Julia Child’s love affair with food was sparked by the excitement of new flavor combinations and the culinary experiences she discovered while living in France. She was so intrigued and interested that she enrolled as a cooking school student at the renowned Cordon Bleu. Her strong thirst for learning helped her persevere through the classes. She managed the language barrier and foreign techniques by working hard and immersing herself completely in the world of French cooking. How lucky for us that she ended up sharing this knowledge through her informative cookbooks and animated television programs, especially since even this bubbly, vivacious personality had doubts at one point. I know, hard to believe, but as she says in her autobiography My Life in France, “Upon reflection, I decided I had three main weaknesses: I was confused (evidenced by a lack of facts, an inability to coordinate my thoughts, and an inability to verbalize my ideas); I had a lack of confidence, which caused me to back down from forcefully stated positions; and I was overly emotional at the expense of careful, 'scientific' though. I was thirty-seven years old and still discovering who I was.”
Thank you Julia for sticking with it! The authoritative, exuberant presence she gained through her years in the kitchen is evidenced by a wonderful quote from Mastering the Art of French Cooking: “….you learn about great food by finding the best there is, whether simply or luxurious. Then you savor it, analyze it, and discuss it with your companions, and you compare it with other experiences.”
Over 100 years before Julia another young woman followed a similar path … her name was Eliza Leslie. She was also a hard-working, attentive pupil who attended two courses of instruction at Mrs. Goodfellow’s Cooking school in Philadelphia and wrote down everything she learned in a little notebook. This included not only recipes and cooking methodology, but also Mrs. Goodfellow’s words of wisdom on household management and deportment. Just like with Julia, we are the beneficiaries of the expertise she gained through this thorough note taking. And also same as Julia, Miss Leslie's path was not always a straightforward one. Her whole life she actually longed to be known for her literary writing, but what she became famous for was writing a total of nine cookbooks between 1827 and 1857 which grew into an amazing 72 different versions through reprints and updates. Although her first cookbook, Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes and Sweetmeats was very successful and went through several editions, she described it as "most un-parnasseau," and says, "truth was, I had a tolerable collection of receipts taken by myself while a pupil at Mrs. Goodfellow's celebrated cooking school in Philadelphia. I had so many applications from my friends for copies of these directions, that my brother suggested my getting my getting rid of the inconvenience by giving them to the public in print." Even though she spoke of this first cookbook in such humble terms, it was through this and her other cookery books that she became revered and respected for her advice regarding cooking, etiquette and domestic skills - not only sharing all she had learned from Mrs. Goodfellow, but also the knowledge she obtained from her own keen observations. As she says in Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book: "The author was really a pupil of Mrs. Goodfellow's, and for double the usual term, and while there took notes of everything that was made, it being the desire of the liberal and honest instructress that her scholars should learn in reality."
For more on remembering Julia and the similarities between her and Elizabeth Goodfellow see:
http://www.beckyldiamond.com/about-mrs-goodfellow.html
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