Bread and Circuses

After that, Hollandsworth fielded questions from the audience. Asked about the food she'd eaten, Julia revealed her never-ending French taste for fat by recalling fondly the tamale filled with foie gras she'd been served at Star Canyon. She didn't "quite know what Pacific Rim is," and she dismissed the term "fusion" as something chefs have been doing since the days of Escoffier. "Anything new that came to France, they'd 'fuse' it in," she declared, and she waxed downright chauvinistic about the issue of French vs. American food. "I'm not so enamored of the French as I was," she said flatly. In her opinion, everything American, from wine to groceries, is as good or better than in gastronomy's heartland.

She has backed off from the health platform, saying, "If you don't like the menu a doctor's given you to follow, change doctors"--a remark that drew a huge laugh, but whose essential wisdom was probably lost on the trendy, figure-conscious, surgically enhanced crowd. It was typical that, when talking about favorite kitchen utensils, Dean, the restaurant chef, talked fondly about good knives, while Julia, speaking for the home chef with little time and no domestic help, is always interested in the newest machines. Her book carefully translates professional terms into lay (sheet pans are jelly roll pans) and recommends hardware stores as sources for equipment (small propane torches, for instance, and paintbrushes).

But then, she also dismisses the whole notion of the star chefs her proselytizing helped to form. Is cooking an art? Can anyone cook? asked an audience member. Or is it a gift? And here Julia echoes those who have come before. Michel Escoffier, great-grandson of the first star chef, Auguste Escoffier, recounts that his ancestor, who had wanted to become a sculptor, was sent to culinary school to learn a useful trade instead of an art. Julia says cooking merely takes practice. It's not a gift at all; it's a craft. Anyone, says Julia, can learn to cook. Whether or not they can pronounce "bon appetit.