Post by Admin on Sept 12, 2013 7:08:38 GMT -5
I am very interested in French cooking and have fallen in love with Julia Child, a famous American who lived in Paris and learned to cook French food so well, she taught others. I did some research on Julia's life and career.
Julia's Kitchen at the Smithsonian
If you visit this website, you will be able to view Julia's kitchen as it is displayed in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC. It is a dream of mine to visit this exhibit. As soon as you click on "Enter", you hear Julia's voice explaining how she felt about being asked to donate her kitchen to the museum. On the website, click on "Explore the Kitchen" to see a 360 degree view of Julia's kitchen. You can view certain areas in her kitchen closer and read a little more about how she used her kitchen space. By clicking on "View Selected Objects", you can also view specific items in her kitchen and get a story about where she got the item and why it was important to her. Lastly, when you click on "Sample Stories", it shows a timeline of her life you can scroll through as well as 18 stories about various aspects of Julia's life and career. Some of the stories feature videos of Julia discussing the topic.
Julia Making Croissants on Her Cooking Show
One of the things I love most about Julia is her cooking show, The French Chef. To my knowledge, she is one of the first television cooking show hosts, and she paved the way for people like Rachel Ray, Ina Garten and Paula Deen. There are so many episodes of The French Chef available on YouTube, it's easy to find them by putting "Julia Child French Chef" in the search box. I've made several of her recipes and they are all so good and usually pretty easy to make. The episode I've watched the most is her show on traditional French croissants. While making croissants is very time-consuming, the technique itself is pretty easy and Julia makes it look like anyone can do it.
Biography of Julia
This is the Biography channel's biography of Julia. It discusses her early life in California, her work during World War II with the US government, her marraige to Paul Child, her studies of French cooking in Paris, the production of her cookbooks and television shows, as well as her death and legacy.
A Cooking School in Julia's Old Home
Later in Julia's life in France, she and her husband moved south of Paris in the town of
Plascassier. It is in a region known as Provence, surrounded by beautiful countryside. The home they made there became known as La Pitchoune, a provencial phrase meaning "the little one". At La Pitchoune today, a woman named Kathie Alex hosts 5 night, 4 day cooking classes where students stay in Julia's home, learn to cook from Alex, and are given free time to explore nearby cities like Nice and Cannes. Click on the "PDF Brochure" link to see a day by day journal written by one of Alex's guests, giving an idea of what a typical stay at the Cooking with Friends program is like. It's a pricey program, costing $2650 US Dollars, not including airfare, car rental, or dinners. I think, though, the unique experience would make it worth the cost.
Le Cordon Bleu - The Cooking School Julia Attended
This is the website for the famous cooking school in Paris that Julia attended. First, you'll want to click on Language in the upper right hand corner and choose English. Some of the things you can check out on this website are a campus tour video by clicking on ""Paris Campus" and "Campus Presentation". It features the instructors and students in their day-to-day studies. There is a description of the three major diplomas they offer to students: pastry, cuisine, and a "Grand Diplome" which combines the two focuses. You can try out some authentic Cordon Bleu recipes by clicking on "Campus News" and "Recipes". I'd like to try making the chocolate and pear tart they feature. Something that they've just added to their website is "La Boutique", an online store featuring cooking items, cookbooks, and gift ideas from the school.
Julia's Kitchen at the Smithsonian
If you visit this website, you will be able to view Julia's kitchen as it is displayed in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC. It is a dream of mine to visit this exhibit. As soon as you click on "Enter", you hear Julia's voice explaining how she felt about being asked to donate her kitchen to the museum. On the website, click on "Explore the Kitchen" to see a 360 degree view of Julia's kitchen. You can view certain areas in her kitchen closer and read a little more about how she used her kitchen space. By clicking on "View Selected Objects", you can also view specific items in her kitchen and get a story about where she got the item and why it was important to her. Lastly, when you click on "Sample Stories", it shows a timeline of her life you can scroll through as well as 18 stories about various aspects of Julia's life and career. Some of the stories feature videos of Julia discussing the topic.
Julia Making Croissants on Her Cooking Show
One of the things I love most about Julia is her cooking show, The French Chef. To my knowledge, she is one of the first television cooking show hosts, and she paved the way for people like Rachel Ray, Ina Garten and Paula Deen. There are so many episodes of The French Chef available on YouTube, it's easy to find them by putting "Julia Child French Chef" in the search box. I've made several of her recipes and they are all so good and usually pretty easy to make. The episode I've watched the most is her show on traditional French croissants. While making croissants is very time-consuming, the technique itself is pretty easy and Julia makes it look like anyone can do it.
Biography of Julia
This is the Biography channel's biography of Julia. It discusses her early life in California, her work during World War II with the US government, her marraige to Paul Child, her studies of French cooking in Paris, the production of her cookbooks and television shows, as well as her death and legacy.
A Cooking School in Julia's Old Home
Later in Julia's life in France, she and her husband moved south of Paris in the town of
Plascassier. It is in a region known as Provence, surrounded by beautiful countryside. The home they made there became known as La Pitchoune, a provencial phrase meaning "the little one". At La Pitchoune today, a woman named Kathie Alex hosts 5 night, 4 day cooking classes where students stay in Julia's home, learn to cook from Alex, and are given free time to explore nearby cities like Nice and Cannes. Click on the "PDF Brochure" link to see a day by day journal written by one of Alex's guests, giving an idea of what a typical stay at the Cooking with Friends program is like. It's a pricey program, costing $2650 US Dollars, not including airfare, car rental, or dinners. I think, though, the unique experience would make it worth the cost.
Le Cordon Bleu - The Cooking School Julia Attended
This is the website for the famous cooking school in Paris that Julia attended. First, you'll want to click on Language in the upper right hand corner and choose English. Some of the things you can check out on this website are a campus tour video by clicking on ""Paris Campus" and "Campus Presentation". It features the instructors and students in their day-to-day studies. There is a description of the three major diplomas they offer to students: pastry, cuisine, and a "Grand Diplome" which combines the two focuses. You can try out some authentic Cordon Bleu recipes by clicking on "Campus News" and "Recipes". I'd like to try making the chocolate and pear tart they feature. Something that they've just added to their website is "La Boutique", an online store featuring cooking items, cookbooks, and gift ideas from the school.
I've always loved eating, so this was really interesting to me. I really liked the Smithsonian exhibit. It's expensive to travel and I've always wanted to go to Washington, DC., so it was cool to be able to do it for free. I didn't know what most of the kitchen gadgets were, but they looked really old and I'm really into antiques. Her voice on the video is so strange! It's obvious she's not from France, but she also doesn't really sound American. I know you said they are really easy to make, but they looked kind of hard to me. But delicious! I also liked the idea of the cooking school in Julia's old home. It seems like they make a lot of really good food and that the owner/teacher is really friendly to her students. Thanks for posting this!