[Sca-cooks] food(ography)

Johnna Holloway johnnae at mac.com
Wed Jun 30 06:29:03 PDT 2010


I finally caught the food(ography) episode on Cookbooks last night. We  
actually watched the new Miss Marple on PBS Sunday night. So after  
Hell's Kitchen I watched Food(ography).

For those that haven't seen the episode, well forget the description  
"From the first cookbook, Apicius, , to Julia Child's masterpiece, we're
diving headfirst into the glossy oversized tomes spread across your
kitchen table." Maybe they covered Apicius but it was done in a matter  
of seconds.
They spent about 10 seconds divided between a photo of those clay  
tablets and a photo of the Dover edition of the Vehling edition of  
Apicius before plunging into what they came to talk about which was  
primarily modern American cookery.
As an example,
The program covered The Joy of Cooking and a cook talked about what  
that book meant to her as she cooked lamb shanks and noodles. She was  
impressed that the original edition detailed how to kill and skin a  
rabbit.

The program dropped back to mention (and I mean mention as in a  
sentence or two) Amelia Simmons, Mary Randolph, and Lydia Marie Child.  
(Applewood editions of each shown again for a few seconds) Barbara  
Haber of the Schlesinger Library got to say a couple words before they  
moved onto Julia Child.  (http://www.barbarahaber.net/)

Judith Jones gets introduced and she talks about Julia and cooks a  
frittata.

They talk about test kitchens and visit the Good Housekeeping test  
kitchen where they talk about the collaboration that it takes to  
produce to one of their volumes. So recipe testing just started with  
their kitchen in 1909??? Funny, I seem to recall Mrs. Beeton doing  
recipe testing some 50 years earlier.

Onto James Beard and a quick bit on community cookbooks.

Meanwhile from time to time Salon.com foodie Francis Lam breaks in to  
add a point or two.

At last Elizabeth David is mentioned as the Julia Child of Britain....  
and they introduce a Serena Bass
  who runs a catering operation. (http://www.serenabass.com/) She  
talks about how she was influenced by Elizabeth David while she  
proceeds to make this chocolate trifle dessert. (I have this feeling  
ED would have been appalled and that they should have compared MFK  
Fisher to Elizabeth David.)

Lastly they end with the Foodie Handbook author and blogger Chez Pim  
who admits she steals recipes.

Host Mo Rocca ends by urging everyone to purchase a cookbook for every  
ten sites we visit.

I think this covers the highlights. The word I scribbled down on the  
post a note was superficial. The fact  that I could review the show on  
two 2 inch by 2 inch post a notes is the final point.

ah well...

Johnnae



On Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 10:21 AM, Kathleen A Roberts  
<karobert at unm.edu> wrote:

> Not as interesting as I had hoped.  But diverting enough. I still  
> find the
> new channel most intriguing for the vintage shows...  Iron Chef,  
> Julia Child
> and (gawd help us all) the Galloping Gourmet!  He was one of my  
> favorites
> back in the day.



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