Long before “Julie & Julia,” Martha Stewart learned to cook with a copy of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”
Stewart was 19 and in Paris for the first time. She happened to head into the Le Cordon Bleu and bought Julia Child’s legendary cookbook.
“I cooked the entire book. I just didn’t write about it,” she says with a laugh.
“I learned so much that I got volume two and did all the French breads and croissants,” Stewart says. “My daughter grew up eating all my experiments and she still thinks my croissants were the best she’s ever had.”
Stewart may not have put her stories on paper back then, but the entertaining maven is taking her years of kitchen experience to the small screen this week.
Her latest project, “Martha Stewart’s Cooking School,” premiering Sunday at 4 p.m. on PBS, goes back to basics.
Inspired by her 2008 book of the same name, the new half-hour series will focus on one topic per week, starting with the all-versatile egg.
This won’t be “the normal dump-and-stir” viewers see on most cooking shows, Stewart tells The News.
“On my daily show with a live audience, I didn’t get enough time in those six-minute segments to do the real basics.”
Each “Cooking School” episode will show at-home chefs how to master a variety of cooking methods.
Stewart plans to teach at least three techniques per episode. The first covers every imaginable method of cooking an egg, her favorite breakfast item. Recipes will be available immediately online.
“It’s a real teaching course, so you learn a lot,” stresses Stewart. “You’ll know exactly what poaching is, what steaming is, what braising is, what sautéing is, things that, if you know how to do, is so easy. You spend a lot of money going to college, so how about spending a little bit of time to make some really good food?”
She’ll also bring on experts. Viewers can look forward to appearances by master butcher Pat LaFrieda and Italian chef Cesare Casella. As the series continues, lessons will get more difficult with each week. By December, home cooks will be pan-searing Muscovy duck breasts and poaching salmon steaks.
Eventually, “Cooking School” will also branch off into a baking series.
“We get so many questions, but the top one is about how to make a cheesecake without a crack,” Stewart says. “That sounds funny, but almost everybody’s cheesecake cracks down the middle, but mine doesn’t — and yours won’t if you use my recipe.”
It’s a busy time for Stewart. In addition to her new show, in two weeks she is hosting the first-ever “American Made” awards in New York City.
Source : nydailynews[dot]com
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