Julia Child Brought Real Food to the Modern World

Julia Child

In the 1960s, a movement began to rekindle quality food, you know, the kind of fresh food that is grown on farms. Michio Kushi came to the United States to teach macrobiotics in the 1950s, but he couldn’t find good enough quality food for his classes. After World War II, the modern world of the United States had embraced technology, mass production and adulterated, processed food, designed in the lab mainly for ease of transport and lengthy storage. In restaurants we had what I call, “the white bucket” fake foods, foods made from mixes provided by corporation headquarters. At home, we had frozen food dinners, Velveeta cheese, American cheese slices, frozen sausages, frozen pizza, cake mixes, instant coffee, I could go on forever listing the faux foods that replaced real foods people used to cook and eat for healthy meals. Even something as simple as an egg had undergone processing that had altered the very nature of an egg. All of these conveniences were a relief from the often hard labor of cooking, but they were not a relief for our overall health.

I still remember the scene in the movie, “Infamous,” in which the writer, cosmopolitan Truman Capote, on a 1959 research trip to Kansas, could not find real cheese. He is standing, lost, in front of a huge display of Velveeta processed cheese, the only cheese in town.

In the movie, "Infamous," Truman Capote 

contemplates the cheese desert in Kansas

Michio Kushi couldn’t find good food so he turned to an import/export business back in Japan, Mitoku. By 1967, he had created his own small grocer called Erewhon (Named after the utopian novel of the same name, Nowhere spelled backwards, it now was everywhere!) that provided fresh vegetables, imported Japanese foods, including sea vegetables and whole grain brown rice, beans from American farmers, fresh sour dough bread, homemade jams and jellies and natural beauty products. A revolution had begun. Countless Mom & Pop health food stores opened, including Autumn Harvest, which saved our lives one freezing winter in Chicago; A New Leaf, where I bought my first macrobiotic cookbook by Eunice Farmilant and  Bread & Circus, a small chain in Massachusetts and who could forget, the indomitable, Trader Joe's. Fifty years later, we also have Whole Foods, a wonderfully monstrous chain of natural food markets!

Similarly, Julia Child, in the early 1940s, in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, while working in the Office of Strategic Services, couldn’t abide the awful food in the barracks, so she and her then, friend Paul, soon to become her husband, ventured out into the city for real fresh food, Asian food.

Paul Child had also spent a good deal of time in Paris where he learned what quality food was. To this day, the United States is not allowed to send our adulterated rBGH dairy to France. By the way, have you EVER SEEN French school lunches? Compared to school lunches in the U.S.? And, while we’re at it, how about the school lunches in Africa? Talk about whole grains! In fact, many of our fake foods, popular and accepted as food in the United States, are banned abroad.

American School Lunch: nothing real here

French School Lunch: real food!

African School Lunch: real food!

In 1963, Julia Child began the first season of her now classic TV show, “The French Chef." Julia was not only cooking with whole, fresh, quality foods, she was cooking on television! She was educating the country mired in artificial foods what real food actually was! Sure, for a good many years, Julia’s meals were considered gourmet - fancy French food - but not all! She also cooked peasant food: good simple stews to be eaten with fresh bread, broiled fish, roasted chicken, simple omelettes, and baked apples for dessert. Along the way, she taught us how to go to the store or farmer’s market and choose fresh meats, fish and vegetables. 

Julia at the market

One of the biggest things Julia accomplished was after the fact of her groundbreaking TV show, that is the interest in real food that in turn created new chefs interested in growing their own organic gardens - chefs like Alice Waters, who, in turn, reached out to young people and children to create organic gardens in schools, to teach children about how food grows, where it comes from, how to cook it, how to make it their own! Now many schools across the country have school gardens! Thank you, Alice! Thank you, Julia! More chefs appeared, chefs like Michael Pollan, Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Anthony Bourdain, whose enthusiasm for real food reached even more people. 

Chef Alice Waters and her Edible Schoolyard project

Not exactly a chef, but as the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama began her health program, “Let’s Move,” by encouraging, not only exercise, but school gardens, organic gardens, and organic school lunches. Michelle would surprise students with her visits to their school gardens. She created an organic garden at the White House. 

The First Lady Michelle Obama

encouraging students to learn about food

Michelle Obama also worked hard to do away with “food deserts” in this country by encouraging supermarkets to open in places without fresh food sources. Walgreens and Walmart responded with fresh foods in their stores. Two new Whole Foods were opened, one in Chicago, another in Detroit to fill the need.

Julia created ripples of goodness, far-reaching into the future! When we watch the movies created in her honor, we get a sense of how hard she worked and how long she worked hard! When we watch her on TV, she makes it all seem effortless, but we now know how much resistance Julia received for trying to teach people how to cook! She even paid for the food until the show got its sea legs! Could anyone imagine that when we watch her giggle at her mistakes or moan her appreciation of really good food? “Mmmm!”

Not everyone thanks Michio Kushi for bringing us Erewhon, creating somewhere out of Nowhere. Not everyone remembers what it was like before hummus and whole wheat bread were on every supermarket shelf. When a tuna fish sandwich or a dried up hunk of cod was as close as you could get to a vegetarian meal. Ok, maybe a tiny wilted iceberg salad, if you weren’t that hungry. Thank you, Michio. 

Thank you, Julia! 

©Patricia Goodwin, 2022

Patricia Goodwin is the author of When Two Women Die, about Marblehead legends and true crime and its sequel, Dreamwater, about the Salem witch trials and the vicious 11-year-old pirate Ned Low. Holy Days is her third novel, about the sexual, psychological seduction of Gloria Wisher and her subsequent transformation. Her latest novel is Low Flying, about two women suffering psychologically abusive marriages who find and nurture each other. Her newest poetry books are Telling Time By Apples, And Other Poems About Life On The Remnants of Olde Humphrey Farme, illustrated by the author, and Java Love: Poems of a Coffeehouse.

Within this blog, Patricia writes often about non-fiction subjects that inspire or disturb her, hopefully informing and inspiring people to be happy, healthy and free.

***Disclaimer: The information on this blog is not meant to substitute for medical care. Please consult your physician before beginning any new dietary guidelines. 

“STOP Eating the White Man’s Food”

Native-American Warrior Dance

I’m quoting. I’m quoting a Native-American young man who, upon visiting his cousin, saw that his cousin was suffering: he was overweight, sluggish, sick, depressed and feeling hopeless. He told his cousin, “You gotta stop eating the white man’s food! I did, and I got my life together. I’m feeling a lot better, clearer, stronger, more alive.”

No one should eat the White Man’s Food. What is the white man’s food? Red meat, processed meats, sugar drinks, artificial foods, fast foods, white flour baked goods, non-organic dairy, GMOs, chemicals, dyes, preservatives, trans fats, added salts and sugars.

I read this young man’s story in a comment. I believe in comments. Real ones, that is, not those turds dropped by trolls. Real, serious comments from real people who know something. Often, the people commenting know more than the author of the article itself. I call it “word-on-the-street,” to quote Christopher Walken in Suicide Kings, word-on-the-street is “Solid!”

I believe this young man’s story.

The reason I believe him is because I have not eaten the white man’s food for over 40 years. I’ve been macrobiotic for 45 years and counting. My diet is based on brown rice and vegetables with some fish, chicken and organic eggs. I’m not that strict, really. I enjoy a little scotch in the evenings, and a small dish of frozen yogurt. But, I am 67 years old, not on any medications, and doing pretty well.

Back to the Native-American man. What did he advise his cousin to eat? Whole grains, beans, vegetables, lots of vegetables, foods we can actually get, unlike the buffalo, which we nearly destroyed. If anyone wanted to eat buffalo, please remember you must consider what the buffalo is eating and where you live. Only people who live out of doors, in buffalo country, where the buffalo graze on clean land may eat buffalo. Wild game is not desirable unless you are living wild; it is very hard to balance game with our modern lifestyle, which tends to be on hardscape, streets, sidewalks, houses. This hardscape, and the stress of modern life, are why we are attracted to so much sugar - however, sugar kills.

Besides the buffalo, we have also nearly destroyed the corn, another traditional Native-American food. Almost all corn (and also soybeans) in the United States is Genetically Modified. Be very careful to eat only organic corn and soybeans!

I remember, and I have not been able to find him, another young man, not Native-American, who was, years ago, trying to help the Native-Americans to regain their native foods, especially beans which can be obtained or grown relatively easily. But, we live in the modern world, and people can now go to almost any store or natural foods co-op to buy good quality beans, whole grains and vegetables. I remember this young man’s open hand holding pinto beans, a bean marked with the reddish-brown spots of a pinto horse. I eat pinto beans, they’re sweet and creamy, very delicious.

I say white man’s food, but many African-Americans have also forgotten their traditional foods. They have turned to fast foods as a staple diet or to regular, American fare. However, African-American food is fantastically delicious! I grew up Italian, and very early got the impression that people who have suffered war or other deprivation, like slavery, have learned how to forage and make good food out of what other, more privileged people, consider weeds or undesirable parts of the animal. I grew up eating tripe and chicken feet and gizzards and dandelion greens, not necessarily in the same dish, but I was no stranger to native grasses and parts of the animal most cooks throw out. Maybe I never really ate the white man’s food. My mother railed, “Don’t eat anything from a factory!” She picked dandelion greens in vacant lots while the neighbors laughed at her. 

Native-Americans were taken from their native lands and marched to arid, hostile land over hundreds of miles along the Trail of Tears. Many died or sickened, and when they arrived, they had nothing. They were not allowed to leave the reservations or to get jobs. They were not allowed to speak in their native languages or teach their children the native dances. Have things changed? Yes and no. Native-Americans can now move freely, but, in this modern day, there are still more dead and missing among our Native-Americans than any other group. 

Whole grains cost very little and are simple to cook. Brown rice triples in volume when cooked and lasts for days in a bowl win the counter, covered with a sushi mat. An easy brown rice recipe follows this post, as does a basic recipe for beans, and a nutritious condiment called gomasio, made from roasted sesame seeds and sea salt to sprinkle on your cooked brown rice. 

I say white man’s food, but there’s no reason anyone should eat any of its poison. It’s not about race anyway, it’s about power. Power to the people. Take back your traditional foods. Take back your power! Everyone should learn to cook for themselves and their families. It’s the only way back to health. Remember.

Brown Rice

2 cups short grain brown rice (This is simply the best, highest quality brown rice.  Short grain is the strongest brown rice, good for strengthening our conditions,)

3 cups spring water (1 1/2 cups water to each cup of brown rice)

pinch sea salt

Wash brown rice in a strainer.  Put clean rice into a pan with a good strong base, like a Revereware pan because it will need to simmer for 45 minutes and you don't want the bottom to burn.

Measure 3 cups spring water, pour into pan with washed rice. 

Place pan on stove, turn flame up high until water boils, then turn down flame immediately until rice is gently simmering.  Then, cover tightly and let simmer for 45 minutes.

When you remove the cover, your rice should be fluffy and separated, perhaps slightly stuck to the bottom.  This is okay.  If "bottom rice" is golden in color, toasty looking, it is very delicious and tastes great added to your miso soup!

Don't worry if your brown rice isn't perfect on your first try!  Many people have to make several pots before they get it right!  Even if it's wrong, too mushy (Next time add a little less water!) too dry (Next time add a little more water!) you can eat the rice and it tastes great!

Beans

1 cup beans

2-3 cups water

Small piece of kombu sea vegetable (available at Whole Foods or Eden Foods online) Kombu is not necessary to cook beans, but it does help soften the beans and eliminates gas from the bean)

Wash beans in a strainer, you can work the beans a little with your hands to begin the softening process.

Place beans in pan, water to cover. Bring to a boil, simmer for 1-2 hours if using dry beans. Skim the foam from the top to eliminate gas from the beans.

You may also buy canned beans from a trustworthy source such as Whole Foods or Eden Foods. (I cannot recommend Goya beans as they are not organic and contain a lot of salt.) When I cook with canned beans, I add chopped onion and garlic sautéed in olive oil. Yum!

Gomasio

One quarter cup of unhulled sesame seeds contains 35% of our required calcium for the day.

To make gomasio, please wash about two cups of unhulled sesame seeds in a fine strainer until the water runs clear. Then, drain the water carefully by tilting the strainer and tossing the seeds from side to side in the strainer. You may let the strainer sit on a clean towel for a few minutes, occasionally tilting it to get more water out.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. When the seeds are almost dry, or completely dry, place them in a shallow glass pan in a 350 degree oven, turning them with a wooden spoon every 10 minutes or so. Seeds are done when they are a golden brown. Your kitchen will also be infused with a delicious aroma of roasted nuts!

Place hot seeds into a wooden bowl. To make gomasio, place approximately 3 TBS of sea salt to 2 cups seeds into a suribachi bowl or mortar bowl. If you don’t have either of these, you may use an ordinary wooden bowl. Crush the sea salt with a spiraling motion of the pestle. When sea salt is fine, add the seeds and crush them into the sea salt with a spiraling motion. Do not crush all the seeds, leave some whole for more flavor. 

You may use hot seeds for gomasio making, but let the gomasio cool before placing it into a glass jar for storage. If you wish to save some of the seeds for adding to salads, breads, cookies, etc., put some aside in a wooden bowl and let cool, stirring occasionally to speed up the process. Store these in a glass jar for future use.

Like any other time consuming process in the kitchen, gomasio making may be done efficiently around other activities during the day, and will not seem to take up much time as soon as you have a method down. Gomasio usually lasts a few weeks. Once you have tasted good homemade gomasio, you’ll always want some around!

©Patricia Goodwin, 2019

Patricia Goodwin is the author of When Two Women Die, about Marblehead legends and true crime and its sequel, Dreamwater, about the Salem witch trials and the vicious 11-year-old pirate Ned Low. Holy Days is her third novel, about the sexual, psychological seduction of Gloria Wisher and her subsequent transformation. Her newest poetry books are Telling Time By Apples, And Other Poems About Life On The Remnants of Olde Humphrey Farme, illustrated by the author, and Java Love: Poems of a Coffeehouse. Patricia has enjoyed the health and well-being of the macrobiotic diet for over 40 years. She has written many articles about health and the dangers of GMOs.

***Disclaimer: The information on this blog is not meant to substitute for medical care. Please consult your physician before beginning any new dietary guidelines.