Julia Child’s Birthday

by Kitchen Shaman | Aug 15, 2014 | Celebrity Chefs

My love of food and cooking started at an early age. I can trace the roots back to when I was in the playpen in the family room and my mom was working on her art or in the kitchen (but not cooking). PBS was on and there was “The French Chef,” Julia Child, with her French cooking techniques and that voice, telling me over and over how to boil, blanch, and sauté. I absorbed how to boil a chicken and truss it up, or debone it. How to make Coq au Vin, and other succulent and decadent French dishes like Crepe Suzette. It would take half a lifetime to climb my way into a Classic French Restaurant as a line cook, but the love was there at age three and four. read more

The Collective Culinary Journey

by Kitchen Shaman | May 25, 2012 | Books

I love reading about food — history, memoirs, and yes, recipe books. I read some blogs; admittedly, I need to read more of them. What I’ve discovered is that I enjoy the collective story of the culinary journey.

I recently came across the blog Poor Man’s Feast, written by Elissa Altman, and the 2012 winner of the James Beard individual food blog award. Her writing is everything a food writer should be, and the blog is an amazing homage to memory, food, and her mother.

Right now, I’m currently digesting The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food, by Judith Jones. As an Editor at Knopf Publishing Co. she is responsible for bringing us “Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, and Madhur Jaffrey, the Indian actress turned cook. The stories in the Tenth Muse are rich in American culinary history and rife with food memories. Sometimes I wish I’d had a young adulthood like that, taking notes on what and where I feasted. Jones brings into startling focus the recipes she tested for the cookbooks she edited as well as the joys of eating a simple meal. read more

December Reading list

by Kitchen Shaman | Dec 3, 2010 | Books, Cookbooks, Perspective

Here’s a list of what I’m reading right now.

Eating India, Chitrita Banerji.
Will Write for Food, Dianne Jacob..
Julie & Julia, Julie Powell.
The Professional Chef’s Knife Kit, Culinary Institute of America.
Live to Cook, Michael Symon.

This is my second go around with Live to Cook, Iron Chef Michael Symon’s book of recipes. Eating India is an intimate journey of one woman’s love affair of her Homeland food. Will Write for Food is about how to become a food writer, if you are interested in writing abut food. And, The Professional Chef’s Knife kit, well, because you know that I want to know more about the tools I work with on a daily basis.

This seems a large list for a busy chef, but that’s the beauty of libraries, I can renew the books (most of the time) and continue reading through them. I’m finding Eating India a little slow, but I am determined to finish it. Iron Chef Symon, of Food Network fame has an approachable and easy writing style. Will Write for Food is simple and straight forward, Dianne Jacob’s no nonsense approach makes it seem like any one of us can be food writers. I haven’t gotten to the other two yet, but I did see the movie Julie & Julia and loved Meryl Streep’s interpretation of Julia Child. Amy Adams as Julie Powell was adorable and believable as an amateur cook attempting to muscle through the weighty and brilliant tome Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. read more

Tag: Julia Child