|
Sunday, September 27, 2009 - 7:48 AM
There is a lot of discussion now about the movie Julie and Julia. Most foodies that I have spoken with enjoyed the movie and found it light hearted and funny. Many critics seemed critical of Julie Powell herself, and how she was a far cry from being Julia Child. The Julie portrayed in the movie seems to be sweetened up a bit, from the foul mouthed Julie Powell portrayed in the book. Nonetheless, it has given people another chance to take a step back and look at the big picture of food, and its role in our society today. Julia Child seems to have been reborn and for the first time ever Mastering the Art of French Cooking is on the best sellers list. I went back and watched a few of her shows. They were great on information. She went more into the techniques of cooking then just the ingredients, something that is left out on a lot of today’s shows. She kept it simple and focused. One whole show was on the traditional techniques for making omelet’s and how once you got the technique down you could quickly serve up to 300 people. She was definitely not shy, and I must say a bit intimidating, when you saw her with a meat cleaver. She cut off the heads of fish as if she were chopping down a large tree. While she had a large impact on American chefs, it is interesting to note that she is not well known in France. It is a bit of a shame, since she is probably the most famous ambassador of French cuisine to America. I have been asking myself the question was Julia Child good for America? She certainly did inspire a lot of folks to get out there and cook and to search for better ingredients. This was definitely a great thing. We are now in the renaissance of food. Just go to your grocery and look around at all the ingredients you can get now. Many you could not have gotten thirty years ago. Did she inspire people to cook the right foods? French cooking uses a lot of butter and cream so is Julia Child responsible for the overweight America we have today? What if Martin Yan had come first? Would we all be eating healthy Asian foods? Many more Americans are looking to Asia instead of France today for cooking methods. Asian-American fusion foods are on the rise. Will Martin Yan be the next chef to be reborn? In the eighties he offered up his show, “If Yan Can Cook, So Can You.” I find currently, that many Americans like to go out for Asian food, but not as many are cooking it at home. Perhaps I should begin cooking each recipe out of Martin Yan’s cook book. Maybe then I can get my movie deal. Of course since this blogging movie thing has already been done, we will have to kick it up a notch with some kung fu sequences between recipes and Tarantino can direct. I hear him and Robert Rodriguez love food too. So Quentin and Robert if you are listening, send me an email. Let’s do this!
|
|
| << Navigate to Sunday, September 27, 2009 |
Add New Comment |