Julia Child and Tartelettes au Chocolat

January 12, 2009
Tokyo, Japan
2C, Chilly with Clear Skies

I have a lot of admiration for Julia Child.  I love the way she lived her life and her sense of adventure.  She has lived the life that I try and live.  From volunteering for the American Red Cross during WWII, becoming a high ranking officer at OSS and living and experiencing cultures from around the world, she truly was a multi-cultural and learned human being.  I cannot imagine what it was like living in Sri Lanka and China in the 1940s!  And what I admire most about her is how she dove into culture by learning about local cuisine.  She certainly taught us a lot about French cuisine!

I have several of her cookbooks including the Master of French Cooking (Vol 1 and 2) which sadly I have been intimidated by it so haven't tried many of the recipes.  I spend more time looking at it and dreaming what it would be like to make some of the recipes.  I do have her basic cookbook (The Way to Cook) which is my cooking bible!  One of my goals in life is to make all the cake, pastry and bread recipes in Master of French Cooking.  So I started taking bread making classes in Japan so I get the basics which will prepare me to tackle the Master of French Cooking.  This year I also started a cake making class. 

Why am I doing this in Japan? The Japanese are the world's number 1 francophiles.  They are obsessed with everything French and especially French cuisine.  Almost every famous patisserie and Michelin starred French restaurant has a branch in Japan.  Tokyo is known by foodies as the single finest French restaurant destination outside of France.  Tour d'Argent, Taillevent, Paul Bocuse, Alain Ducasse, you name it, every famous French restaurant and chef has a restaurant in Tokyo.  So the techniques the cooking schools teach in Japan for bread and cake making are French.  I've been reporting on my bread making class where I am learning French techniques but the ingredients make the bread more palatable to the Japanese than the French (Japanese love soft bread).  Cake though is a different story.  They have perfected it and every French style pastry, cake, tart, etc I have had reminded me of times in Angelina, Laduree and Fauchon in Paris!  So this year I'm taking cake making in addition to bread making.

I took my first class on Monday which which was a holiday in Japan.  It was supposed to be an easy class and we made tartelette aux chocolat (ie, chocolate tarts).  Well, making the crust was pretty complicated.  We filled it with a ganache and finished it with a chocolate glaze.  The taste — heavenly.  Julia Child will have been proud of the taste – I have more work to do on presentation though!. 

Prepping the cookie crust which is basically a fancy chocolate cookie

Making the ganache filling

Making the glaze

The finished product:  One almond chocolate tart, 2 orange flavored chocolate tart and two bitter cocoa tarts! As you can see my presentation is not that good as it was difficult to get the glaze covered evenly.