Name: Julia Child Collection on Letterman, 1982-1994
Uploaded: 2020-03-08T00:17:06.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Julia Child Collection on Letterman, 1982-1994' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-03-08. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Julia Child Collection on Letterman, 1982-1994' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-03-08. Transcript available.

Julia Child Collection on Letterman, 1982-1994

The End of the Day
She is a charming woman
She has a brand new television series coming up on PBS
entitled Dinner at Julia's House
which premieres October 14th
It's a pleasure now to welcome Julia Child
This is really fun for me
because you're someone I've watched for many, many years
and have admired your work
and I think you're, in addition to being a talented cook
you're just a keen, genuine personality
Why didn't we hear any audio when you went in to see Sophia?
Well, you know, it was the microphone
I have one here and I had one there
and I get confused
It's like walking and chewing gum
That was fun anyway
Yeah, but I forgot to give her the sponge
I'll give you a sponge
They're good too, aren't they?
I've got a pocket
Well, hang on to that
You, uh...
You, uh...
You, you, uh, I know you're, you're taller than I thought you were going to be
and I don't want to be rude about this
but is it, is it okay to ask you how tall you are?
I'm six feet two without anything
and then my heels about an inch
I'm the shortest in my family
We come from California
and I guess that's good
Good food and everything else
There's plenty of sunshine
Yeah
Orange juice
Did you play sports when you were a young girl in high school?
Well, when I was in grade school
I was jumping center
and nobody could beat me
When I got to college
they changed the rules
and my function was over
Yeah, girls basketball used to be much
it was actually very primitive until recently
They didn't have anyone that was big enough
Yeah
So, I mean, that was really all I did
was do the jumping center
Now, when somebody picks up one of your cookbooks
Yeah
Are you responsible for new recipes?
Is part of your job as a chef
to always be thinking of different ways
to cook different things?
The first book that we had
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
number one was
classical cooking
It's all supposed to be done
in a classical way
and at that time
that was before the Nouvelle Cuisine came in
and it wasn't done to change
how things were done
Yeah
But now, I think with the Nouvelle Cuisine
one is much freer
Anything goes, doesn't it?
Anything goes
but I think the better background one has
the better a cook
because if you don't know much of anything
it's kind of that sloppy type of painting
where you throw the paint at something
and hope something will come out
But do you spend a certain part of your day thinking
today I'm going to think of a new way to fix ham
today I'm going to think of a new way to
you know what I'm saying?
Well, sometimes
because I have a monthly article in Parade Magazine
and I have to think of
what will be an interesting way
sometimes a new way
of doing something
but I'm often interested in
young people going into food as a profession
because you can always get a job
I mean, a good trained cook
can always get a job
and the salary starts at about $20,000
a year
but you have to like hard work
Now when you're testing a new idea
what is the kind of success rate?
Does it come out perfect the first time
or do you just get one and play with it?
You're roughly lucky if it does
for instance I was doing a new recipe
for fresh strawberry souffle
that kept collapsing all the time
and I kept working on it
then I used it in a usual dish like this
then it would rise up so high
it would stick to the top of the oven
and finally, after 29 tries
and we finally worked on a larger souffle dish
it's turned out very well
but it really took 29 ways to do it
and even most of the French chefs I've talked about
would say, no, I wouldn't bother with it
Is a souffle one of the most difficult things to get to?
No, it's automatic
but sometimes things don't work
like for our new edition of Mastering
for some reason the chocolate souffle that we had in it
began not to work anymore
because I think ingredients change
so I had to work about 8 or 10 chocolate souffles
which my husband happily ate
Oh, so now I was going to ask you about that
before we got one that really works
With the strawberry souffle, what do you do with the mistakes?
Your husband just eats them?
Well, we eat them
but he eats most of them
Does he know their mistakes when he's eating them?
Yes, he doesn't care
Eat virtually anything, Willie
The two that stuck to the oven
you know, the oven racks
this rolls right up through the oven rack
and stuck to the top
and he took a very nice Polaroid picture of it
which I have
Well, you folks were lucky to get out alive
you know that
I guess we were
Now, quickly, maybe it's impossible to say quickly
but what is the trick to getting a souffle to come up and stay up?
Well, it's to beat the egg whites properly
so that they're really up in stiff, shiny peaks
and then to fold them in properly
so that they don't collapse as they go in
I mean, otherwise it's absolutely automatic
but in the strawberry souffle, I had the fresh one
I had a puree and it was just too liquid
and it would go up like that
but there wasn't enough body to hold it up
Yeah
so I don't even go into what we did the 29th time
but I finally worked it out
so that it worked and still tasted fresh and not like strawberry jam
Yeah
Do they collapse automatically when you serve them or is that part of the trick?
Well, the difference between a souffle and a cake are really very much the same
thing
but a cake has more flour in it
so that the flour really hardens and the bubbles are baked into it so it stays
up
but with the souffle, the bubbles aren't hardened but they just have enough
body so that they'll hold up
until you get it to the table and cut it and serve it
and then boom, it begins going down a little bit
Now, at the last minute, you were kind enough to agree to cook something for us
tonight
and I certainly appreciate that
and we don't have a big deal here
I'll cook it if you'll eat it
I'll be happy to eat it
Okay
Your husband is still with us, isn't he?
Yes
All right, then I'll be happy to eat it
We'll be back with Julia Childs
It was entertaining though
Julia Child and I are here
Boy, this is a dream come true for me
I always envisioned myself involved in cooking something with you on television
and we're going to get to do it
Now, we have
We should do it together
Yeah, all right
We have
It's primitive, but it'll work, won't it?
Sure
All right, what are you going to make for us, Julia?
Well, what we're going to do is a French toasted ham and cheese sandwich called
a croque, monsieur
which is very good
It's very easy to do
Okay
If you'll sort of open that up, I'm going to butter the bread
All of your better ham is sealed in plastic, isn't it, Julia?
Yep, absolutely
I think that's the mark of any good pork product if it's sealed in
I'm making a little mustard butter here
All right
We don't have to be fancy
That's just like the name says, right?
Mustard butter
Mustard and butter
Kids used to call me that in high school
It's not hot dog mustard
It's not hot dog mustard
It's that kind of Dijon
Okay
How much of this ham would you like?
We have enough here to make a wallet, by the way
I think that's one slice
All right
One slice
You need one slice
Okay
I like mozzarella cheese
All right
I love cheese pretty much any way it comes
There you go
Look at that
Now look, they're the same size
Look at that
Yeah
Is that some sort of uniform packaging regulation?
The ham and cheese will be the same thing
Put that on and then have a big piece of cheese there
I'll make a double thing there
Now would you yourself eat this kind of thing as a snack late at night?
Oh, it's delicious
Okay
They've got mustard butter on there
Now you trimmed off the crusts of that bread, right?
And then I trimmed the crusts off
And then I'm going to trim this off
And then you can eat separately while you're cooking the sandwich
And this is what we do on the couch
We always throw it on the floor because nobody can see it
Oh, that's great
I like that
Now this is a very important thing
Take your hand and lean on it
Lean on it?
And the reason really, really lean on it quite hard
That's right
That's enough
And the reason for that is
And that's really a very important trick
Because that keeps the sandwich together while you're cooking it
So all we have to do now
So it's very important to lean on your ham, boys and girls
Regardless of what mom and dad said
Lean on your ham
Well, that's all right
I'm sorry, I was actually fearful of leaning on it too hard
But what you wanted to do is to keep together
Now you can tell me sweet nothing's while it's cooking
Because all it needs
You only need to cook it until the cheese begins to ooze out
And it's sort of lightly brown
And it's just delicious
Is there any kind of food that you yourself
Wouldn't eat?
Well, I hate fried food that's cooked in stinky fat
Some people like that
They say, no, we did a show on french fries
And we had fresh peanut oil every time
And some of the chaps on the crew said
Well, I don't like it
I've used greasy spoon fat
Oh, sure
Well, yeah
Would you rather have wine or beer with this?
Well, beer, I think
Is, well, whatever you want
Beer or wine
What do you want, guys?
Beer or wine?
Well, look at this lovely gift decanter. Julia brought the beer in it.
My, it's certainly festive, isn't it? Boy, that smells great.
It doesn't. That couldn't be easier. It's much better cooked in butter than
saute and then grilled, really.
And the pressing, leaning. You did a beautiful leaning job.
Thank you very much. Well, you have other things, tomatoes and stuff.
Well, I can garnish and you might give us a plate.
Oh, sure. A plate. You asked me that earlier. I'm sorry.
Now, you're not going to be doing any cooking on your new television show. Is
that correct?
Oh, yes.
You are going to cook.
It's a very lively show because it's a dinner party sequence.
And we go out and gather things like ham. Not ham.
You go out and gather ham, do you?
We go out through a big chicken processing pad, which is fascinating.
Oh, but talk about stinky. Isn't that...
Well, we didn't go through the stinky part, which is taking off the feathers.
Well, it's very interesting to see them all hanging by their feet like this and
just going around and around this building.
Yeah.
And they'll cut off a leg and cut off a wing and package it up.
You also went salmon fishing once, didn't you?
Salmon fishing. We went shrimp fishing and so forth.
It sounds like a fascinating deal.
Is that oozing out?
Yep. It's oozing a little bit.
Well, we'll let it ooze just a little bit more and then eat it.
I think that one sandwich will be enough for all of us, isn't it?
I'm sure it will.
Now, this can be done if somebody just was like shut-ins or anybody didn't have
a stove.
We just get a hot plate.
Yep.
Just get a hot plate.
Cut it apart nicely.
Oh, geez.
Excuse me, Julia.
Decorate it with two or three cherry tomatoes.
It's a lovely dull knife you gave me, David.
Oh, I'm sorry.
That was the end.
I think that came from the executive dining room and they like to keep the
knives dull up there.
It doesn't really need decoration.
Would you like to see a menu while you have your beer?
All right.
There you are.
Okay.
How close are we?
Boy, that's beautiful.
That's it.
That's very nicely.
And we give this a...
Did the cheese ooze enough?
The cheese is oozing a little bit.
Now, do you want me to eat this or do you want it?
You want it?
Yes.
I'd like to see you eat it.
Okay.
I do have to...
You can just eat it with your fingers if you like.
I'm going to eat it here with my fingers, but I do have one little thing to do.
What was that?
I have an artificial tooth there and the cheese will just pull it out anyway,
so I can't do that.
All right.
All right.
How does it taste?
Is that pretty good?
Well...
It's a...
It's a...
That's very good.
You know what that is?
Is that unsalted butter?
Mm-hmm.
Well, see, that's it.
I don't like the way that stuff tastes.
Oh, you want more salt in it?
Well, no.
It's not that I'm just accustomed to the other kind.
But the sandwich itself is great.
But what I got there was a little...
Well, you need more m