I will cook...

I read an interesting article last night. You can find the whole thing here, as I'll only be quoting snippets. I was searching for, okay I was looking to see on what page my blog would show up if one searched for Julia Child. I'm weird like that. On page 2 of my google search, I was struck by this link, "Why you'll never cook from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of..." I was intrigued to say the least. Intrigued because as we all know I've cooked and blogged about 3 recipes from Mastering the Art of French cooking.

I was shocked to find this article written by a chef...with 26 years experience. Ms. Schrambling writes "The inconvenient truth is that although the country's best-loved "French chef" produced an unparalleled recipe collection in Mastering the Art, it has always been daunting." Daunting?  The word daunting means: "to overcome with fear, to intimidate" or "to lessen the courage of one; dishearten". I felt none of those. I was not daunted by the cookbook. If anything I was invigorated. In the 10 days I've owned the book, there has not been a day in which I have not touched it. Every day I've touched it, I've opened it, I've poured over it. All in helpless anticipation of the next meal I will make from it's pages. Daunting? I think not.

She goes on to say, "Thanks to my consort, I have owned the two-volume set of Mastering the Art since 1984, the year after I graduated from restaurant school, but even I have never cooked from it." Because she has own a two-volume set and has not cooked from it, means no one in America will cook from this book? That seems to be an awfully small worldview. I don't like peas, and so I guess no one in America likes peas either. I'll have to tell Dear man that, I'm sure he'll find it shocking.

"Julia's recipes were written for a rigorous cook with endless patience for serious detail." That is so untrue it's almost laughable. I do not have an endless supply of patience and details...who needs them? But cook from this book? I can do that.  Since I can tend to be rather mindless in the kitchen, I love the details. I love how the recipes are written out in a simple step-by-step format. I don't fear leaving anything out because it is simple.

Ms. Schrambling has this to say about Beouf Bourguignon, "[it] has had restaurant chefs and amateurs alike breaking out their "9- or 10-inch fireproof casseroles" in the hottest month of the year. The ingredients and instructions for its recipe span three pages, and that is before you hit the fine print: The beef stock, braised pearl onions, and sautéed mushrooms all require separate procedures. Step 1 involves making lardons and simmering them for 10 minutes in a precise amount of water; seven steps later, the fat is finally skimmed off the sauce, which is either boiled down to thicken or adjusted with liquid if it's too thick. And this is considered an entry-level recipe. Everything in the tome looks complicated, which of course guarantees the results will work but also makes cooking feel like brain surgery." (emphasis mine)

Por favor? I don't get it. "Everything looks complicated"? What book is she looking at? Now, granted I've not read every single recipe but the ones I have read do not look complicated at all. And I consider myself the greatest dimwit in the kitchen! I have been known to almost burn the house down cooking bacon. I've literally burned water in the microwave. If anyone should be thinking Mastering the Art of French Cooking looks complicated, it should be me, not some trained chef.

Ms. Schrambling has indeed, in my mind, thrown down the gauntlet of challenge. I gladly pick it up. I will blog my way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking if for no other reason than to prove Ms. Schrambling wrong.

There is something you should know, I am a no one. I have no ties to Julia Child, Hollywood, the movie industry, any form of media. Other than my husband being a radio announcer/program director for a podunk radio station stuck in the middle of nowhere America. I am just a middle-aged stay-at-home Momma who home schools her children. There is nothing in this for me, except the knowledge I will gain through this book.

My promise to you, my readers, is to blog my thoughts on the recipes I've used. I promise to tell you the good ones as well as the bad ones. I do not promise to make every single recipe in the book, for obvious reasons, but I promise to broaden my palate and try new things. I just might like them.