I watched the first ever broadcast of the French Chef the other day on You Tube. It was 1963 and Julia Child was cooking her boeuf bourguignon, made famous by the movie Julia and Julia. I have two observations, one is that I learned more about cooking from this one episode of The French Chef, than I have in a year’s worth of the Food Channel! Julia Child explained, in a way any novice could understand, the proper knife to use to cut meat, how to sharpen and maintain those knives, why beef should be dry before you brown it, why chuck is a good cut to use for stew, where on the animal the different parts of a chuck roast are located, and many other basic things that are important to anybody who wants to learn to cook. The Food Channel, with shows like Chopped and the Iron Chef, can give you ideas on how to cook jelly beans with tofu and sardines (or some other unnatural combination) in 30 minutes. The French Chef gave you instructions on how to cook food that people really wanted to eat! I don't hate the shows on the Food Channel mind you, it is that they should not be labeled as food or cooking shows, but what they are, game shows. Just like that fact the History Channel no longer has very many programs anything about history, just shows that play on people's greed and the Learning Channel no longer has much of anything educational, just freak shows, The Food Channel no longer broadcasts very many "food" shows.
The other observation came when I saw a small portion of Julia and Julia . Meryl Streep really went over the top with her impression of Julia Child and her accent. So much so that it made the movie unwatchable for me!
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