The Best of Julia By Nancy Ross Ryan On Friday, September 8, Julia Child sat down to dinner with a couple hundred of her best friends in the Ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton, Chicago. "Dinner with Julia" was sponsored by the Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Wine & Food (Julia co-founded the AIWF in 1981), to benefit Days of Taste, AIWF's national children's elementary school educational program. Everyone in the room -- guests who spent $250 a ticket and those who ponyed up $1,000 to sit at her table, the 16 Chicago chefs who cooked for the lavish appetizer reception and the sit-down dinner -- regarded Julia as a very good friend. Consider, for example, 23-year-old Joshua Butler, seated beside me, who is the personal chef for Governor Jeb Bush of Florida. "Mastering the Art of French Cooking was my first cookbook," he said. "I still have it -- it's dog-eared by now. Julia taught me how to cook." Celebrity food writer, John Mariani, was seated on Julia's right. "I owe her everything: marriage, two children and a career," he said describing how making his first seductive chocolate mousse from her cookbook landed him a first date with his wife and lured him into his profession. Legendary Chicago restaurateur Gordon Sinclair, seated on Julia's left and cookbook author and Green City Market founder Abby Mandel, also seated at table No. 1, were co-masters of ceremony. "When Julia introduced me to the then-new Cuisinart, she changed my life and my profession," said Mandel. Gordon Sinclair, said that Julia was such a momentous influence in his life that he wanted to thank her by giving her a choice of gifts. "Either this chandelier," he said, pointing to the massive, rectangular bank of thousands of crystal stalactites in the ballroom ceiling, "or this 1912 bottle of Margaux. " He removed from a velvet pouch an 88-year-old (Julia was 88 on her recent birthday) Premier Grand Cru Bordeaux and presented it to her. Julia, who had come up to the podium to join Mandel and Sinclair, took the microphone, along with the priceless bottle of red wine, and said, "Thank you. You know, when my late husband Paul and I first returned from France we brought a case of 1945 Margaux along with us. We knew it wasn't ready to drink, that it needed to age, but we couldn't wait, so we started drinking it, bottle by bottle. The last bottle was not quite ready. Now this 1912 is ready to drink!" Julia brought the house down during the live charity auction, when the bidding on a chef's jacket signed by all participating chefs and by Julia -- was stuck at $2,750. Julia raised both hands and shouted, "Do I hear three thousand?" After a stunned silence the ballroom thundered applause, and the bid for $3.000 that followed was topped by a bid of $3,250. That's what friends are for. Crêpes Farcies et Roulees (Stuffed and Rolled French Pancakes) Like many Americans, I learned to cook -- really cook -- from Julia Child's ground breaking 1961 cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1.Even as a newlywed, I kept a diary of my culinary high points. This Thanksgiving I nostalgically turned to my preparation diary for Thanksgiving, 1961: Company coming Saturday after Thanksgiving. Sick of serving turkey Tetrazini. Great new cookbook. Why not French crêpes? Stuffed with leftover turkey. Bought a real cast iron crêpe pan. The Day of Dinner: A.M.: Make Turkey filling and mornay sauce. Refrigerate. Piece of cake. 4 hours before dinner: Make crêpe batter in blender. Refrigerate. So simple. 2 hours before dinner: Scrape first crêpe -- actually, lump -- stuck to bottom of crêpe pan into garbage. Oil pan. Make second crêpe. One hour before dinner (still plenty of time): Make fresh batch of crêpe batter. Lay paper towels over the 25 "crêpes" in garbage can. 45 minutes before dinner: Why do they stick? What am I doing wrong? How hard can pancakes be? 30 minutes before dinner: Third batch of batter. Keep oiling the pan. Getting pretty fast at wrecking crêpes. One more try and then it's Turkey Tetrazini. 20 minutes before dinner: Fourth batch. Finally! A crêpe. Not, as Julia writes, "about 1/16 inch thick." But it's a crêpe. And another. Oops! Bad one. Another good one. I think I've got it Quick! Stuff, roll, sauce and into the oven with them. Final score: Garbage -- 76; Dinner -- 24. Company raved about the main course!! Oh, I said, just simple French crêpes.

SOCIAL STUDY - November 2000

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