For many of us, one of our first memories of cooking is
listening to the jovial voice of a very tall woman on PBS, chuckling as she
methodically deboned a chicken or loaded a dish with butter.
Julia Child was — and still is — an icon in the
cooking world. She was born in California in 1912, and in 1949 moved with her
husband to Paris, where she enrolled in the French cooking school Cordon Bleu
as the only woman in her class. In 1961, after co-writing Mastering the
Art of French Cooking, she returned to the United States, and two years
later, officially introduced the country to the art of French cuisine with the
debut of her television show The French Chef.
Her shows were drenched in joy and butter. Viewers loved
her cheerful wobbly voice, her zeal to brandish a large knife, her ability to
make fancy cooking accessible, and her bowlful of quips and life lessons in
each episode.
Child didn’t just have sage wisdom about food, though.
She looked at life through the lens of cooking, and many of her insightful
comments can apply both in and out of the kitchen. Whether it’s using a dropped
piece of meat as a metaphor for moving forward after making a mistake, or
reflecting on how flipping something in a pan is a way to break free from fear,
the multiple layers of meaning make her words all the more delicious.
The 10 quotes below are some of the tastiest. In the
words of Child herself, bon appetit!
ON LETTING GO
Always remember: If you're
alone in the kitchen and you drop the lamb, you can always just pick it up.
Who's going to know?
ON EXCELLENCE
A cookbook is only as good as
its poorest recipe.
ON TAKING RISKS
The only real stumbling block
is fear of failure. In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude.
ON GOING FOR IT
The only way you learn how to
flip things is just to flip them.
ON DILIGENCE
The measure of achievement is
not winning awards. It's doing something that you appreciate, something you
believe is worthwhile. I think of my strawberry souffle. I did that at least 28
times before I finally conquered it.
ON CONFIDENCE
Just speak very loudly and
quickly, and state your position with utter conviction, as the French do, and
you'll have a marvelous time!
ON DISCIPLINE
You must have discipline to
have fun.
ON LIVING TO THE FULLEST
I was 32 when I started
cooking; up until then, I just ate.
ON INDECISION
People are uncertain because
they don't have the self-confidence to make decisions.
ON CREATIVITY
The more you know, the more you
can create. There’s no end to imagination in the kitchen.
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