To cook or not to cook?

Julia Child has been on my mind an awful lot lately. Not hard to explain with all of the ads for the new movie Julie & Julia, not to mention the countless reviews of the movie virtually everywhere you look. Rest assured this is not another review. In fact, I haven’t even seen the movie yet…

I recently read Michael Pollan’s essay in the New York Time’s Magazine about how nobody cooks at home anymore and I cannot stop thinking about it. He talks about it in the context of the new movie Julie & Julia - and what Julia Child represented to American home cooks, namely his mother. He goes on to discuss the effects of the Food Network and how Americans would rather watch cooking than actually do it themselves. And to take it a step further, he draws deep comparisons about the actual live cooking that Julia Child used to do on television (mistakes and all) and the taped (i.e. NO mistakes allowed), celebrity chef-based, overly-convenient, “and I happen to have one already done right here” cooking shows that we watch today.

It all got me thinking about my own life and how I ended up leaving the world of corporate finance for the kitchen. Is it possible that Julia Child had some indirect effect on my own decision-making?

I should tell you now that I am a huge Julia Child fan - and have been for a very long time - as a child I used to watch her cooking shows on PBS with my mother from time to time, and I eventually got to meet her at a dinner in Washington D.C. honoring her later in her life.

When I was about 10 years old, I was at a flea market with my father, tagging along, wandering aimlessly. And then it happened -- I found a beat-up paperback version of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking for a whopping twenty-five cents! It was the perfect Mother’s Day gift. I was so proud to give my mother that book and she was equally excited to receive it. I remember the first time she made Sauce Bearnaise for us - I think I had a similar moment in food revelation and appreciation, albeit on a smaller level and at a younger age, that Julia had with her famous meal in Paris that changed her life. My mother taught me to make so many things from that book - it was a kind of adventure for both of us.

Fast forward more years than I would care to admit, and here I am a career change and culinary degree later, doing what I have really come to love to do - teaching people to cook, start to finish, completely unedited. Am I comparing myself to Julia Child? Are you kidding me? Not by any means! But I did feel a sense of satisfaction and good fortune about the career path that I have chosen after reading Michael Pollan’s essay. I also don’t fully buy that people aren’t interested in cooking anymore. I find, more than ever, that people have a strong desire, almost a sense of urgency, to get back to basics - back to understanding where their food comes from and how it is made.

So come on Ann Arbor - let’s get cooking!

Natalie Marble is chef/owner of Ann Arbor Cooks -- a hands-on recreational cooking school. She can be reached at Natalie (at) a2cooks.com or 734-645-1030.