Professor Butter Beard and Julia Child

“Maybe the cat has fallen into the stew, or the lettuce has frozen, or the cake has collapsed. Eh bien, tant pis! Usually one's cooking is better than one thinks it is. And if the food is truly vile, then the cook must simply grit her teeth and bear it with a smile, and learn from her mistakes.” - - Julia Child, My Life in France

Everything is coming up Julia! And I couldn’t be happier! Our stars connected in 1961 – the year I was born, and the year Knopf published “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” I remember sitting cross-legged, my eyes two feet away from the huge television console in our living room watching this gigantic loud woman slapping chicken, whisking egg whites at lightening speed and laughing with her entire soul and she taught America to taste and enjoy. I was saying “Bon Appétit” to friends and family before I even know what it meant. And, I remember the stunned and fearful look on my younger brother’s face and I told him it was “moose,” not pudding!

While working as the Pastry Chef at Green Street Café in Northampton, Massachusetts, I would imagine every morning as I stepped outside the kitchen door onto the Smith College campus that the ghost of “Student Julia” would stroll through her alma mater handing me an ice cream cone or a mug of just-pressed coffee and say, “Now about last night’s Pot de Crème. Maybe one less minute in the oven, dear?”

I am on my third copy of “Mastering the Art.” My two previous copies had been glued together with dabs of rising dough, soaked in chicken stock, melted butter and bacon grease, covered in illegible notes written in pencil and ink, and the corners had been turned down so often that they fell off begging for mercy. My latest copy is still rather pristine, but somehow missing the spicing of a culinary journey full of random mistakes and joyful successes.

Currently, I am obsessed with the HBO creation of “Julia,” planning my week so I can fully relax and be ready to absorb every new episode. Sarah Lancashire transforms herself into the culinary goddess with such an intelligent and passionate presence that in my mind she is more Julia than Julia. She navigates through the biographical aspects of a real-life heroine while discovering and conquering the challenges of being a female, and celebrity, in the early 1960s. Bonus gifts include the uber-talents of Bebe Neuwirth and David Hyde Pierce as Avis Devoto and Paul Child and can you even imagine my glee when Isabella Rossellini commandeers the screen as Simone Beck and Christian Clemenson transforms into the James Beard I always imagined him to be? (Yes, I may have watched that episode four times so far…)

Even the Food Network has jumped aboard with “The Julia Child Challenge.” The series is based in a replica of Julia's kitchen modified to allow eight contestants (all home cooks) to compete at the same time in a multi-episode cooking challenge. Each episode revolves around one or more episode of one of Julia's cooking shows with clips of them interspersed into the contents of the competition. The grand prize is a scholarship to a cooking school in Paris. How dreamy!

The contestants’ assignment for Episode 3 was an odd one, according to Dorie Greenspan, cookbook author and one of the judges of the finale. Each chef had to use a piece of vintage equipment and a piece of equipment that was newer. Jaíne Mackievicz chose a hand mixer as her vintage tool, which she said was just like the one her mom had, and then she picked a vacuum sealer for the shiny new gizmo. She decided to bake a simple, single-layer Julia-inspired cake made with all-purpose and almond flour and flavored with orange juice and zest. It was a winner, as was Jaíne, and Ms. Greenspan published Jaíne’s recipe and thoughts in her weekly blog.

Of course, I had to try it! I investigated its inspiration (Julia’s “Gâteau À L’Orange” on page 671 of Mastering) and added a few of my own flairs (Chinese Five-Spice and browning the butter). It baked perfectly and filled the kitchen with aromas that transported me to summers in Paris lounging on a terrace, linen suits, strong coffee and tasting a bite of sunshine baked into a cake. As I write this, I am sending congratulations to Jaíne, applauding Sarah, and smiling with Julia as her sparkling eye winks to us all with a bold “Bon Appétit!”

Orange Cake with Crème Fraiche Frosting

Jaine Mackievicz’s winning recipe on “The Julia Child Challenge”

(Including a few of my own adaptations)

Cake:

• 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• (1 tsp Chinese Five-Spice Powder – my addition)

• ½ tsp fine sea salt

• 1 cup granulated sugar

• 3 large eggs, room temperature

• 2 medium navel oranges (I used three Clementines)

• ½ cup almond flour

• 8 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled (I browned mine adding an additional 1 Tbsp butter)

Frosting:

• 1 cup crème fraiche (I used 1 cup heavy cream and 2 Tbsp sour cream)

• 3/4 cup confectionery sugar

• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract (I used 1 tsp vanilla paste)

1) Center a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch cake pan and lightly dust it with flour.

2) Sift together the all-purpose flour, salt, baking powder and set aside.

3) Put the 1 cup sugar in a large bowl and zest the oranges on top of the sugar. Using your fingertips, rub the sugar and zest together until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Reserve two Tbsp of the zested sugar to later stabilize the egg whites

4) Squeeze the juice from the oranges and set aside.

5) Melt the butter and set aside to cool slightly. (I browned and cooled mine)

6) Separate the eggs, putting the yolks in the bowl with the zested sugar and putting the whites in the bowl of a standing mixer. Use a whisk to mix the zested sugar and yolks. Add in the orange juice and whisk to combine. Add the almond flour and whisk to combine. Add the flour mixture and use a spatula to fold the mix together. Add the melted butter and fold until the batter comes together.

7) In the standing mixer, whisk the whites until they have doubled in volume. Add the reserved zested sugar, a little at a time, and continue mixing on medium-high until they have tripled in volume and form glossy, stiff peaks.

8) Using a spatula, fold 1/3 of the whites into the batter. When they are incorporated, gently fold in the remaining whites. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with the spatula.

9) Bake for 35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan and then turn onto your serving platter.

10) In the standing mixer, whip the crème fraiche with the confectionery sugar and vanilla until it becomes voluminous, about three to four minutes.

11) Spoon the whipped crème fraiche on top of the cake and casually spread it so it falls to the sides. Cut the cake into deliciously large slices to serve.

Julia Child and Sarah Lancashire as Julia (HBO “Julia” 2022)