JULIA CHILD DISCOVERS DOVER SOLE

"the most exciting meal of my life"

JULIA CHILD AND DOVER SOLE

We have written about this "best fish story of them all" earlier this year. Apparently Julia Child discovered Dover Sole meuniere long before we did and her reaction is recorded in a mouth-watering scene in the new Nora Ephron movie, "Julie & Julia"

"Julia Child’s first lunch in France centered on Dover sole sputtering in butter sauce. It was, she wrote in her memoir, “the most exciting meal of my life.”

For that scene, Ms. Ephron — an accomplished cook who wrote the screenplay, directed the film and personally tested every recipe in the movie except the aspic — would accept nothing short of perfection.

“I wanted that sole to look to the audience the way it had looked to Julia when it caused her famous epiphany,” she said.

But hey, no pressure.

Susan Spungen, the movie’s food stylist, had spent a dozen years as Martha Stewart’s food editor. She had been a caterer before that. She understood pressure. But she knew she was in the weeds the moment she arrived at a Manhattan restaurant to shoot the scene.

For starters, the chef that Ms. Ephron had recruited to cook the sole was instead pressed into service as the scene’s waiter. That left Ms. Spungen uncharacteristically unprepared. The restaurant didn’t have a nonstick pan, and the chef forgot to tell her that the secret to the dish was a light coat of Wondra flour.

Worse, she had only about 10 of the expensive fillets to work with. That wouldn’t allow for many mistakes. And even if she cooked one perfectly, how was she going to make sure the big fillet sizzled enough so the camera would pick it up?"

LUNCH WITH JULIA CHILD, JAMES BEARD AND CECILIA CHIANG.

Lunch with Julia Child, James Beard and Cecilia Chiang.

WHO IS CECILIA CHIANG?

Alice Waters, of Chez Panisse fame, says what Julia Child did for French cooking in the United States, Cecilia Chiang did for Chinese cuisine in America. In 1968 she founded the Mandarin Restaurant in San Francisco's Ghirardelli Square. For almost 40 years, Cecilia presided over an elegant restaurant that achieved a national reputation. Visitors from all over the country came to seek authentic and fine Chinese dining. She held cooking classes that saw students the likes of Julia Child, James Beard, and Alice Waters. The restaurant closed in December 2005.

Cecilia's son Philip hooked up with a friend to open up a successful chain of restaurants that are doing well in these rough economic times - P.F. Chang’s Bistro.

FOOD MAVEN'S AT THE MANDARIN

About 10 years after the Mandarin opened, four of us, on a business trip to the west coast, walked into the restaurant for lunch. As I recall, Madam Chiang, herself, seated us. Since we were all "foodies" and had picked the Mandarin for its excellent menu, it took no time at all to spot the huge figure of James Beard at the next table. He was really big with a dome-shaped bald head. Seated next to him was Julia and there was no mistaking that voice. Next to her, according to our waitress, was Julia's sister, Dorothy. Everybody at the table was supersize. Later I found out that Dorothy McWilliams was 6' 4" and Julia was 6'2'' (size 12 shoes). The two other normal size women at the table, we guessed, were either food editors or (as we learned later) sales reps. for Rice-A-Roni.

A nice looking young woman asked if we would like to participate in a consumer food test and we, of course, said yes. Each of us was given a small portion of rice and a separate container of Chinese sauce - which we ladled on the rice. Then we answered a questionnaire about that special sauce with a (throwaway) question, at the end, about the rice. Now they served another portion of rice, another different sauce, another questionnaire. We learned later - after 4 different sauces - that each portion of rice was prepared differently. That was the real test. We didn't know that Rice-A-Roni was doing a food test at the Manderin that day.

Now it was time to order lunch. When the waitress asked for our order we pointed to the Beard, Child table, where Madame Chiang was hovering in the background and said cleverly, "we'll have what they're having". "Sorry", the waitress replied, "they're having a special lunch menu." Expletive!!!

HIDDEN COMMENTS FROM BEARD AND CHILD

It's taken me 30 years to find the autographs I got from James Beard and Julia Child. After our long-g-g-g lunch I approached M. Chiang and got a copy of her book, "The Mandarin Way", which she autographed to my wife, Shirley. I walked over to the Beard/Child table where lunch was still in progress with many, many bottles of wine on the table. Cecelia Chiang was right behind me. "Of course", bubbled James and Julia, they would be delighted to sign Madam Chiang's recent book. Since the title page was already filled, they flipped to the back of the book, the recipe index page and - assuming I was a member of staff - signed the book as you see above. Those comments have been hidden in the back of the book until the recent blast of publicity for Nora Ephron's Movie, "Julie & Julia" motivated me to find them.