I was pretty amazed to see that this lowly kitchen was Julia Child’s domain. It is lacking counter space, has just a single sink, pretty minimal storage and not many gadgets and yet what a gourmande. This was definitely the highlight at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian.
Julia’s pots and pans were nothing like what chefs today have, and generally famous chefs today design, produce and sell their pots, pans and gadgets- Paula Deen, Mario Batali, Rachael Ray, Wolfgang Puck, Jamie Oliver… But not Julia, she bought some copper pots and she was good to go.
My recent House Beautiful featured various designers and chefs with their favorite pot or pan. Mostly they were ugly, worn and loved. A few, I think, were trying to hype their own line of cookware. But the old ugly ones you knew were the ones these people could not part with.
This beloved pot of mine was a gift from my parents when Andrew and I got married. The colors were very in. So, we’ve had it thirty years and somewhere in the midst of those years it became the popcorn pot. That is all it’s used for now. But every time we have popcorn, this is the pot we use. Like a lot of cooking around our house, popcorn was Andrew’s domain, but lately I have kind of gotten the hang of making it and I’m not left with a cup of old maids in the bottom anymore.
Do you have anything like this, ugly and worn but you love it best and can’t bear the thought of replacing it with new?
I’m going to be in DC so hope to catch this musuem. Great post!
Julia’s kitchen is in the basement of the museum, I think they never imagined it would become popular.