don't>>
>> work 40+ hours per week and 50 weeks per year? It would not surprise>>
>> me if the lack of leisure (or family) time is one factor.

They DO work 40 hours a week here and 36 in France, but they get a month's
vacation. Think what happens to unemployment if you implement those
standards. It's way too expensive here for women not to work.

> Interestingly, there is a large and well - established grocery chain in>
> France that sells exclusively frozen food (I forget the name) and IIRC>
> France is McDonald's most profitable market...

That's true, but a lot of it is not prepared food, but ingredients. That's
how you can see that it is changing. We have an all-frozen seafood shop in
my town.

"blake murphy" > wrote in message
...
> On Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:51:10 +0200, Victor Sack wrote:
>
>> A 'French Chef' Whose Appeal Doesn't Translate
>>
>> By MAÏA de la BAUME
>>
>> International Herald Tribune
>>
>> PARIS - Julia Child may have been America's best-known "French chef,"
>> but here in Paris few know her fabled cookbooks, let alone her name.
>>
>> Posters for the movie "Julie & Julia" were plastered across the city
>> before its release here on Wednesday. But the movie was being
>> anticipated more for Meryl Streep's performance as Ms. Child than for
>> any particular interest in Ms. Child, the principal author of "Mastering
>> the Art of French Cooking," who died in 2004.
>>
>> Ms. Child's book - beloved by American cooks for almost 50 years and now
>> a best-seller because of the film - has never been translated into
>> French, said Anne Perrier, a manager at Galignani, an English-language
>> bookshop here. "It's the vision of a revisited France, adapted to the
>> American taste, at a time when tastes were lifeless," she said.
>>
>
> i would be interested to know if there is the same interest in fine
> cooking
> at home in france as there is in (some) households in the u.s. i somehow
> have the idea that the french may eat better when they eat out, but that
> there is not that much interest in home cooking.
>
> "in France, where cooking shows are rare and cuisine
> is not necessarily viewed as something anyone can interpret."
>
> i'm probably completely wrong, but does anyone have a handle on this?
>

A know a teacher at the local Alliance Française who comes from Normandy but
who spent some years in the UK as a teacher. She maintains that the average
English housewife is a better cook than her French counterpart.
Graham

Victor Sack wrote:
> A 'French Chef' Whose Appeal Doesn't Translate
>
> By MAÏA de la BAUME
>
> International Herald Tribune
>
> PARIS - Julia Child may have been America's best-known "French chef,"
> but here in Paris few know her fabled cookbooks, let alone her name.
>

>
> Ms. Child's book - beloved by American cooks for almost 50 years and now
> a best-seller because of the film - has never been translated into
> French, said Anne Perrier, a manager at Galignani, an English-language
> bookshop here. "It's the vision of a revisited France, adapted to the
> American taste, at a time when tastes were lifeless," she said.

>
> French food experts are divided about Ms. Child and her cooking. Some
> say she caricatured French cuisine in her book and cooking show, making
> it seem too heavy and formal. Others believe she demystified it and see
> her as a role model in France, where cooking shows are rare and cuisine
> is not necessarily viewed as something anyone can interpret.


Julia Child's cooking needs to be viewed in context of the time when she
entered the scene. Women were going to work and convenience foods were
more and more popular. She took cooking back to fresh ingredients and
from-scratch preparation.

People who criticize her don 't seem to have much of a sense of the history.

gloria p

"Gloria P" > wrote in message
...
> Victor Sack wrote:
>> A 'French Chef' Whose Appeal Doesn't Translate
>>
>> By MAÏA de la BAUME
>>
>> International Herald Tribune
>> PARIS - Julia Child may have been America's best-known "French chef,"
>> but here in Paris few know her fabled cookbooks, let alone her name.
>
>> Ms. Child's book - beloved by American cooks for almost 50 years and now
>> a best-seller because of the film - has never been translated into
>> French, said Anne Perrier, a manager at Galignani, an English-language
>> bookshop here. "It's the vision of a revisited France, adapted to the
>> American taste, at a time when tastes were lifeless," she said.
>
>>
>> French food experts are divided about Ms. Child and her cooking. Some
>> say she caricatured French cuisine in her book and cooking show, making
>> it seem too heavy and formal. Others believe she demystified it and see
>> her as a role model in France, where cooking shows are rare and cuisine
>> is not necessarily viewed as something anyone can interpret.
>
>
> Julia Child's cooking needs to be viewed in context of the time when she
> entered the scene. Women were going to work and convenience foods were
> more and more popular. She took cooking back to fresh ingredients and
> from-scratch preparation.
>
> People who criticize her don 't seem to have much of a sense of the
> history.
>
> gloria p

Not one person I know would criticize her. The comment is that world famous,
in a world that truly did not know her, is a serious stretch.

Alan

Victor Sack wrote:
> A 'French Chef' Whose Appeal Doesn't Translate
>
> By MAÏA de la BAUME
>
> International Herald Tribune
>
> PARIS - Julia Child may have been America's best-known "French chef,"
> but here in Paris few know her fabled cookbooks, let alone her name.
>
> Posters for the movie "Julie & Julia" were plastered across the city
> before its release here on Wednesday. But the movie was being
> anticipated more for Meryl Streep's performance as Ms. Child than for
> any particular interest in Ms. Child, the principal author of "Mastering
> the Art of French Cooking," who died in 2004.
>
> Ms. Child's book - beloved by American cooks for almost 50 years and now
> a best-seller because of the film - has never been translated into
> French, said Anne Perrier, a manager at Galignani, an English-language
> bookshop here. "It's the vision of a revisited France, adapted to the
> American taste, at a time when tastes were lifeless," she said.
>
> In an interview in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro last week, Ms.
> Streep said: "What surprises me is that the French don't know her at
> all. While for Americans, she was one of the best ambassadors of France
> ... since Lafayette!"
>
> French food experts are divided about Ms. Child and her cooking. Some
> say she caricatured French cuisine in her book and cooking show, making
> it seem too heavy and formal. Others believe she demystified it and see
> her as a role model in France, where cooking shows are rare and cuisine
> is not necessarily viewed as something anyone can interpret.
>
> "Julia Child's cuisine is academic and bourgeois," said Julie Andrieu, a
> television personality and cookbook author. "It shows that in America,
> the cliché of beef, baguette and canard farci remains."
> For Jean-Claude Ribaut, the food critic at Le Monde, Ms. Child was more
> like "a mediator who promoted the French lifestyle in the United States,
> but had no influence on restaurateurs."
>
> But some chefs say they hope that the film will rehabilitate French
> cooking in the United States. Gilles Epié, a chef who met Ms. Child in
> Los Angeles at a birthday party for her in the early 1990s, thinks
> French cooking has been tarnished as stodgy.
>
> "Americans have really slammed French cuisine," Mr. Epié said. "They
> think we only eat boeuf bourguignon and rabbit stew, which is wrong."
>
> Before taking over the Citrus Étoile, in the Eighth Arrondissement, Mr.
> Epié ran the Los Angeles restaurant L'Orangerie for more than three
> years. He remembered with distaste the strictness of American health
> rules about food.
>
> "My fish shop in Santa Monica smelled like a pharmacy" instead of like
> fresh fish, he said. "And when I asked for a three-month-old baby lamb,
> like you can find here, they thought I was crazy and nearly called the
> police."
>
> But some French chefs say they believe that Ms. Child, through the film,
> could have an impact on contemporary French cooking, or at least make
> boeuf bourguignon, a traditional dish currently absent from most French
> menus, fashionable again.
>
> "She explains her recipes like a housewife, but she knows how to do it
> and she does it genuinely," said Guy Savoy, owner of the restaurant that
> bears his name in Paris. He met Ms. Child in 1981 in Massachusetts and
> remembered her as "a real character, gentle and affable."
>
> Ms. Andrieu, the cookbook author, said that despite Ms. Child's clichéd
> recipes, her style could be defined as a "combination of scientific and
> empirical virtues" that helped explain why Americans wrote better
> cookbooks than the French.
>
> "The French think that they are natural-born cooks; they prepare a dish
> off the top of their heads, without testing it," she said. "In France,
> we rush over explanations."
>
> After watching "Julie & Julia," Ms. Andrieu said, she felt compelled to
> go home and make boeuf bourguignon according to Ms. Child's recipe. "I
> cut the flour in half, and it turned out to be the best I had ever
> made," she said.
>
> Mr. Epié even thinks that Ms. Child's story should encourage the French
> to discuss their cuisine in a more democratic way.
>
> He is one of the few respected chefs in Paris to offer American food on
> his menu, including his signature dish: a crab cake à la française,
> prepared with shellfish oil instead of mayonnaise.
>
> "I want to do Julia Child, but Julia Child with real fish, real lobster,
> with eels to shuck and rabbit to bone," he said. "That's my dream."

Very interesting perspective. Thanks, Victor.

--
Jean B.

"Victor Sack" > wrote in message
...
> A 'French Chef' Whose Appeal Doesn't Translate
>
> By MAÏA de la BAUME
>
> International Herald Tribune
>
> PARIS - Julia Child may have been America's best-known "French chef,"
> but here in Paris few know her fabled cookbooks, let alone her name.
>

A funny thing Victor. I thought long about that article after reading it.
How many times do we lionize our American cultural icons as "world famous or
world renown? This woman was a force to be reckoned with in American
cooking. I just think how better would our meals have been when I was
growing up if my mother had taken the time to follow her ideas? She truly
did more to revolutionize cooking in this country.

But worldwide. Not likely. Before this article came out, the SBF was reading
me an article in the Swedish rag which essentially said: Julie who!

Her reputation to me was famously earned, and displayed on television the
way no other country had done at the time. But it did remind me that just in
England alone, the name Delia Smith is the queen of the kitchen, unlike
anyone else.

Saint Julia, Child of God didn't teach me to cook French food. She
taught me not to be afraid to cook ANY food. I was 20.
Lynn in Fargo
z''l

"Victor Sack" > wrote in message
...
> A 'French Chef' Whose Appeal Doesn't Translate
>
> By MAÏA de la BAUME
>
> International Herald Tribune
>
> PARIS - Julia Child may have been America's best-known "French chef,"
> but here in Paris few know her fabled cookbooks, let alone her name.
>
> Posters for the movie "Julie & Julia" were plastered across the city
> before its release here on Wednesday. But the movie was being
> anticipated more for Meryl Streep's performance as Ms. Child than for
> any particular interest in Ms. Child, the principal author of "Mastering
> the Art of French Cooking," who died in 2004.
>
> Ms. Child's book - beloved by American cooks for almost 50 years and now
> a best-seller because of the film - has never been translated into
> French, said Anne Perrier, a manager at Galignani, an English-language
> bookshop here. "It's the vision of a revisited France, adapted to the
> American taste, at a time when tastes were lifeless," she said.
>
> In an interview in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro last week, Ms.
> Streep said: "What surprises me is that the French don't know her at
> all. While for Americans, she was one of the best ambassadors of France
> ... since Lafayette!"
>
> French food experts are divided about Ms. Child and her cooking. Some
> say she caricatured French cuisine in her book and cooking show, making
> it seem too heavy and formal. Others believe she demystified it and see
> her as a role model in France, where cooking shows are rare and cuisine
> is not necessarily viewed as something anyone can interpret.
>
> "Julia Child's cuisine is academic and bourgeois," said Julie Andrieu, a
> television personality and cookbook author. "It shows that in America,
> the cliché of beef, baguette and canard farci remains."
> For Jean-Claude Ribaut, the food critic at Le Monde, Ms. Child was more
> like "a mediator who promoted the French lifestyle in the United States,
> but had no influence on restaurateurs."
>
> But some chefs say they hope that the film will rehabilitate French
> cooking in the United States. Gilles Epié, a chef who met Ms. Child in
> Los Angeles at a birthday party for her in the early 1990s, thinks
> French cooking has been tarnished as stodgy.
>
> "Americans have really slammed French cuisine," Mr. Epié said. "They
> think we only eat boeuf bourguignon and rabbit stew, which is wrong."
>
> Before taking over the Citrus Étoile, in the Eighth Arrondissement, Mr.
> Epié ran the Los Angeles restaurant L'Orangerie for more than three
> years. He remembered with distaste the strictness of American health
> rules about food.
>
> "My fish shop in Santa Monica smelled like a pharmacy" instead of like
> fresh fish, he said. "And when I asked for a three-month-old baby lamb,
> like you can find here, they thought I was crazy and nearly called the
> police."
>
> But some French chefs say they believe that Ms. Child, through the film,
> could have an impact on contemporary French cooking, or at least make
> boeuf bourguignon, a traditional dish currently absent from most French
> menus, fashionable again.
>
> "She explains her recipes like a housewife, but she knows how to do it
> and she does it genuinely," said Guy Savoy, owner of the restaurant that
> bears his name in Paris. He met Ms. Child in 1981 in Massachusetts and
> remembered her as "a real character, gentle and affable."
>
> Ms. Andrieu, the cookbook author, said that despite Ms. Child's clichéd
> recipes, her style could be defined as a "combination of scientific and
> empirical virtues" that helped explain why Americans wrote better
> cookbooks than the French.
>
> "The French think that they are natural-born cooks; they prepare a dish
> off the top of their heads, without testing it," she said. "In France,
> we rush over explanations."
>
> After watching "Julie & Julia," Ms. Andrieu said, she felt compelled to
> go home and make boeuf bourguignon according to Ms. Child's recipe. "I
> cut the flour in half, and it turned out to be the best I had ever
> made," she said.
>
> Mr. Epié even thinks that Ms. Child's story should encourage the French
> to discuss their cuisine in a more democratic way.
>
> He is one of the few respected chefs in Paris to offer American food on
> his menu, including his signature dish: a crab cake à la française,
> prepared with shellfish oil instead of mayonnaise.
>
> "I want to do Julia Child, but Julia Child with real fish, real lobster,
> with eels to shuck and rabbit to bone," he said. "That's my dream."
>
>
Julia never wrote for the French. She wrote to bring the basics of French
cuisine to us gringos who to that point had focused primarily on "surf and
turf". "The French Chef" has recently been released on DVD and is available
on Netflix. Check it out. It'll blow your mind!

Kent