Diced onions going gold and translucent in butter

[np_complete]

I learned to cook in England, but the methods I learned were French.

I was a vegetarian at the time.  I had several vegetarian cookbooks by Martha Rose Schulman (whom I consider greatly underappreciated.)  Though I didn't know it at the time, her early cooking was greatly inspired by Beck, Bertholle, and Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Comments

[nonelvis]

Onions browning slowly in butter smell so good. It's such a warm and comforting scent.

And French techniques have influenced so much of Western food that I'd be surprised if you hadn't picked them up along the way, especially if you learned to cook in Europe. These are the techniques I grew up learning as well, what with it being the 1970s and my parents, like so many other Americans, glued to Julia Child's show on PBS. I saw her once in Harvard Square -- we were both at the same movie, though damned if I can remember what it was -- and I regret being too shy to introduce myself and tell her how much her work meant to me.

[np_complete]

My father is a huge Julia Child fan, not directly of the food (as he was always trying to lose weight and pacifying a very sensitive stomach) but of the show and of her personality.

He rejected David Letterman wholesale in 1984 when the episode I tried to interest him in showed Letterman making fun of Child, who was on his show making steak tartare with a blowtorch.

My dad forms strong attachments and prejudices. He won't buy Apple products, either, because of those commercials showing that punk Mac kid making fun of that nice Mr. PC.

Some time I should buy a copy of the book and learn how to cook in the French tradition, for real.

[nonelvis]

I share your father's issue with people making fun of Julia. I once saw her on a Martha Stewart special, in which they both made croquembouches; Martha, as I recall, had used a plumb bob to get her tower perfectly straight, while Julia, because she was Julia, had piled up the cream puffs in a less precise pyramid Martha condescendingly referred to as "rustic." I have never forgiven Martha for that.

Do pick up the cookbook! People seem to think it will be hugely intimidating, but in my experience, it's very friendly, albeit opinionated at times.

[np_complete]

The full Mastering the Art ...? Or Recipes From Julia Child's Kitchen, from 1975? I read this article (I was looking to see whether there was consensus on the best edition) and was duly intimidated!

I enjoy spending a whole weekend afternoon preparing something ... but it's a rare treat these days.