As a Julia Child groupie, my kitchen as always had a small pic of the “French Chef” hanging around for a little inspiration and guidance.
In fact, when I went to compete in the second season of “Master Chef” last January, I brought a couple of Julia instructional DVDs to gin me up in the wee hours of the morning when the thought of cooking for Gordon Ramsay had me staring at the ceiling all night. Now, I just dream about trussing that cantankerous chef like one of the French Chef’schickens,
but I digress…
Fast forward to this month as I count down the days to the start of my kitchen renovation. While all the cabinetry and appliances are on order, I’ve taken to surfing the web for old black ‘n’ white photos of restaurants, bakeries and, of course, Julia, to hang in the new spot. There’s a lot out there (for a price) but one site I feel the need to share is www.i-concepts.org which has many reproductions of the famous Julia photos taken by her hubby, Paul.
The copyrighted photos are from a collection donated to the Radcliffe Institute’s Schlesinger Library at Harvard, and for a mere $25 you can own an 11×14 snap of Julia cooking on her little Paris stove circa 1950 or ze French Chef on her set at WGBH in 1970. Very cool stuff.
Naturally, I wanted them all, but settled for three, including the aforementioned Paris kitchen scene. Now, will these framed photos provide the same inspiration as that little Julia pic I have had on the wall all these years? I dunno. But they’ll sure look damn good! Bon Appetit! — Laura Raposa
This post was original printed on the Boston Herald’s Fork Lift blog in 2011.