I recently reacquainted myself with one of my favorite cookbooks, "Mastering
the Art of French Cooking", by Julia Child, Simone Beck and Louisette
Bertholle. I added this book to my personal collection back in the late ‘80s
when I was working at the Morrill Memorial Library as a page. This particular edition of this classic was
being withdrawn from the collection.
Even at my young age, I knew this was a deal I shouldn’t pass up, even
if I wasn’t cooking for myself yet, as I was still in high school. At home, we
ate the usual American fare, mostly meat and potatoes. Occasionally, I’d have a taste of traditional
dishes from Lithuania, as both sides of my family emigrated from the
Baltics. Why I decided to bring this
selection home at that time was a bit of a mystery.
Despite having a rather unique cultural heritage, I never had an
adventurous palate. Even when trying the Lithuanian dishes, my favorites were
blynai or kugelis – both potato based recipes.
The only time I ever tried something really different was when I
traveled to France for my junior year abroad in college. I had the benefit of living with a woman
whose father was a butcher and a bit of a home chef. We would go to her parents’ house for dinner
on Sundays where her mother and father would present me with a ‘mystery’
meal. They never told me what they were
serving until we finished dinner. I had
the opportunity to taste such French delicacies as Escargots à la Bourguignonne
(snails with garlic and butter), Cuisse de Grenouille (frog legs), Lapin à la Moutarde
(rabbit with Dijon mustard), Terrine de Foie Gras (goose liver) and much more.
After returning from France, my culinary habits didn’t stray too
far from my American staples despite my experiences in France. I would try different recipes for the basic
proteins of beef, chicken, and pork but I always stuck to American based cookbooks
like the "Joy of Cooking" or "The Fannie Farmer Cookbook"
or even "The New York Times Cookbook." I started to venture out a little bit once
The Food Network caught my attention but even then, I stuck to the basic
American chefs like Alton Brown, Bobby Flay and Rachel Ray. Occasionally, I would refer to their
cookbooks such as, Alton’s "Good Eats: The Early Years," "Bobby
Flay’s Bar Americain Cookbook" or Rachel’s "30-Minute Meals." Once in a while, I’d branch out to try
one of the Italian recipes in Giada De Laurentiis’ "Everyday Italian: 125
Simple and Delicious Recipes." Things were perking up in the kitchen.
Then I got hooked on Bravo’s reality show, Top Chef. Although I’m not a ‘foodie’ by any stretch of
the imagination, I was mesmerized by this program and the amazing creativity
and delicious looking meals the talented chefs were making in such a short period
of time. I started to scope out some of
the cookbooks published in association with the show: "Top Chef: The Cookbook", "Top
Chef: The Quickfire Cookbook," and "How to Cook Like a Top Chef."
Since I became so interested in the journey and recipes of these
chefs, a colleague of mine recommended that I read "The United States of
Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation", by David Kamp. I’m learning all
about the chefs and journalists who were instrumental in introducing the
general American public to gourmet cuisine, including James Beard, Julia Child
and Craig Claiborne. It was during this
engrossing read that I remembered that I had the two volume set of "Mastering
the Art of French Cooking"; a classic cookbook that I barely opened since
I brought it home so many years ago. The
books had been sitting on my bookshelf in the kitchen the whole time. I just hadn’t ventured to open the pages…yet --
I decided now was the time.
I began with some of the basics and classics like: Soupe à
l’Oignon Gratinée, Vichyssoise, Coq au Vin, and Boeuf Bourguignon. The dishes were delicious and it was fun to
make something different. I was recounting
my new venture of cooking with a friend and she told me that I had to watch the
move, Julie & Julia, which is a
tale about a young woman cooking all of the recipes in Julia Child's classic
cookbook during one year. I wasn't going
to go to that extreme but the exercise did awaken in me a new love for cooking
with ingredients that weren't so common in my pantry.
My family never knows what might be on the table each
evening. Sometimes it's an American
staple like homemade macaroni and cheese from Rachel Ray's cookbook or it could
be quiche or even ratatouille. The books
and cooking shows brought a sense of fun back into the kitchen for me and
family back to the table.
