The French Chef

Let's face it, if there were any instructional cooking shows on television before Julia Child, we probably don't know about it. Julia Child's emergence as a television pioneer is now being appreciated in part to a successful film that features Meryl Streep playing the legend. Until now, I didn't appreciate Julia Child as much but now I'm more curious than ever about her life. She was older than most people and she wasn't born cooking. She lived a privileged life with cooks in her home. In this series, she brings her world knowledge of cooking where she studied at the Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, France and where she co-authored the masterpiece, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" with two French chefs as well. Anyway, this show is about her and you just fall in love with her watching it. I love how she displayed the chickens and explained each one. She has fun with cooking and that's a good thing as Martha Stewart would say.

I have seen about 20 to 25 episodes of The French Chef in the last month or two. While you can't beat Julia for entertainment value, I'm sorry to say the food she cooks seems very unappetizing. Tripe a la Mode anyone? It doesn't looks so great either. She made one meat dish that was ground up and molded that looked positively gray and slimey. I recognize that tastes in food have evolved and changed since the 1970's and the production values were not what they are now. But my jaw dropped when she made pot roast and she larded it with a big long needle and put a big ol' slab of fat back on top. Her baked goods are overly browned, almost burnt. And she only uses dried herbs, nothing fresh except parsley. Lots and lots of parsley. Plus she's really messy. And don't get me started on her dining room with its Astroturf putting green colored upholstery and carpet.

Sorry. I love Julia, but her cooking not so much. It came as a shock.

10 for entertainment and charm, 3 for the food. That makes 7 stars.

I recently rented a 3 DVD set of Julia Child's cooking program broadcast originally on the Boston PBS station (WGBH). Each disc has 6 shows, each lasting about 30 minutes. The early programs are in black and white but the later ones are in colour, including the one in which she describes the difference between various chickens. Child has an easy manner on the screen and watching these shows reaffirms how great an actress Meryl Streep is: her take on Child is perfect (in Julie and Julia). While one may not be tempted to make all the dishes that Julia demonstrates, viewers who are interested in cooking will learn something from each show and may be willing to try at least one of them.