On cooking for Julia Child

Lora Brody visits Jungle Red to celebrate the launch of her blog, "Writing on Air" where she writes about food, fiction, and Julia Child whom she considered a friend and colleague. No slouch herself in the food department, Lora has been a long-time New England food celebrity who ran a successful catering business, wrote more than a dozen cookbooks (including "The New England Table" and "Chocolate American Style"), and teaches cooking classes each year in the Dordogne area of France.

HALLIE: When did you first meet Julia?

LORA: I’d just started my catering business. Ruth Lockwood, the producer of Julia’s TV show, hired me to cater a dinner party. I found out close to the date that it was for Ruth and her husband and Julia and Paul.

HALLIE: What did you do?

LORA: Freak out! And then I killed myself to make that meal.

HALLIE: But it was after that, you got to know Julia as a friend

LORA: I was one of a handful of women who started the first women’s food service organization. Among others there was me, Ruth, Sarah Moulton who is now the executive chef at Gourmet, Margaret Romagnoli, and Julia. We had meetings at each others’ homes, and one day I invited Julia to my house to dinner.

We had dozens of Julia rehearsal dinners. I remember I served nicoise olives. She ate one and tossed a pit into the yard and said, "Oh you’ll have an olive tree out there any day now." Then there was cold beet borscht—I made the consommé base from scratch. I served it in soup bowls with handles, and Julia was the first person I ever saw pick up the soup bowl by those handles and drain it.

My boys were eight and ten, and when it came time for the main course, they put on chef’s hats and aprons and Groucho Marx glasses and carried in a silver tray with a rubber chicken, garnished with tomatoes and parsley. Julia grabbed that chicken by its neck and feet and pulled it. “Oh, pollo al dente!” she said. “You can certainly stretch this into quite a meal!”

HALLIE: What a memory. So she really was just as offbeat and delightful as she seemed to us mere mortals.

Lora will be dropping by today, answering questions and reminiscing about Julia.

Please, join in -- and visit Lora at Lora Brody: Writing on Air.