French Cuisine | Page 7 of 8 | The Rambling Epicure

French Food Quote: Daily Food Quote, August 18, 2011

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, August 18, 2011 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients.–Julia Child (1912 – 2004)

Julia Child, (1912 – 2004), American cookbook writer, TV personality and tremendous contributor to the food world, introduced Americans to the techniques of French cooking with her classic book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volumes I and II.

Julia Child brought French food to post-war America. When her husband Paul was posted to Paris, she studied at L’Ecole du Cordon Bleu, and went on to form her own cooking school with fellow students Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. The threesome went on to write the 2-volume classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which covered all the basic techniques and dishes of classic French cuisine.

French Food Quote: Daily Food Quote, August 16, 2011

Published by Jonell Galloway + Tuesday, August 16, 2011 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

Noncooks think it’s silly to invest two hours’ work in two minutes’ enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet.–Julia Child

Julia Child, (1912 – 2004), American cookbook writer, TV personality and tremendous contributor to the food world, introduced Americans to the techniques of French cooking with her classic book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volumes I and II.

Julia Child brought French food to post-war America. When her husband Paul was posted to Paris, she studied at L’Ecole du Cordon Bleu, and went on to form her own cooking school with fellow students Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. The threesome went on to write the 2-volume classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which covered all the basic techniques and dishes of classic French cuisine.

Image via Wikipedi

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, August 16, 2011

Published by Jonell Galloway + Tuesday, August 16, 2011 Permalink 0

by Simón de Swaan

[Breadbaking is] one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world’s sweetest smells…there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.-–M.F.K. Fisher, The Art of Eating

Mary Francis Kenney Fisher (July 3, 1908 – June 22, 1992). a Californian by birth, was a prolific and well-respected author of 20 books, many of which dealt with the preparation, history and culture of food. She spent the first three years of her marriage in France, where she learned how to live and eat economically and was introduced to various wines, pastries and cheeses. This was to determine the path of her life.

Happy 99th Birthday, Julia Child!

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, August 15, 2011 Permalink 0

by Julia Child

Julia Child would have turned 99 today.

Julia Child brought French food to post-war America. When her husband Paul was posted to Paris, she studied at L’Ecole du Cordon Bleu, and went on to form her own cooking school with fellow students Mastering the Art of French Cooking and Louisette Bertholle. The threesome went on to write the 2-volume classic Coq au Vin , which covered all the basic techniques and dishes of classic French cuisine.

Vichyssoise

And indeed she proved to be right. It is only now, 60 years later, that cooking has established itself as gastronomy, and only when referring to a few great American chefs.

This is Foodista’s list of their favorite Julia recipes.

Coq au Vin

Rooster cooked in red wine is a classic Burgundian dish made with red wine, mushrooms, onions, bacon and herbs.

Duck a l’Orange

Vichyssoise is actually the base of almost all French soups. This simple base — made of potatoes, leeks, and salt — is elaborated on in countless ways to make an endless variety of soup. When served cold in summer and cream is added, it is referred to as Vichyssoise.

Boeuf Bourguignon

Ratatouille brings all the flavors of the Southern sun together: red ripe tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers, garlic, onions and Provençal herbs. Today there are many other versions, many of them even in the oven, but this is the classic recipe.

Upside-Down Martini

The problem with duck is always the same: the fat spews all over the place and it is difficult to digest. The acid of the orange in this classic French dish helps digest the fat, and makes it tasty too. This is a favorite Julia Child recipe.

Custard Apple Tart

Boeuf Bourguignon is a fancy version of our classic beef stew. What makes it different is that it is cooked in red wine, and pearl onions and mushroom caps are added to it.

Plum Clafoutis

Not surprising that Julia loved Martinis. She added vermouth to just about any sauce she could work it in to.

Sabayon

Not all French pies are made with custard, but you often find this version in Normandy, the land of cream and butter. It can be served either cold or warm.

Lessons from Julia Child

Clafoutis can be made with many different fruits, but plus and cherries are all-time French favorites. This tart has a custard-like consistency, but also contains ground almonds, giving it a salty edge.

Sabayon is a a cousin of the light, egg-based Italian dessert zabaglione. It is light and custard-like, and a standard in French as well as British cuisine.

French Food Quote: Daily Food Quote, August 15, 2011

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, August 15, 2011 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

Nouvelle cuisine was so specifically French that it was, and still is, misunderstood in the rest of the world. You have to be dominated by Escoffier before rejecting him becomes meaningful.–Mark Kurlansky, Choice Cuts (2002)

Mark Kurlansky’s Choice Cuts features more than 200 essays on what great thinkers, writers, musicians and sometimes even foodies thought about food in all its forms throughout time. It is essential to any cookbook collection and serves as an amusing read at any time of the day.

French Food Quote: Daily Food Quote, August 10, 2011

Published by Jonell Galloway + Wednesday, August 10, 2011 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

It took architects years to get established, to show that they weren’t just artisans, and that’s what I hope will happen with gastronomy. For some reason people don’t consider cooking a serious business, but it’s like any discipline, and it’s a passionate and fascinating one.—Julia Child

Julia Child brought French food to post-war America. When her husband Paul was posted to Paris, she studied at L’Ecole du Cordon Bleu, and went on to form her own cooking school with fellow students Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. The threesome went on to write the 2-volume classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which covered all the basic techniques and dishes of classic French cuisine.

And indeed she proved to be right. It is only now, 60 years later, that cooking has established itself as gastronomy, and only when referring to a few great American chefs.

Read other French food quotes here:

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, August 8, 2011

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, August 8, 2011 Permalink 0

by Simon de Swaan

The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.–Julia Child

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, (1912 – 2004), American cookbook writer, TV personality and tremendous contributor to the food world, introduced Americans to the techniques of French cooking with her classic book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volumes I and II.

Click here to watch her making an omelet on her famed TV show, The French Chef, one of the first cooking shows on television.

French Food Quote: Daily Food Quote, August 5, 2011

Published by Jonell Galloway + Friday, August 5, 2011 Permalink 0

by Anne Bragance

A woman’s movements when in her kitchen need no interpretation; they are like the musician’s movements when he is playing his instrument, like those of a painter as he sits in front of his canvas. No words are required to understand.

Les gestes d’une femme dans sa cuisine sont immédiatement intelligibles, comparables un peu à ceux du musicien qui joue d’un instrument, à ceux du peintre devant sa toile. Nul besoin de paroles alors.

—Anne Bragance, Un goût du soleil

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, August 5, 2011

Published by Jonell Galloway + Friday, August 5, 2011 Permalink 0

by Simon de Swaan

Rational habits permit of discarding nothing left over, and the use to which leftovers (and their economic allies, the wild things of nature) are put is often at the heart of a cooking’s character.–Richard Olney

Richard Olney (1835-1917) was an American cookbook author, most noted for The French Menu Cookbook, and included in The Guardian‘s “The 50 Best Cookbooks.” The Guardian said: “On a summer afternoon at his home in Provence in 1999, the American food writer Richard Olney went to lie down after a light lunch, and never woke up. He was 72, and had led an interesting and fulfilling life (his friends included the writer James Baldwin, the poet John Ashbery, and the painter John Craxton). He had also, unlike many people, been able to cook his own last meal.”

French Food Quotes: Daily Food Quotes, July 28, 2011

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, July 28, 2011 Permalink 0

by curry

“…..an ignorant and pretentious bunch try to improve on what is already the finest….. The improviser sets himself up at the stove just as he does anywhere else. With his eyes turned to heaven instead of on his saucepans, he drops in a pinch of Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette powder here, a spoonful of brandy there, and somewhere else, something even worse — a few drops of custard! He uses any old stuffing, he dribbles in some frightful additive. . .. Old words, classic terms, and traditions are all flouted by these priests of improvisation — it seems that we are a long way removed from the discreet combinations of flavors, thought out at length, that were once the basis of French gourmandise. . . “.–Colette (Sidonie Gabrielle), French novelist, in Prisons et Paradis, 1933

Known as Colette, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, born into an upper middle class family, in France. She spent most of her childhood in Burgundy, and also maintained her taste for the freedom that country life lent. In Paris, she lived the Bohemian life and frequented the salons of the period. She started by writing for musical halls, signed by her first husband, and even showed up at the Moulin Rouge dressed as a man, but went on to journalism and literature. Her books remained in the spirit of music halls, often shocking the public with their explicit descriptions of sex and the senses.