Approaching 30, stuck in a dead-end cubicle job, Julie Powell turned to Julia Child to help her put her life back on track.
Even if Child was no longer alive, that didn't matter. She was Powell's touchstone.
OK, so Child didn't actually come to Powell's emotional rescue. But her book, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” written with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, gave the New York secretary a goal: To cook every recipe in the book — all 524 of them — in 365 days and change her destiny.
Powell invited the world along for the ride with her blog, the Julie/Julia Project.
The 2004 blog made her an Internet celebrity and inspired the Nora Ephron-directed film “Julie and Julia,” opening Friday.
As it turns out, Child also had an impact on Chef Herve Glin of Cork Tree California Cuisine in Palm Desert.
Born and raised on the French coast in Brittany, Glin was the son of a baker. He trained as an apprentice at restaurants in Paris, rather than attending Le Cordon Bleu, as Child had done.
Like Child, one of the first dishes he made was a rustic roasted chicken with vegetables, or chicken bouquetiere.
“You work for maybe a year or two before you even begin to cook,” he said. “And this is one of the first things you do by yourself. Very simple, but the taste...”
Glin worked his way up from washing vegetables to prep to sous chef and finally to chef at Meadowood Resort in Napa.
His résumé also includes stints at La Valencia in La Jolla, City Club in Houston and Prime 10 here in the Coachella Valley.
Along the way Glin met, worked with and befriended famous chefs like Jacques Pepin, Michel Richard, Patrick Jeffroy and Julia Child.
“The first time I met (Julia), I was introduced by the manager of Meadowood,” Glin recalled. “She was so tall. Six-one, six-two and her sister was with her, she was just as tall.”
Then Child introduced Glin to her husband, Paul Child. “I was looking around, looking around and didn't see him,” Glin recalled. “Finally he comes out from behind her and he's short! Maybe five-six.”
Chef Michel Richard assembled the coterie of 60 chefs (Paul Bocuse, Joachim Splichal, Alain Ducasse, Richard, Pepin), not all French, to cook for Child and 500 of her closest friends for the Grande Dame's 80th birthday at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Marina del Rey in February 1993.
“It was an honor to be asked to cook for her,” Glin recalled. “She changed the way everyone thought about French cooking; she made it fun. She was so warm and so funny, and real. Amazing. I never forget it.”
While the dinner was being prepared, Child got curious. Coming down to the kitchen early one morning during the prep for the event, she wasn't quite put together.
“Her wig was on crooked,” Glin recalled. “When someone told her, she just laughed, straightened it and kept going.”
Rustic Roasted Chicken (Chicken Bouquetiere)
1 31/2-4 pound chicken
1 small yellow onion, quartered
1 lemon, sliced
1/2 cup celery leaves (from celery root)
Bundle a sprig or two each fresh thyme, tarragon, oregano for bouquet garni
1 teaspoon chipotle puree
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1 Tablespoon honey
Pinch white pepper
4 ounces soft butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 cups chicken broth
Wash the chicken in hot water and dry thoroughly.
In a microwave-safe bowl combine butter, honey, chipotle puree and pinch of cayenne until butter begins to soften. Heat from the bowl should allow the butter to continue to soften and liquify. Stir with pastry brush until all ingredients are melted together.
Season the chicken cavity with salt (Glin prefers smoked sea salt) and pepper, brush with a little of the butter mix.
Stuff with the yellow onion, lemon and celery leaves and bouquet garni.
Rub chicken with butter, chipotle and honey. Set the chicken breast side up in a roasting pan and tie the drumsticks together.
Roast for 15 minutes at 425 degrees F. Reduce heat to 350. Baste the chicken and roast for 15 minutes. After an hour cooking time, place chopped onion and carrot in the pan, basting vegetable and the chicken. Add the chicken broth to the bottom of the roasting pan.
Roast until juices run clear, for 45 minutes, plus an additional 7 minutes for each pound.
If chicken starts to get too brown, cover lightly with aluminum tent.
Remove the chicken and spoon the fat from the pan. Stir the herbs into the pan and blend in the broth, stirring constantly. Allow to boil for a few minutes and reduce a bit to concentrate flavor. Correct the seasoning and strain the sauce into a warm sauceboat.
Serve with a variety of vegetables, including fennel, carrots, potatoes (purple and white fingerlings), roasted yellow beets, mushrooms, asparagus, baby green onions, leeks, haricort vertes (French green beans), baby artichokes and yellow squash.
Quickly blanche the vegetable, then shock in cold water, to retain flavor and color.
Dry vegetables and as the chicken is almost cooked, begin heating the vegetables in a small pan with butter, a few at at time. Each should take just a couple of minutes, except the potatoes.
Carve the chicken, arrange the vegetables around the chicken. Top lightly with shaved green onions and serve with the warm sauce.
Roast until juices run clear, for 45 minutes, plus an additional 7 minutes for each pound.
If chicken starts to get too brown, cover lightly with aluminum tent.
Remove the chicken and spoon the fat from the pan. Stir the herbs into the pan and blend in the broth, stirring constantly. Allow to boil for a few minutes and reduce a bit to concentrate flavor. Correct the seasoning and strain the sauce into a warm sauceboat.
Serve with a variety of vegetables, including fennel, carrots, potatoes (purple and white fingerlings), roasted yellow beets, mushrooms, asparagus, baby green onions, leeks, haricort vertes (French green beans), baby artichokes and yellow squash.
Quickly blanche the vegetable, then shock in cold water, to retain flavor and color.
Dry vegetables and as the chicken is almost cooked, begin heating the vegetables in a small pan with butter, a few at at time. Each should take just a couple of minutes, except the potatoes.
Carve the chicken, arrange the vegetables around the chicken. Top lightly with shaved green onions and serve with the warm sauce.
