Letters from Paris

The New York Times Magazine ran a postumously published piece (Eat, Memory: Sacré Cordon Bleu!) from the grande dame of Ameri-Franco cooking, Julia Child, excerpted from a book on her life in France set to be published this spring.

What is notable about the piece, other than the fact that Child’s distinctive voice comes swooning back so easily from the great beyond, is that The French Chef greatly elaborates on her failure at the Cordon Bleu in Paris.

Basically, she bombed her final exam. More on the jump…

There’s no other way to say it, but she makes an excellent point – she bombed not because she had failed to learn the advanced techniques of the infamous école culinaire, rather because she underestimated the basics. Neglecting to commit to memory what was essentially boiled eggs, gussied-up veal with mushrooms in a paper bag and caramel flan, she instead focused on the exotic:

“Caught up in my own romanticism, I had focused on learning far more challenging fare – filets de sole – la Walewska, poularde Toulousaine, sauce Vénetienne. Woe!”

We amateur cooks aspiring to greatness often find ourselves in similar predicaments.

The first instinct is to try something elaborate, refined and impressive, but it is the common dishes and basics that make a good cook. I remember once making, as a teenager and budding cook, poulet á la provençale for my parents as a special dinner. The chicken earned rave reviews, but I never made the dish again because instead of learning the techniques I had used, I had merely reproduced recipe. Today, such a dish would be a welcome addition to my repertoire, but today I have mastered many of the basics.

All that being said, here’s Julia’s recipe for crème renversée au caramel, which I am planning to try very soon:

1½ cup plus 2/3 cup sugar
2 cups milk
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
4 large egg yolks.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a small saucepan, combine 1½ cup sugar with ¼ cup water. Bring to a boil over low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Increase the heat to high and cook, without stirring, until the syrup turns a light caramel color. Remove the saucepan from the heat and dip the bottom into cold water to stop the cooking. Pour the caramel into a 4-cup charlotte mold, and tilt so that it covers the bottoms and sides. Let cool.

2. In a small saucepan, bring the milk and vanilla to a boil. In a heatproof bowl, beat the eggs, egg yolks and cup sugar until blended. Whisking constantly, pour the hot milk into the egg mixture; let rest for a few minutes, then strain. Pour the custard into the caramel-coated mold.

3. Put the mold in a small but deep baking or roasting pan, and add hot water to come about two-thirds up the sides of the mold. Place the pan on the stove over medium heat, and bring the water to a simmer. Transfer the pan to the oven. (The water should stay at a low simmer at all times; do not let it boil or the custard will overcook.) Bake until a knife inserted into the center of the custard comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes. Keep the custard in the baking pan until the water cools. Remove from the pan to finish cooling. To serve, run the tip of a knife around the top of the custard to loosen it. Invert a serving platter over the mold and quickly turn it over again. Carefully remove the mold. Serves 6. Adapted from Le Cordon Bleu.

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