A Love Affair

By Christopher C. Happ
© 2005

I just finished watching an American Masters series on PBS, about the life and times of the late Julia Child.  It was a touching story of an American icon.  It paid great attention to the love affair between Julia and her husband Paul.  Their collaboration is to be envied. 

This series sparked many memories for me; memories of a better time.  The late 1950’s into and through the mid-sixties.  This was a formative period for me. The story of Julia and Paul’s love affair; made me realize the love affair that I have had with that time period; that simpler time being my first love.  My second love affair was with food. 

As a child of five or six, I was mesmerized by the kitchen.  My mother would buy all of the housekeeping magazines of the time.  She was an accomplished young housewife and cook at that time.  The magazines had full color photographs of food and a dashed line outlining the recipe.  I diligently cut these out and saved them in a box.  My grandfather thought this odd, he said, “Oh you’re saving receipts, huh?” Receipts being the archaic term for recipes, that he had heard growing up in the late 1800’s. 

My mother would bake pies and cakes and bread and prepared many a fine dinner with recipes from the pages of cookbooks by Craig Claiborne, James Beard, Fanny Farmer, and of course Julia.  We would have Beef Stroganoff and Chicken and Dumplings regularly. 

Unfortunately these dishes  have  been relegated to the archives.  I have one memory of my great grandmother on my mother’s side, who I met only once.  She was at the kitchen counter making dough for Pierogi— small Polish or Russian pies filled with sauerkraut potato and meat fillings. 

I remember watching the series, The French Chef starring Julia Child on a black and white television, which seemed so state-of-the-art at that time and I guess it was.

When I was eleven or so, Graham Kerr was on television (now in color) as The Galloping Gourmet.   I watched every episode that I came across.

I worked in a hotel restaurant as a bus boy and dishwasher at about that time in 1967 or 1968.   I realized that the chef received great respect from all around him.  He was quite important and perhaps this solidified my thoughts of a food career.

My uncle was a chef and I recall fondly New York State summers when he would dish up Steamed Clams, fresh corn on the cob and Lobster Newburg, as well as skillet-sized pancakes for breakfast.

As I got older and found my career in professional kitchens; I recall many a night spent in my apartment poring over cookbooks by Julia and James Beard, practicing my sorcery in the wee hours of the night, so as to be an expert the next day with my colleagues. One night perfecting hollandaise sauce, the next perhaps crepes or steak Tartare. 

It strikes me as odd that during the fifties and sixties, frozen pot pies in their aluminum tins and TV dinners in their compartmented foil trays with foil on top were just making their debut.  This, at a time when food products, vegetables and every possible cut of meat were so plentiful and of such high quality in America.  The delicious fatty pork of that era is now a distant memory.

As time went on and my studies continued, I discovered Paul Bocuse, Careme, Escoffier, Pierre Franey, Martha Stewart, Paula Wolfert, Jacques Pepin, Jeremiah Towers and Alice Waters; these much like rock stars of the food movement of the late 1970’s and into the mid 1980’s, they were to food what Elvis and The Beatles were to music in the fifties and sixties. 

I would urge you to seek out these ancient works in a library or soon possibly a museum.  Rediscover Beouf Bourgonnione, Sole Meuniere and Beef Wellington and Lobster Newburg and create them in your kitchen before they are but a memory. 

I remember James Beard talking about a simple elegant meal of a roast chicken with a freshly tossed salad.  This titan of the kitchen wrote books such as Beard on Bread (Alfred A. Knopf). I still use his Cuban bread recipe to this day.  

I once read an excerpt or a column where James discussed a complete treatise on the sandwich and TV tray meals.  He spoke of knife and fork sandwiches and his now famous onion sandwich.    

Our cuisine has gone through great changes since those simple times but it has never been better or more glorious.
 

Here is a list of cookbooks that I could not do without. They may be hard to find but are worth the effort.

La Technique, Jacques Pepin
Pierre Franey’s Kitchen, Times books, 1982
The Cooking of South-West France, Paula Wolfert 1983
Entertaining, Martha Stewart, 1982
Larousse Gastronomique, Prosper Montagne ( editor)
Paul Bocuse’s French Cooking, 1977 Random House
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child
Chez Pannisse Café cookbook, Alice Waters. 

Search for these and other cook books
discounted from Amazon.com

Search Now:

Cooking Books from Amazon.com Julia Child Cook Books

Pierre Franey cook books

Martha Stewart's "Entertaining" Click for more selections

Jacques Pepin Cook Books