This month, fans tried their hands at Julia Child's strawberry tart in honor of National Strawberry Month. Lidia Bastianich, celebrity chef and host of Lidia's Kitchen, helped us to kick off the challenge at Eataly Boston. Our panel of judges were blown away by the creativity and cooking chops displayed in all of the submissions, but a few rose above the rest. Here are our favorites, with their thoughts on each:
Best Presented: Max T.
Max T. says: “Julia Child made the Strawberry Tart TWICE during the entire run of The French Chef- one episode under the black-and-white format and the other under the color TV format. Recipes of the color format were published in Julia's third book, ”From Julia Child's Kitchen“, which is is where I excerpted my version of her French Strawberry Tart from. For this #YouandJulia Challenge, I literally took advantage of Julia's recipe for FREE-FORM pastry dough, that is, I liberally molded the pastry shell into the shape of a freshly picked strawberry, complete with the twigs and leaves before I subjected it to baking and filled the fully baked shell with vanilla pastry cream. Because I wanted to emphasize the strawberry flavor of the tart, I glazed the fresh strawberry topping with strawberry preserve. Then, to make the strawberry-shaped Strawberry Tart more lifelike, I made and baked meringue pieces from the leftover egg whites obtained during the preparation of the pastry cream and used the itsy bitsy meringue pieces as garnish so they may resemble the achenes (or the seeds) of the strawberry. P.S. Nothing went to waste with this French Strawberry Tart. I used up all the Free-form pastry dough in shaping the pastry shell, and I stored the meringue pieces in a freezer, in case I may need them as a tart garnish in the future.”
Our judges say: “Truly went above and beyond by adding the extra layer of shaping the crust into a strawberry! It’s like a piece of edible art.”
Best Effort: Lisa V.
Lisa V. says: “Recipe 36: Julia Child’s Tarte aux Fraises. Or as I would like to call it: Tart aux Fraises Intrépide. (Which means fearless and bold). sweet flan pastry. creme patisserie. Fresh strawberries. And the twist?! A blackcurrent, basil and blackpepper glaze. A bit bold you might say? But that is exactly what Julia is teaching me - to live and cook without fear of failure, but with the willingness to attempt and try and risk! This was definitely worthwhile. Boldness can be beautiful and delicious.”
Our judges say: “Love that Julia is teaching her to be bold and cook without fear!”
One We Want To Try: Jazmin S.
Jazmin S. says: “I made a Chocolate Tart with a almond crusts. Top with strawberry covered in a Strawberry Champagne Jam Glaze. I call it Tart delight.”
Our judges say: “Strawberry champagne jam glaze….sign me up for this epic flavor combination!”
Check out all of this month's submissions @WGBHBoston on Facebook, and stay tuned for next month's challenge!
