No, that claw is not a scary Halloween trick. Look closer; it's actually a very tasty treat.
Because the price of lobster is so low right now -- almost half of what it was more than a year ago -- the bloggers over at REC(cession)IPES were able to add a little luxury to this simple, creamy risotto, made with arborio rice, olive oil, butter, onions, shallots and white wine. Plus, the lobster adds a much-needed burst of color to what can often be a very monochromatic dish.
Come to think of it, should you want to try this at home, there may actually be a little trick to achieving these picturesque results. As REC(cession)IPES points out, it's only live lobster that's so cheap right now. So unless you can bring yourself to butcher your own crustacean (think Julie Powell in "Julie & Julia"), you may have to settle for just feasting only your eyes on this lovely lobster risotto.
Julia Child. Photo: John Dominis, Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image
Somewhere Julia's chuckling.
The Boston Globe reports Tuesday that the doyenne of French cuisine's Cambridge home is now occupied by a vegetarian animal-rights activist, who -- since the release of "Julie and Julia" -- has been besieged by tourists snapping photos of her home and leaving butter, yes butter, on the fence post.
"It's a bit ironic," Lisa Landsverk said of her place at Julia's kitchen.
In case you were wondering to what extent the mania for "Julie and Julia'" had gripped the nation, Sunday's New York Times delivered the answer.
This August 30, nearly half a century after the book was published in America, Child's classic tome"Mastering the Art of French Cooking" will be listed in the number one spot on the gray lady's bestseller list in the how-to category. The paper reports booksellers selling seven times as many copies in a month as they are accustomed to selling in a year.
This is not a small deal, particularly for the struggling publishing industry. Blogger Julie Powell is of course largely responsible for the surge of interest in the French Chef, and we wonder whether top Knopf execs have been bombarding her with flowers and thank-you notes.
More importantly, we are curious about how many of our own readers have invested in the book because of the blog or the movie. So spill it in our poll: Have you bought Child's cookbook? When? Tell us why in the comments.
'Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1' by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck Illustrations by Sidonie Coryn Knopf -- First published 1961 Buy it on Amazon
Julia would not have been our "French Chef," had she not collaborated with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle to transform their draft of a French cookbook into an essential guidebook to French food for American cooks.
Long before she showed television audiences that it was OK to screw up in the kitchen, Julia Child and the two other "Trois Gourmands" (Child, Beck and Bertholle ran a cooking school of sorts -- Ecole des Gourmands -- in Paris) were teaching the American cook the wonders that are beurre blanc, boeuf bourguignon and omelettes through "Mastering the Art."
"This is a book for the servantless American cook who can be unconcerned on occasion with budgets, waistlines, time schedules, children's meals, the parent-chauffeur-den-mother syndrome or anything else which might interfere with the enjoyment of producing something wonderful to eat." With those words, Child inspired bloggers and chefs and turned French cuisine into something our nation's home cooks could do ... and well. Bon appetit! See what we tested and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.
'Julia's Kitchen Wisdom - Essential Techniques and Recipes From a Lifetime of Cooking' by Julia Child Knopf -- 2009 (original pub. date 2000) Buy it on Amazon
In the thick of the media blitz surrounding the release of the Julia Child/Julie Powell biographic mash-up movie, it would be easy to mistake this volume -- ours came bestickered with "Now a Major Motion Picture" -- for a quickie cash-in. It's anything but.
Rather, this is a previously published compendium of Julia Child's kitchen notes from her years of writing cookbooks and filming "The French Chef" and we're warning you now -- your copy will get messy. Julia wouldn't mind.
Takeaway tips: In Child's words, "It doesn't pretend to take the place of a big, detailed, all-purpose cookbook like 'Way to Cook' or 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volumes I and II'. It is, rather, a mini aide-mémoire for general home cookery, and is aimed at those who are tolerably familiar with culinary language; whose kitchens are normally well equipped with such staples as jelly-roll pans, a food processor, a decent rolling pins; and who know their way around the stove reasonably well."
"Kitchen Wisdom" is packed with time and temperature charts, foolproof, building block recipes for mother sauces, breads, desserts and soups, as well as her rigorously tested methods for everything from soaking beans and boiling eggs to the ins and outs of flour dredging and sourcing omelet pans. If it's got a soupçon of French technique, it's in the book.
See what we tested and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.
Slashfood caught up with stars Amy Adams and Meryl Streep at the after-party. Find out what Julia recipes they cooked to prepare for their roles and view some more photos from the premiere after the jump.
This evening, Slashfood will be joining Meryl Streep and Amy Adams on the red carpet for the New York premiere of "Julie and Julia"! And naturally we'll be Tweeting, so follow along here or on Twitter.
But don't forget that you have a chance to see it before anyone else. You have until 2 p.m. Friday to enter to win passes to a screening on Aug. 3 in New York. Just click here to tell us what Julia Child meant to you.
Meryl Streep as Julia Child. Photo: Sony Pictures Entertainment
Slashfood got a "Julia and Julia"sneak peak earlier this month, and now a few lucky fans can watch the film nearly a week before its general release.
Just shoot us a comment about how Julia Child influences your cooking. Ten lucky readers will win a pair of passes to a screening on Aug. 3, 2009, in New York City. (Winners must make their own arrangements to get to the theater and should plan to arrive to the theater early because passes do NOT guarantee admittance to the screening. Admittance will be on a first come, first served basis.)
CONTEST RULES
To enter, leave a confirmed comment below telling us how Julia Child influenced you.
The comment must be left before 2 p.m. ET on Friday, July 31, 2009.
You may enter only once.
Ten winners will be selected in a random drawing.
Each winner will receive a pair of passes to see "Julie and Julia" on Aug. 3, 2009 in New York City. Winners should plan to arrive to the theater early because passes do NOT guarantee admittance to the screening. Admittance will be on a first come, first served basis. Winners must arrange their own transportation to New York.
Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
Click here for complete Official Rules. Winners will be notified by e-mail, so be sure to provide a valid address!
'Julia and Julia' author Julie Powell. Photo: Sara Bonisteel.
Former Julia Child editor Judith Jones found herself in the spotlight Monday after Publishers Weekly quoted Jones saying that Child said of Julie Powell -- the blogger and author whose story is half of the movie adaptation "Julie and Julia" -- "I don't think she's a serious cook."
The magazine quotes Jones as saying of Powell's blog, "She didn't want to endorse it. What came through on the blog was somebody who was doing it almost for the sake of a stunt ... Julia didn't like what she called 'the flimsies.' She didn't suffer fools, if you know what I mean."
We caught up with Jones at her Vermont home and she elaborated, which she tells us is the last time she'll speak about the blog (though she promises a review of the movie is forthcoming at her own blog).
Meryl Streep as Julia Child. Photo: Sony Pictures Entertainment
One of the brightest stars of the new film "Julie and Julia" gets no billing. Yup, you foodies have probably guessed that the dishes in this culinary melding of Julie Powell's "Julie and Julia" and Julia Child's "My Life in France" are the pieces de resistance.
A group of very giddy foodies gathered Thursday in New York to get a first glimpse of the film -- which opens Aug. 7, 2009 -- and chat with the film's director, Nora Ephron, about how she recreated the dishes that made America's French Chef famous.
"This is just a celebration of food, which is a thing that changes both of these women's lives," Ephron says. "It's about joy -- and the joy of food, and the joy of cooking."
Some of the dishes in the film and exclusive photos after the jump.
We've been awaiting the French Chef flick "Julie & Julia" for some time now. And we're pleased to report we're heading out this afternoon to see a sneak preview, which we'll be sharing tidbits from with you via Twitter. Stay tuned!
Meryl can do the voice! Slashfood's sister site Moviefone has the trailer for the new Julia Child flick "Julie and Julia," and the two-time Academy Award winning Streep appears to be a delightful "French Chef."
We've been eagerly awaiting Nora Ephron's retelling of Child's story with that of blogger Julie Powell (she spent a year writing about her adventures cooking through "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"), and the trailer has us salivating for more. (We even spied a purchase made at the "Julie and Julia" sale held earlier this month hanging behind Julia!)
You'll have to wait until August to see the film. Till then, "Bon Appetit!"
Although the film adaption of "Julie & Julia" isn't coming out until August, Julia Child fans are already excited at the prospect of seeing America's most iconic cooking superstar served up onscreen. Following last weekend's sale of the film's props, your devoted Slashfood staff has been searching for images of the upcoming film.
Everything about Julia Child was outsized, from her flamboyant cooking style to her rich, fluttering falsetto, to her famously dry humor. This, after all, was the great chef who started her professional life as a purported spy in the OSS during World War II, became one of the few women to attend Paris' Le Cordon Bleu cooking school, and ended up spearheading a home-cooking movement that transformed American cuisine with her TV show "The French Chef."
Given Child's impressive height (she was 6-foot-2), it's perhaps unsurprising that the majority of her imitators have been men. The most famous was probably Dan Aykroyd on "Saturday Night Live." His repeated exhortation to "Save the liver!" captured Child's forceful personality and occasional tendency toward self-parody. An even better tribute was offered by John Candy, with a spot-on impression of Child boxing with Fred Rogers in "Battle of the PBS Stars" on "SCTV."
While you may never be able to own an actual kitchen gadget from Julia Child's kitchen (the Smithsonian has the complete contents of her Cambridge, Mass., kitchen on display here), you might be able to grab a set piece from the new Julia Child movie "Julie and Julia" -- if you happen to be anywhere near the New York metropolitan area this weekend.
The movie is Nora Ephron's melding of Julia Child's memoirs with those of Julie Powell, a Queens, N.Y., woman who blogged through "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" over the course of a year.
The prop masters for Columbia Pictures are liquidating the set for the film -- starring Amy Adams (as Powell) and Meryl Streep (as Child) -- from a warehouse in northern Brooklyn, N.Y. this weekend. Slashfood popped in this morning to peruse the gadgetry used to fill seven kitchen movie sets, including the famed cooking school Le Cordon Bleu.
More pictures and the sale location after the jump.
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