Baking with Julia (1996)
Baking With Julia is an American television cooking program produced by Julia Child and the name of the book which accompanied the series. Each episode featured one pastry chef or baker who demonstrates professional techniques that can be performed in a home kitchen. It was taped primarily in Child's Cambridge, Massachusetts house and was aired over four television seasons from 1996 to 1999; it is still occasionally aired in reruns on Create on PBS digital stations. The series was created as a spinoff of the Cooking with Master Chefs series due to a significant response to the baking episodes and was a nation co-production of A La Carte Communications and Maryland Public Television. The accompanying book was written by baker and food writer Dorie Greenspan with assistance from Child and food tester David Nussbaum, and includes brief biographical sketches of the chefs involved in the show.
Seasons & Episode
Martha Stewart joins Julia to bake a three-tiered wedding cake. She prepares the batter, bakes each layer in graduated diamond-shaped cake forms, and makes and chills enough vanilla-rum buttercream to ice the entire cake.
Martha Stewart completes the wedding cake by assembling the individual cakes that serve as building blocks. The "mortar" between layers is a baked crunchy almond and egg white wafer spread with apricot jam. Then she decorates with icing and candy fruit garnish.
Nancy Silverton, owner of La Brea Bakery in Los Angeles, bakes a crème fraîche brioche torte with fresh fruit poached in white wine.
Master chef Michel Richard, owner of Los Angeles' renowned Citrus restaurant, works his magic with puff pastry, making mini-pizzas and then deep-fried parmesan cheese twists. Master teacher Alice Medrich bakes vanilla hazelnut biscotti.
Lauren Groveman, New York cooking teacher and cookbook author, demonstrates how easy it is to make European ethnic specialties like rich brown pumpernickel loaves and crunchy matzos.
Johanne Killeen, chef and co-owner of Al Forno Restaurant in Providence, RI, bakes two American classics: gingerbread baby cake and Johnnycake cobblers.
Marcel Desaulniers, chef and owner of the Trellis Restaurant in historic Williamsburg, VA and author of Death by Chocolate, covers oven-roasted plum cakes with chocolate sauce and makes chocolate-mint nightcaps.
Nick Malgieri, author of several award-winning books on baking, demonstrates authentic Sicilian specialities like savory pizza rustica and fig-filled treats called "X" cookies.
Mary Bergin, of Las Vegas, NV, demonstrates how to make a vanilla chiffon cake with a twist—a full vanilla flavor and a thin, flexible shape, ideal for rolling with chocolate-laced walnut mousse.
Markus Farbinger, master teacher at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY, bakes a warm poppyseed torte with poached apricots.
Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, a husband-and-wife baking team from Toronto, demonstrate two different kinds of naan, an Indian flatbread. Minnesota cookbook author Beatrice Ojakangas makes a Scandinavian flatbread called Swedish hardtack.
Gale Gand, pastry chef and owner of Chicago's Vanilla Bean Bakery, creates a "not-your-usual" lemon meringue pie for one. Florida baker David Blom makes cookies, including delicately curved tuiles and tasty ginger snaps.
Flo Braker, a San Francisco baker, author, and cooking teacher, turns out two crunchy butter galettes. One is a sweet treat with fresh berries and whipped cream, while the other features tomatoes and savory herbs. Leslie Mackie, owner of Seattle's Macrina Bakery, demonstrates a raspberry-fig crostata.
