Christmas Memories With Recipes

by Julia Child (Editor), Jacques Pépin, Jenifer Lang

It's a merry Christmas indeed when you can spend it with 25 brilliant food writers, chefs, and home cooks, picking and choosing among their favorite recipes and settling in to read their warm memories of Christmases past. In Memories of a Non-Christmas Lover's Christmas, Bert Greene who is a Christmas lover recounts the first Christmas dinner he put together after the Great Depression, much to his mother's voiced chagrin although she secretly was footing the bill. Following the story are six marvelous dessert recipes from his mother's own Christmas dessert buffets, including creamy and decadent Pineapple Bavarois and Triple-Nutted Strudel, a crispy confection of buttered phyllo sheets and chopped almonds, hazelnuts, and walnuts. Beatrice Ojakangas prepares a smorgasbord of traditional cardamom-scented, Scandinavian Yuletide dishes still served in the Midwest, including Swedish Saffron Bread and Gorokakor, a Norwegian cookie. We travel back to the family farm in Cesenatico, Italy with Marcella Hazan to celebrate the first Christmas home after the war, a bittersweet memory of food and family (and Capeletti in Brodo) triumphing over the ruins left by retreating Germans and advancing Allies. Many more revelers add to the mix, including Martha Stewart, Jacques Pépin, Maida Heatter, and Betty Fussell. There are more than 150 recipes for an international array of Christmas favorites, including Jansson's Temptation- Swedish scalloped potatoes with anchovies, a Grand Marnier-flavored Eggnog recipe from Jehane Benoit in Quebec, and Lee Bailey's fine Southern Turkey and Corn-Bread Dressing.
Originally published in 1988, a few references to the Soviet Union and little descriptions such as Bryan Miller's reign as current restaurant critic for the New York Times are slightly funny and jarring, but in no way diminish the loveliness of the recipes and memories.

Genres: Cookbooks, Christmas, Cooking, Holiday

315 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Julia Carolyn Child was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for having brought French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which premiered in 1963.

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book at my mother's house. Although my book has the same title and some of the same contributors, the one I have was published in 1988. Although I was not familar with many of the contributors, except Julia Child, Martha Stewart, I enjoyed reading their Christmas remembrances and recipes.

It wouldn't be the holiday season without reading a holiday book...

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice holiday read & I have several recipes to try.

[Debbie S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, what can I say? I love it. Food memories especially at Christmas, are so pure. And the recipes, the ones I've tried, are darn good!

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't impressed with the recipes, but enjoyed the Christmas memories.

[False · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best part of this book for me was not the recipes, although they are interesting. But several of the essays by various food writers and chefs are recollections of holiday events that are truly side-splitting. There is Julia Child setting a Buche de Noel on fire, Richard Capon (author of Supper of the Lamb) recounting a drunken Santa eating wursts after midnight mass, a young Craig Claiborne setting a bucket of varnish on fire with a Christmas sparkler, etc. The essays also provide cross-cultural and 1980's memories as this is a re-issue of a book published first in 1988. One reason I sought this book out were the essays by Jane Grigson and Lee Bailey, both of whom I was reading lately.

I felt the best memories and recipes came from Julee Russo, owner of the former Silver Palate sh0p and cookbooks. She must truly have led a blessed childhood with a large, wealthy, extended family that actually liked each other and recipes you could easily put together on an often stressful holiday. My biggest gripe? Too many yeasted bread recipes or things that have aged so much over time that you wouldn't even want to eat them. I always say nothing ages faster than a cookbook or travel book.