Julia Child and the Art of French Cooking

Today I want to write about a woman who is a true role model for me. If you know her story, you'll immediately understand what my tastes and style in the kitchen are.

I would like to introduce Julia Child in one sentence: “You can cook if you set your mind to it” that was their maxim (which also inspired the animated film Ratatouille). Julia Child was an influential chef and cookbook author, and was responsible for introducing French cuisine to the American public through her cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" (“The art of French cuisine”, without a doubt one of the most popular books in our store), as well as through her famous television program "The French Chef".

Additionally, Julia Child also influenced the name of our project. We were inspired to name Claudia&Julia after the movie Julie&Julia, which portrays the parallel lives of Julia Child and the food blogger Julie (who recreated all her recipes in 365 days). My name is Claudia, and Julia was the name my husband Jordi and I wanted to give our future daughter. We had talked about it thousands of times. But fate had other plans for us, and now we are parents to three lovely boys but no girl (though we don’t rule out having a little Julia someday). As you can see, this is a special post for me!

Let's start at the beginning of their story:

Julia was the eldest of three children, and after graduating from an arts high school in California she moved to New York, where she worked in advertising. During World War II she enlisted in the Office of Strategic Services in Washington.

So far—and given the era Julia Child lived in—her career is impressive. Well, we’ve only just begun her story.

She married Paul Cushing Child, a member of the American diplomatic service. He was the one who introduced her to French cuisine. She grew up savoring the region’s typical beef, and when she arrived in Paris she fell in love with the refined style of the local gastronomy. Their shared passion for French cuisine and this determined woman’s refusal to be relegated to staying at home as a housewife meant that, after a few diplomatic ups and downs, she was able to pursue her training at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu culinary academy.

She joined Le Cercle des Gourmets, a women’s club, and there she met Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholie, with whom she decided to write a French cookbook for Americans. Additionally, it’s worth noting that at that time there was no book of French recipes translated into English, which made Julia Child a pioneer and the link between two cultures as distant geographically as they were gastronomically. In 1951, the three friends founded the French cooking school for United States residents in Paris: "L’Ecole des Trois Gourmandes." Later, the Childs had to return to the United States and move to Cambridge, Massachusetts.

She wrote for The Boston Globe and made her television debut with her show "The French Chef," which became a ratings hit.

Julia brought the complexity of French cuisine closer to Americans; she created a style, a philosophy, and even a spirit. It wasn’t just French cuisine and its traditional method; it was her passion, the details, her way of moving, of speaking, and above all: of enjoying food.

Julia and her book, The Art of French Cooking

Martín Berasategui and David de Jorge note in the prologue to “The Art of French Cooking” that it is “a compendium of the perfect hedonist” and a “heartfelt declaration of love for food,” bringing together “the key elements of the great cuisine of the West.”

If you want Julia Child's book "The art of French cuisine" you can get it in our new section of cookbooks from Claudia&Julia.

In the book, it goes in depth on recommendations for the most suitable utensils for each cooking method (by the way, Julia was a big fan of Le Creuset cookware). Rrecommends "not skipping the basic guidelines" and dedicating oneself with determination to cooking, because mastering it "is a matter of practice." "My goal is to teach people how to cook," he says, and he pursues it with more than 500 recipes in which "the most important ingredient is love for cooking itself."

A love that begins with the product—he was already warning in 1961 about how bland fast-fattened chicken is—and culminates in meticulous attention to delicate, elegant presentation, very much to French taste.

Hers is a classic repertoire: bouillabaisse, quiches, soufflés, crêpes, stews, mousses, pâtés, and tarts like tarte Tatin or charlotte, which opened the doors of television for her, where she debuted with "The French Chef" on NBC in 1962 and continued promoting French cuisine until 2000, four years before her death, at 92. She also published more than a dozen books. In the photograph we can see her signature Bourguignon stew served in a casserole Le Creuset in white.

Her "meticulous cooking," as she called it, helped educate the palate of her native country, about which she said that "in the 1950s people ate any old way." That role as an ambassador of French cuisine earned her the Legion of Honor from the country where she began as a cook.

Julia Child recipes

Julia popularized a large number of recipes. On our blog you'll find some of the most popular:

• Cheese soufflé (how to make an authentic soufflé)
• Quiche Lorraine (probably one of the most popular quiches in history)
• Creamed spinach (Julia's original recipe, with a note about the cream used)
• Tomato quiche, Niçoise (different from the quiches we're used to, without cream)
• Rooster in wine (chicken in wine)
• Beef bourgingnos (a classic slow-simmered stew)