I'M GOING "OLD SCHOOL" COOKING SHOWS ...

[ThatGuyRick]

I see a lot of people talking about which cooking shows on TV they like the best. Maybe I'm showing my age but Julia Child and her shows are still my favorites. I can truly say that she taught me how to cook. And I'm a good cook. If you don't believe me, be here at six o'clock for supper.  - Rick -

[valerian]

Rick, you forgot Jacques Pepin. I loved his shows with Julia.

[pghjan]

Julia helped teach me how to cook when her program was on. I love Jacques Pepin too. I watch his show, the show with his daughter, and now sometimes he's on with his granddaughter. His show is still on Create TV.

[almonds]

Julia Child's show was the very first cooking show I ever watched, before Food Network was even invented. It was a real cooking show, not a reality show. Loved Julia Child, her biography is fascinating.

[nybirder]

Many of Julia's shows (black and white, even) are on YouTube and some are available on the PBS site for streaming onto your computer. I stream shows onto my TV using Roku and watch both her and many of Jacques Pepin's shows as well when I get sick of the mess on the Food Network these days. I learned to cook from "Aunt Julia" along with my mother when she first began her shows on PBS. We never missed them!

[annrms]

Julia Child's show is a must watch classic, IMO.  I really liked watching "Jacques and Julia"; you could see how much they admired each other.  I was so lucky to take two cooking classes with Jacques Pepin at Boston University.  I have several signed cookbooks that he wrote.  I think is wonderful that he is now cooking with his granddaughter.

I remember when WGBH had a fire and Julia's kitchen set was destroyed; that's when (I think)they moved it to her house.  I remember walking by her house; I wanted to go up the walk and peek in the windows!!!!  Didn't...!!!

I read that she hated "Jules and Julia" because of the bad language, but I loved it especially watching her learning how to cook.  Remember when she was in Paris and was practicing cutting up onions and Paul came home and immediately teared up because of the fumes!!!!

What's your favorite Julia recipe or technique you learned from her?  I'll have to think about it; there are so many!!!

[nybirder]

I was reminded of this thread the other evening when there wasn't anything worth watching on cable. I have Roku so I checked the YouTube channel and found a couple of play lists that I had saved a long time ago featuring Julia Child.

You have no idea how lovely it was to sit and watch some of her earliest shows in black and white. Unlike the food shows we see today, they didn't have the money to re-shoot video if something went wrong. It was so refreshing to watch her patch up oopsie moments--I think it gave courage to people like my mom who needed to see someone mess up and still come out with an edible meal! LOL! I love the one in the potato show when she goes to flip a full skillet potato cake using "the courage of your convictions" to have it flip perfectly. Well, half of it ended up on the stove! No problem--she just scraped it up, put in back in the pan, and suggested another way to do the flip. And at the end of the show, she successfully flipped another pan-full just to prove she could do it! Love it!

Anyway, if anyone would like to take a walk down memory lane, here are the links to two Julia Child collections on YouTube. It was sweet to read one of the comments where a woman told how she and her little son sit down on a Sunday afternoon to watch her videos one after the other because he found them comforting. I think I do, too. Not only that, but the recipes are just as valid today as they were then.

A collection of 55 of Julia Child’s shows including many of the originals in black and white:


Later shows from Baking with Julia:
www.youtube.com/channel/UCD0HCkVrMYr-qUtXmM_SH4w/videos

[wilderness]

Thanks Birdie.  I wish I could stream from you tube but one show would use up all the download that I am permitted for the month.  Hate satellite.  Hopefully that will change in the spring.

Bet

[tasty]

The only cooking show I remember from my childhood was The Galloping Gourmet.  That would have been the late 50s in Britain.  Can't remember any details at all but I know Mum used to enjoy it.

[almonds]

I heard of The Galloping Gourmet, I think he was Graham Kerr, but I don't remember much about the show itself, just the name. I'm in the US so it must have been televised here also. I also loved the black and white Julia Child shows.

[nybirder]

Oh, definitely! The Galloping Gourmet was my older sister's favorite. She quoted him so often we started to tease her!

Does anyone remember the Foley fork? Julia was using one on her potato show and was singing it's praises. My mother swore by hers. It's a large fork with flat tines angled to the side slightly. It was handy for breaking things up and mixing. I'd forgotten all about it. I bet there's one hiding in this old house somewhere--I may have to go look for it!

Bet--hope your internet access improves. I've been surprised at some of the old shows that pop up on YouTube. I wonder if any of the Galloping Gourmet are there?

PS--I thought so. Someone has uploaded some of the old Galloping Gourmet videos: www.youtube.com/user/reyzaguirr/videos
I'd almost forgotten about Graham Kerr until you mentioned him. 

[annrms]

Afternoon, all!

Birdy - Thanks for the links.  I greatly enjoyed watching Julia.  I loved, too, watching Julia and Jacques cooking together.

I have a modern Foley fork made by Norpro.  I've had it for several years and like it a lot.  It's called the Fiskie Fork Whisk.  I gave them as Christmas gifts one year.

The Galloping Gourmet was fun to watch.  I liked when he took someone from the audience to taste his recipe.

I also liked the recipes from the Frugal Gourmet, but I guess he was not a well liked person off set.

[nybirder]

Tasty--that's an interesting looking fork. I'm not sure if it is a total replacement for my old Foley fork--I'd have to try it--but it wouldn't scratch up modern cookware, either.

If I find my old Foley fork, I'm going to put it in a safe place. Vintage models online are listed for prices around $20 or more! Good grief! Who knew!?

Bed Bath and Beyond is selling an RSVP Endurance Fantastic Food Fork that looks a bit like a metal Foley fork but it doesn't look to me to have tines that are angled enough to be useful.

My, has this been a walk down memory lane!