Simple ingredients, wonderful possibilities

I have just finished reading My Life in France, once again. The movie Julie and Julia has everyone talking once again about food. How to cook, how to eat, how to shop, where to shop, what to purchase, the topic is buzzing through the web like a bee heading back to the hive.

One reason I chose to read the book again, was that the movie got me wondering. Was Paul’s tummy really so upset he had to take antacids continually? Was french food really that bad for everyone? I found my answer in the book. It is a definite no. French food is not bad for you. Paul Child suffered from amoebic dysentery he contracted during the war. He did see a doctor in France who diagnosed the problem and he and Julia went on a strict diet to get rid of the germ. After a few months of following a doctors recommendation, he was pronounced well. He and Julia resumed eating all the french food she prepared.

It is curious to me that the movie implies that he was not healthy due to the food. I know they did, because in one scene they also showed Julie’s husband taking antacids also. The inferred reference is maddening. Julia Child stated on more than one occasion that they did watch their diets, avoided carbohydrates and got plenty of exercise.

What she found disconcerting was, upon returning to the states, that we’d become a nation of prepared foods consumers. We no longer cooked. Everything was frozen or boxed and “whipped up in minutes for conveniences’ sake. Ugh. The masses embraced instant meals.

Even now with all the information on how bad prepared foods are, many people still find it too demanding to cook for themselves. The internet has given us numerous portals for recipes and meal planning. Still we ask for someone to do it for us. We don’t want to think, it seems. I came across a blog post today with a mommy blogger asking someone, anyone to write a blog on how to eat. All I can say is it isn’t a blog, but it is worth reading. It’s called Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Julia and company will give you all wish for: flavors, seasonings, meats, poultry, game, eggs, breads, baking, brasising and numerous other techniques that may just help you figure out “how to eat”.

From my cookbook, The French Chef Cookbook

I went to see Julie and Julia on Monday. I’m considering going to see it again this evening. I enjoyed every bit of the movie. It was fun to see on celluloid the story as interpreted by Hollywood. Meryl Streep played a perfect Julia. Amy Adams was a kind nod to Julie Powell.

It was surreal to see the film version of a blog I had read in 2002. The food blogging community then, was a small group of bloggers, and it wasn’t difficult to find a food blogger with a story. Julie fascinated many of us with her antics and goal. It wasn’t until the book deal that things got ugly. Volleys were thrown back and forth, with prominent bloggers challenging Julie’s abilities as a cook, with Julie answering with terse or non-existent responses. A word I read far more than any other descriptive was “bitch”. Sadly, it turned me off to the whole drama and I walked away. I didn’t buy the book, and was surprised to read of the movie.

I did love the fact that in the movie, whoever wrote the screen play, cut everyone off at the pass with regard to the “bitch” reference. Instead of trying to dance around the word, they hit it head on and didn’t leave room for the community as a whole to push it further or monopolize on the lack of illustration in the movie. Well done, screen writer. My only wish would be that Julie Powell had pursued her wish to actually meet Mrs. Child. She had time, she had connections, lost opportunities it seemed.

Back to Julia. What I found most interesting was they way she cooked. She learned traditional French cooking at a time when women were not really accepted in the profession. Butter, sauces, mayonnaise, and heavy cream were her standard bearers. It is wonderful to know that she cooked everything using these ingredients – from scratch – and lived to be two days shy of her 92 birthday. As did her husband. All those evil fats and rich creams, must have done her in! When people mention we should not be eating naturally produced butter, cheeses and creams, much less the foods they produce, I will remind them of Julia. It isn’t the natural foods that are killing us, it’s the processed ones, people.