July's You & Julia Challenge — Kitchen Hacks — is now live, and Amy Traverso, Senior Food Editor at Yankee Magazine and co-host of WGBH's Weekends with Yankee, helped us kick it off. We visited Traverso at her home in Boston to glean her advice for new chefs and talk about why Julia Child’s legacy resonates so strongly today.
Q: What advice do you have for new chefs?
Before I started cooking, I thought it was this magical alchemical thing, and you had to study for years and inherit some wisdom from the ether to be able to cook. It turns out that most recipes are just formulas that are very consistent across different recipes.
So for example, a soup: you generally start out by putting some aromatic things like onions or carrots or celery in some oil, letting that sweat a little, add in whatever it is that's going to be your soup, whether it's broccoli or meat or beans. Then, add liquid and let it simmer and you can then puree it, or not.
You could make any soup you want and you don't have to be intimidated. And if it's not great, Julia Child always said, “never apologize, never explain." And I just remember that whenever I feel bad about a failed first-time recipe.
Q: Why does Julia Child still resonate so strongly today?
First of all, she lived an extraordinary life, and had this whole reservoir of life experience inside of her before she even went on television, and I think that really came across on camera. She also brought European flavors to America at a time when we were ready for it. We were just starting to travel to Europe as a country on a more regular basis. The world had opened up after World War II and she was there to say, "Here, let me show you how to make this food once you get home. Or, maybe you can't fly to Europe, but here, you can feel like you did because I can show you a how to make soufflé."
I also think Julia had the perfect mix of accessibility and polish. She was aspirational, making soufflés, making Coq Au Vin, making these dishes that were in a foreign language. She had mastery. She commanded the room when she made them. You felt confident that she knew what she was doing. At the same time, she wasn't afraid to make a mistake and to laugh at it. She made it feel like it was okay to shoot for something elevated. But if it wasn't perfect it was fine, because Julia made mistakes, too.
Q: Tell us your Julia Child story.
So I never had the honor of meeting Julia, but I did get to talk to her on the phone once. I was a very young editorial assistant at Boston Magazine and we wanted to send her an invitation to a party. I was told, "Well, call her assistant and get the right address." So I called the number we had on file, and the phone rings and then I hear, "Hello?" And I almost fainted. It was amazing. She answered her own phone. She was perfectly lovely. It was a brief conversation. She very politely gave me her address and signed off in a friendly way. But I am so deeply grateful that I at least got to talk to Julia Child in my lifetime.
Q: What is Julia’s legacy for you?
Julia opened so many doors for so many people, and she opened the door for women chefs to be taken seriously. She opened the door for women of a certain age to be allowed on television, to be seen as authorities, and not just aesthetic objects. She opened the door for us to understand and feel confident about cooking. I grew up watching her. My friends and I used to make imaginary cooking videos inspired by Julia. We would do cooking shows using a giant VHS camera at the time.
So for me to be working and doing a show at WGBH where she worked, to be writing about food and cooking on television, is the greatest honor. And she really was the guiding light for many of us.
Submit your best kitchen hack to @WGBHBoston on Facebook, in the comments section, or on Twitter or Instagram using #YouAndJulia by Sunday, July 21 for a chance to be featured across our digital and social channels as one of our Favorites.
