Julie, Julia, and a So-So Dinner
A couple of weeks or so ago, when I was in the throes of recovering from Oral Surgery from Hell, I decided some nice light reading would cheer me up. Just as I like food movies, I also like food memoirs (and even more, I adore travel memoirs that involve food). I’d heard about Julie & Julia, a blog turned into a book, written by a young woman who decided to cook out of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking for a year, out of her small NYC kitchen.
I’ve slogged through over a hundred pages and I’m just not enjoying it. I hate badmouthing books, but this one just seems like Seinfeld but without the humor—about nothing, written in flat, graceless language. It did, however, make me curious about Mastering … which as a decades-long vegetarian turned vegan, isn’t a book to which I’d naturally turn.
So, I got MtAoFC, as Julie calls it, from the library. It’s a 700-page tome that one could use to stun an intruder, and truly, this is not a book for vegetarians, let alone vegans. But I admire the simplicity of the recipes and the directness of the language. This book is usually only attributed to Julia Child, but she worked with two collaborators, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck. The kitchen tools, pots, and pans used are listed in the ingredients list along with the food, a format I had never seen before but found amusing. For instance, a wooden spoon, a wire whip, and a 2-quart saucepan are interspersed with butter, flour, nutmeg, or whatever in the ingredient list.
Last night, I really wanted to try something from this book just as written, so naturally, the few choices open to me were in the vegetables section. I decided on Pommes de Terre a l’Huile (French Potato Salad). I remember reading about this dish in Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, his memoir of Paris, and in addition, I had just the right kind of potatoes for such an endeavor—smallish, waxy, and flavorful.
Basically, the potatoes are cooked, then while warm, peeled, sliced and tossed with wine. Then, they are dressed in a freshly made mustard vinaigrette, and garnished with herbs. It sounded simple and sublime; yet I found the dish rather dull. I adore simple recipes, no surprise there, but a potato salad made of just potatoes was not that exciting. Where were the celery, peas, and bell pepper?
With this dish on the side, I wanted to make a vegan version of Greek Gyros sandwiches. The originals combine lettuce, tomato, and tsaziki sauce in pita with — gasp — a certain adorable fluffy little animal, I can’t even bear to name it. In my version, the lamb — oops, I’ve said it — was replaced with seitan. The combination of flavors sounded like they’d be good, and they were, but in my mind not worth the bother. In all, it was not a terrible dinner, but not one I’d revisit. MtAoFC will be returned to the library; Julie and Julia returned to Barnes and Noble.
Looking at these books did stir a bit of nostalgia in me and got me to thinking about how I started cooking when I was young. At 16, I was told that if I wanted to eat differently from the family, I’d have to cook for myself. I started cooking from The Whole Earth Cookbook (by Sharon Cadwallader and Judi Ohr), a fun, 70s-style hippie relic.
Here’s an example of one of the soups that I apparently made, because I wrote “good” next to the title. It’s called Cheese Soybean Soup. You mash cooked soybeans with a large can of V-8 Juice, then add sautéed onion, garlic, and celery to that, followed by grated cheddar cheese. OMG, that sounds awful. But as a hippie teenager, I guess that was preferable to my mother’s chicken soup. Then I see that I tried the recipe for Whole Wheat Pasta. Next to the title, I wrote “terrible.”
So, the question of the day is, what cookbook started you off in the world of cooking? And which one or ones were early inspirations to you?
Mimerki said,
November 9, 2006 @ 4:41 pm
My early cooking knowledge came from watching The Frugal Gourmet on PBS and reading The Tassajara Cookbook and an early edition of Vegetariana (the one that still had the Fish chapter) that belonged to my mother. My husband has since gone out and bought me all of the Frugal Gourmet cookbooks and actively encourages the vegifying of recipes from them and I’ve bought my own copies of Tassajara and Vegetariana.
What did you do with the seitan for the gyros? I marinate it overnight and they’re always great. (Actually, one of our very non-veg friends has declared them the best gyros he’s ever had.)
SusanV said,
November 9, 2006 @ 4:55 pm
I literally laughed out loud at the Cheese Soybean Soup. (My daughter came in to see what was so funny!)
My first vegetarian cookbook was Laurel’s Kitchen; I remember only two of the recipes from it, but the information it contained was eye-opening. My first vegan book was the Farm Vegetarian Cookbook, another hippie relic. I remember one recipe in it for soybean fritters, which now doesn’t sound so good but at the time seemed delicious with vegan tartar sauce—but loaded with fat, as many of the recipes in that book were.
Julia Child was notorious in her contempt for vegetarians (I guess many chefs are, though), so I could never bring myself to look at one of her books. Thanks for trying it out and sharing your thoughts.
Nava said,
November 9, 2006 @ 5:01 pm
Mimerki,
Vegetariana never had a fish chapter! I had already given up fish long before I wrote it. I wonder if you are thinking of one of the other “early wave” vegetarian cookbooks like Vegetarian Epicure? Though I’m not sure that one had a fish chapter, either.
I just sauteed the seitan with onions, garlic, cumin, and oregano. I’m usually in just too much of a rush to think about marinating things ahead of time. I’ve got to slow down!
Courtney said,
November 9, 2006 @ 5:19 pm
I started cooking at around age 15, as my single-mother started working later and I liked having dinner ready for her when she got home. I remember using a vegetarian cookbook by Linda McCartney (I was lucky in that my mother was not a vegetarian, but was happy eating vegetarian and even vegan food) and getting so excited for my mother to come home and taste what I had made! I cannot remember what the cookbook was called, but that and the original Moosewood Cookbook were the only vegetarian cookbooks we had, and it took a few months of only cooking out of those before I was ready to try adapting “regular” recipes to be vegan!
Sheldon said,
November 9, 2006 @ 5:47 pm
My first influence was my mother’s recipe card box. As a child I used one of her cake recipes for my 4-H entry at the county fair. It was very unusual for a boy in the 70’s to be baking cakes for the fair, at least where I grew up(North Dakota).
As an adult the two cookbooks that got me back into cooking were Laurel’s Kitchen and Nikki & David Goldbecks American Wholefoods Cuisine.
Mari said,
November 9, 2006 @ 7:41 pm
Mine was The Teen’s Guide to Going Vegetarian which is also what I read when (at 11) I decided that I wanted to be a vegetarian. The recipes are, well, teen-friendly, but pretty healthy. And when my little bro became a veggie at 16 I sent him a copy of this book.
Bobbie said,
November 10, 2006 @ 11:12 am
I honestly didn’t start cooking until I became vegetarian many years ago—like Nava, it was out of necessity. I think my first cookbook was The Voluptous Vegan and to date, I’ve tried a grand total of one recipe from it. Most of the recipes involve a copious amount of prep time, not to mention obscure, hard to find ingredients. So now, my favorite cookbook is A Celebration of Wellness by James Levin, MD. I love the whimsical drawings on each page, and so far, have not made anything out of it that has disappointed me. Highly recommended!
Dr. Judy said,
November 10, 2006 @ 1:41 pm
My first was my mother’s high school HomeEc cookbook. I was ten. First thing I made? A braided Christmas bread. Then I followed Julia Child on PBS…from the start. My standard basic cookbook is Joy of Cooking…with all sorts of others for special interest. I’ve probably given away more cookbooks than most people own in a lifetime.
michelle said,
November 11, 2006 @ 2:40 am
Four years old, and I used to be allowed to take supervised peeks into my elder sister’s leather bound copy of Good House Keeping’s recipe book. When I was nine I begged my mother to let me cook by myself, and she let me bake some fairy cakes. After that I was well away with the baking, bread, cakes, pies etc.
When I was eighteen I bought my first vegetarian recipe book, there’s been lots more since, and it was Not Just a Load of Old Lentils by Rose Elliot.
Susan G said,
November 11, 2006 @ 9:42 am
Laurel’s Kitchen, The Best of Jenny’s Kitchen, Diet for a Small Planet were probably the earliest. Same for me - a veg teen in an omni household. Although I had been cooking dinner for my family since I was twelve, that was at my mom’s direction and consisted mostly of barbequed meat and frozen veggies……..uuuuuuggggggghhhhhhh! Glad to be enlightened now. Although there was that awesome lemon meringue pie from Better Homes and Gardens (some things egg replacer just won’t do for, eh?)…………
Thanks for the memories!
Geraldine said,
November 11, 2006 @ 10:27 am
Two ‘firsts’ come to mind, in the cookbook dept, The New York Times Natural Foods Cookbook and later on, Diet for a Small Planet.
I had lost the copy I had of the NYT’s one, got a used one about a year ago just to take another look through…wow, how times and recipes have changed (and for the better).
Your comments about the Cheese Soybean Soup were right on Nava…and a good laugh too. I didnt find any recipes in the NYT’s book that I would still make now, but I remember when I first had it I used it quite a bit, much to the chagrin of my first husband (a meat and potatoes kinda guy)…I tried but I couldnt convince him to go veg. Maybe this cookbook had a lot to do with it. LOL
Great post, G
Anjelica said,
November 12, 2006 @ 11:52 am
It’s funny I was a vegetarian for 5 years before becoming a vegan. During that time my parents pretty much told me to cook for myself, but rather than learn, I lived off ready-made meals and sandwiches. However, when I decided to go vegan, my parents were worried about the cost, so I picked up a cook book that my Godmother had recommended to me—yours. And from there my cooking life has flourished as I continually up the anty and try new, and more difficult things. I owe my cooking “carreer” to you and your book The Vegetarian Family Cookbook, which is still my go-to book for many times when I need a recipe (though I often make my own now).
bazu said,
November 12, 2006 @ 3:41 pm
What a thought-provoking post. My first attempt at going vegan came when I was 17, and my friend gave me Eva Batt’s “Vegan Cooking.” I think this was along the line of hippie cookbooks, and I remember reading the book and not understanding all these alien concepts such as “TVP” and “gluten” and other things I’d never heard of. I treasured that book, however, as my first properly vegan one, and unfortunately I lost it during a move in 2002. My husband, who is not vegetarian, but does most of the cooking (and therefore has to be vegan by default!) loves his first veg. cookbook, the first Moosewood volume, which he got as a college student. It’s funny that Moosewood was such an inspiration to us and now we’re living in upstate NY!
I don’t care for Julia Child, but she has a Boston Baked Beans recipe that I love- I just leave out the ham hock or whatever meat item she calls for, and it comes out wonderfully.
Nava said,
November 13, 2006 @ 9:30 am
Such fun comments, thank you all for contributing. Anjelica, it’s so flattering that it was one of my books that got you started in your cooking career, as you so nicely put it. I had forgotten until I read some of these posts that once I had graduated from The Whole Earth Cookbook (which was not even entirely vegetarian—I noticed a recipe for Liver Sauteed in Wheat Germ—how gross it that?!) I was quite influenced by Diet for a Small Planet.
Having gone veg entirely because I thought meat was disgusting, Frances Moore Lappe’s seminal work introduced me to the environmental and ethical considerations for vegetarian diets. Even though she discombobulated everyone with that whole “complementary proteins” thing (which she later disavowed), it was quite a useful book at the time.
Susan G said,
November 19, 2006 @ 5:46 pm
a late note of defense for Mastering etc: In 1966, when I took on the cooking, the PBS cooking programs were hot, both Julia Child and Joyce Chen. Both were exciting learning experiences. Child was competent in the kitchen while she seemed to breeze through anything, faux pas’s and all. Her book is excruiciatingly explicit, but you have to see it in the context of even the best cookbooks available then — it was enlightening. While I never cooked much from it, I learned a lot!
and Diet for a Small Planet: that truly changed my life. After slogging through all the fact and opinion content, the recipes made it all possible. When moving to a veg diet (which for me was about that time) it was great to have the assurance that my family (then pregnant with the 4th child) will eat very well. I was recently outraged to see on Amazon comments putting down the food, but for us, that was the part that lasts. Little plug for her daughter, who is co-author of a new principles and recipes book, GRUB: it’s good!
Mike said,
November 22, 2006 @ 10:39 pm
The Vegan Handbook was the first vegan cookbook I made recipes from. Everything but the carrot recipes turned out terrible. Now I cook from Indian & Asian vegetarian cookboooks & am grateful I have many asian groceries to choose from & one large Indian grocery here (Minneapolis). I’ve been able to find everyingredient I’ve sought… For the Indian recipes I just substitute canola oil for ghee & soy yogurt for cow’s milk yogurt. I’ve even started teaching community ed cooking classes based on these cookbooks!