COURTESY JANICE YAP Julia Child will be 90 tomorrow.

Gougeres are cheesy, crispy puffs

Tomorrow is the 90th birthday of Julia Child, the grande dame of French cuisine. Across the nation, celebrations are planned in honor of her contributions to the American palate, with proceeds to benefit the Julia Child Endowment for Culinary Research in France. The endowment funds the Julia Child Honorarium Award, which provides for study in France for culinary educators, students, researchers, writers and chefs. One of last year's honorarium winners was Punahou family and consumer sciences teacher Janice Yap, who spent June touring France, then compiled this account of her adventure.

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By Janice Yap
Special to the Star-Bulletin

Julia Child enabled me to experience France, its culture and cuisine via the five senses. It was a summer adventure that I will share with my students.

I felt the fresh produce at the point of harvest and inhaled the scents of fines herbes. I saw the vivid hues of sun-ripened fruits and vegetables in gardens, in orchards and on the stands. I recorded the sounds and sights of the open market and savored that first bite from artistically plated dishes.

Throughout the regions of France, I learned about cooking techniques, dietary habits and what the French value as a people. I entered the culture through the cuisine.

My education began at the Association Cuisine et Tradition in Arle, in Provence, southern France. I lived with the owners, Madeleine and Erick Vedel, and they allowed me to be part of their family and "aunt" to their sons, Leo, 5, and Jonas, 7 months.

COURTESY JANICE YAP Janice Yap's snapshots from France include this one of Madeleine Vedel and son Jonas placing an empty wine bottle into a recycling bin in Arles.

Born and raised in Provence, Erick not only knew the cuisine and recipes by heart, but had studied and written about the region's myths and history. American-born Madeleine translated for me and acted as tour guide.

My bedroom was on the third floor of a thick, stone-walled medieval house, above the narrow crowded streets. From my window, I saw gardens in the backyard. Even city dwellers had potted herbs sitting on kitchen windowsills or balconies, catching the sunlight.

I lived the life of a resident: walking to the open market with a wicker basket tied to a cart filled with empty wine bottles. I was amazed at the amount of wine the French drink. We deposited the bottles in the recycling bin at the town square, freeing the basket for soon-to-be purchased produce.

The fishmonger was the first stop, as Erick selected a tiny John Dory, a monkfish head, conger eel, mullet and small crayfish. Later he would make Soupe de Poissons, served with croutons and rouille (mayonnaise with chilies and garlic). Next we bought a slab of tuna, several pounds of Cancel oysters, mussels and saltwater escargots. Then on to the miniature vegetables: eggplants, small-leaf basil, haricots verts, artichokes, tomatoes and garlic. We had enough fresh ingredients to cook for three days.

I had never seen such a variety of colors and shapes.

COURTESY JANICE YAP The open market at Arles offered bins full of garlic and onions.

We purchased fougasse (a type of focaccia bread) and multigrain boule from the baker. Madeleine selected at least five cheeses, hard to semi-soft, from Claudine, the cheese-maker. She then chose a variety of honeys from Sophie, the beekeeper: a flowery lavender, a light acacia and a rich chestnut. And we could not pass the olive vendor without picking up a variety for the evening's tasting.

These lively marketplaces throughout France serve as centers for both commerce and socializing, providing a kaleidoscope of color, tastes and smells.

At 5 p.m. each day, we donned our linen aprons, read our recipes, stuffed them in our front pockets, washed our hands and began the prep. Erick had us using fork tines to grate large cloves of garlic seasoned with lemon juice and fleur de sel salt. We wrapped caul fat around ground pork, shelled oysters, deboned anchovies and cod. We diced, chopped, minced, puréed and whisked.

Our kitchen-classroom was a windowless room at the far back of the house. The walls were so thick it felt as cool as a subterranean cellar.

The surrounding counters held kitchen utensils, knives, mortars, pestles and choppers. Homemade liqueurs aged with cherry pits, pears and apricots lined the walls. Beside these sat cheese preserved in olive oils. Bottles held vinegars and oils flavored with herbs and spices. Salted duck breasts dried on a stainless-steel rack. Bay leaf branches, thyme, oregano, rosemary and sage sat in wicker baskets. Fruits macerated with sugar in a copper pot, waiting to be made into jams. Cartons of salt from Normandy and the Camargue regions were placed alongside the gallon jugs of olive oil. And, of course, there were cases upon cases of wine.

We prepared at least four dishes a night. Among them were Pissaladeire, a French pizza; chicken and beef recipes from Apicius, the Roman epicurean; and pork wrapped in caul fat simmered in red wine. We roasted spring lamb with rosemary in the convection oven.

On field trips, the Vedels packed a wicker basket of the previous night's cooking lesson: jambon (thin slices of ham), Nicoise salade with rice, green beans sautéed with garlic, penne pasta with potatoes and pistou (pesto), brandade (salt cod) in puff pastry, along with an assortment of cheeses and sausages.

Throughout the week we picnicked at a variety of spots: under the sycamore trees atop the village of Seguret, along fields where the white horses of the Camargue grazed, near the deserted medieval citadel of Les Baux-de-Provence.

From Arles I traveled to Burgundy, to the French cookery school La Varenne, founded by the noted writer and teacher Anne Willan. Then came visits to Paris, Normandy, Brittany and the Loire. My quest was to find the open markets in every city, to sample the regional specialties and to find the vegetable gardens.

COURTESY JANICE YAP Anne Willan and Randall Price made fresh pasta with spring vegetables at the La Varenne cooking school in Burgundy.

I cooked in the 17th-century kitchen of Chateau du Fey at La Varenne, at a Michelin three-star restaurant and at the wood-burning brick oven on the first floor of a pigeon house. I sampled cheeses in the "cave," a storage cellar beneath the west wing of the chateau. These caves are dark, damp, cool cellars, built in basements or on the ground floor behind garages. They are the perfect temperature for storing wines and cheeses. Jams are also kept here, along with potatoes and onions.

Wherever I stayed, the French dined at leisure around the table like a family, enjoying the conversation, the company and the food, one course at a time, savoring the seasonal handmade perfection. The French in every part of the country serve bread, cheese and wine at every dinner.

I will share the traditions and customs that I gathered in French kitchens, open markets and gardens with my students by planting a garden. Here they will smell the soil, harvest the fresh herbs and watch the butterflies.

Since returning, I have visited the open market and garden in Makiki, the herb garden at Kapiolani Community College and the heirloom tomato fields in Waialua. Vegetables are waiting to be harvested, prepared and tasted by my students — around the table, like a family, with cut flowers and lively conversation.

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