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By Kim Davaz

My sister called to tell me that Julia Child had died.

I felt I’d lost a friend, knowing her through the familiarity that comes from years of seeing someone in your living room, albeit on television.

Child cooked on TV for almost 50 years. And while her body slowly bowed over time, her voice retained its distinctive, enchanting warble, closing each episode with a cheery, “Bon appetit!”

From the first time I saw Child on public television’s “The French Chef” - tall, confident, cooking her way through all manner of foods exotic to a girl in elementary school in Florida - I was hooked.

Child wielded a huge chef’s knife and a cleaver, her utensils foreign. A balloon whisk? We had a red-handled egg beater.

From the beginning, I felt that I could actually make whatever she made. Maybe not as quickly, but that would come through practice.

She had confidence in us. Child wanted us to be good home cooks, to get into the kitchen because cooking wasn’t drudgery but a daily pleasure to be shared.

Over the years, I watched and read and learned the classic simplicity of roast chicken dinner, the intricacies of Danish pastry, the magic of emulsion in mayonnaise and hollandaise sauce.

My father often comments that I cook like Child, using every spoon, bowl and pot in the kitchen, as if I had a squad of people to clean up after me. I’ll take any comparison as a compliment.

My collection of her cookbooks is well used to the point of rattiness. My first copy of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking - Volume One” is in tatters, chunks of pages falling out of their binding, recipes spattered and crinkled, page markers superfluous because the book opens by itself to my favorite recipes:

Herby sauteed chicken; the beef Bourguignon I froze in sealed bags for my husband to take on a boat trip; Child’s favorite chocolate ground-almond Queen of Sheba cake that a friend loved for her birthday treat; and our house specialty, onion soup.

Child wasn’t a showoff. Some dishes may have been extravagant (a standing rib roast dinner, a lobster feast) and impressive, but she was never intimidating. The point of the meal wasn’t to say, “Look at what I can do,” but “This is what I made for you because you are important.”

I loved her “Baking with Julia” series and the big accompanying cookbook. Bakers were invited into her cluttered home kitchen to teach their specialties. (That very kitchen is now in the Smithsonian.) With all of Child’s expertise, she was honestly interested in learning from others.

Whenever Child shared a kitchen, especially in shows with her friend, Jacques Pepin, camaraderie and a common love of good food, not competition, were the themes.

Though an expert, Child was still one of us. Dishes didn’t always work out perfectly. An omelet might stick to the pan. Child cut herself. Sometimes food slid off the dish. It’s OK. Make it do. Try again.

Even if a dish didn’t turn out as planned, Child said never apologize for what you’re serving. The next time you feel yourself start to point out the deficiencies in what you’ve prepared, stop yourself. Put the food on the table, smile and say, “Bon appetit!”

Child would have wanted it that way.

This is a menu of some of my favorite of Child’s recipes, what I’d choose to make for my own birthday dinner, in her honor. Start with a celebratory glass of champagne and serve a chilled dry rose with dinner.

Oysters on the Half-Shell

From “Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home.”

2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns

1 1/2 tablespoons chopped shallots

1/3 cup red-wine vinegar of the best quality

1/4 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme (optional)

Pinch of salt

12 or more fresh, scrubbed, well-chilled oysters

Lemon wedges

Black bread and butter

The Mignonnette sauce may be made a few hours ahead to let the flavors develop. Crush the peppercorns coarsely with a heavy pan. Scrape the grated pieces into a small bowl or ramekin, add the shallots, vinegar, thyme and a pinch of salt and stir together. Taste and correct seasonings, if necessary. If it is too harsh, add a tablespoon or two of red wine to soften the flavor. It is strong - you’ll only need a few drops to sauce each oyster.

Choose oysters with just enough of a gap at the hinge end so that you can take a beer-can opener, pointed end up, and just be able to force it into the gap. To open the oyster, you hold it curved side down on your work surface with one hand, force the beer-can opener into the gap with the other hand, bear down hard to the opener’s handle and up pops the hinge end of the top shell.

Then take your sharp little knife and scrape down the inside surface of the top shell. Twist if off and loosen the oyster where it is attached to the bottom shell.

Serve immediately with ramekins of the Mignonnette sauce, lemon wedges and buttered black bread.

Poulet Saute aux Herbes de Provence

This is chicken sauteed with herbs and garlic with egg yolk and butter sauce, from “Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume One.”

1/4 pound (one stick) butter

2 1/2 to 3 pounds cut-up frying chicken

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon ground fennel

Salt and pepper

3 cloves unpeeled garlic

2/3 cup dry white wine

2 egg yolks

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon dry white wine

2 tablespoons fresh minced basil, fresh fennel tops or parsley

In a large skillet or casserole, heat the butter until it is foaming, then turn the chicken pieces in it for 7 to 8 minutes, not letting them color more than a deep yellow. Remove the white meat.

Season the dark meat with herbs, salt and pepper and add the garlic to the pan. Cover and cook slowly for 8 to 9 minutes. Season the white meat and add it to the pan, basting the chicken with the butter.

Cook for about 15 minutes, turning and basting 2 or 3 times, until the chicken is tender and its juices run pale yellow when the meat is pricked with a fork.

Remove to a hot platter, cover and keep warm.

Mash the garlic cloves in the pan with a spoon, then remove the garlic peel. Add the wine and boil it down over high heat, scraping up coagulated saute juices until the wine has been reduced by half.

Beat the egg yolks in a small saucepan until thick and sticky. Beat in the lemon juice and wine. Then beat in the skillet liquid, a half-teaspoon at a time, to make a thick, creamy sauce like a hollandaise.

Beat the sauce over very low heat for 4 to 5 seconds to warm and thicken it. Remove from heat, beat in the herbs and correct seasoning.

Spoon the sauce over the chicken and serve. Serves 4 to 6.

Tomatoes Provençal

From “Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom.”

4 firm, ripe tomatoes

1/2 cup fresh white bread crumbs

2 tablespoons minced shallots or scallions

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Halve, seed and juice the tomatoes. Toss together bread crumbs, shallots or scallions, garlic, olive oil and salt and pepper. Salt lightly and fill tomatoes with the crumb mixture.

Drizzle on olive oil and bake in the upper level of a preheated, 400-degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until crumbs are lightly browned and tomatoes are softened but still hold their shape. Serves 4.

Sauteed Potatoes

From “The French Chef Cookbook.”

3 to 4 medium all-purpose potatoes (Yukon Gold, if possible)

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 tablespoon oil (your choice; I’d use olive oil)

Salt and pepper

Peel the potatoes and cut into a 3/8 -inch dice. Dry thoroughly in a towel. Heat the butter and oil in a large frying pan (preferably nonstick) until butter foam is beginning to subside, then add the potatoes. Let cook for a minute at high heat, toss, let cook another minute and continue thus for several minutes until the potatoes just start to brown.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper, toss, cover and let cook over moderate heat for about 15 minutes, tossing occasionally. (Do not overfill the pan, maximum depth is 1 inch; if you try to cook too many, they will steam and stick rather than brown.)

Vinaigrette

For a plain, green lettuce salad. From “Julia Child & More Company.”

1 to 2 tablespoons excellent wine vinegar and/or lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon dry mustard

6 to 8 tablespoons best-quality olive oil or salad oil or a combination of both

Several grinds of fresh pepper

1 teaspoon finely minced shallots or scallions and/or fresh or dried herbs, such as chives, tarragon or basil (optional)

Either beat the vinegar, salt and mustard in a bowl until dissolved, then beat in the oil and seasonings; or place all ingredients in a screw-topped jar and shake vigorously to blend. Dip a piece of lettuce into the dressing and taste; correct seasoning.

Le G√¢teau Victoire au Chocolat, Mousseline

From “Julia Child & Company.”

Butter

Flour

Hot water

1 tablespoon instant coffee

1/4 cup hot water

1/4 cup dark Jamaican rum

14 ounces semisweet baking chocolate

2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate

6 large eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup whipping cream

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Confectioners’ sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter a 9-inch-by-9-inch-by-2-inch square pan or a 10-inch-by-2-inch round pan, line bottom with waxed paper, butter the paper, then flour the pan.

Choose a roasting pan large enough to hold cake pan easily, fill with enough hot water to come halfway up cake pan and set in oven.

Swirl the coffee and 1/4 cup hot water in a medium-size saucepan, add the rum and break up the chocolate into the pan.

Bring 2 inches of water to a boil in a larger pan, remove from heat and set chocolate pan in it; cover and let the chocolate melt while you continue with the recipe.

Break the eggs into the beating bowl, add the sugar and stir over a pan or bowl of hot water for several minutes until eggs are slightly warm to your finger - this makes beating faster and increases volume.

Then beat for 5 minutes or more, until mixture has at least tripled in volume and forms a thick ribbon when a bit is lifted and falls from the beater; the eggs should be the consistency of lightly whipped cream. (You must have beating equipment that will keep the whole mass of egg moving at once, meaning a narrow rounded bowl and a beater that circulates about it continually.)

Pour cream into a metal mixing bowl. Empty a tray of ice cubes into a larger bowl, cover them with cold water, then set the cream bowl into the larger ice-filled bowl. Beat with a hand-held mixer or large balloon whisk, using an up-and-down circular motion to whip in as much air as possible, until cream has doubled in volume and holds its shape softly.

Whip in the vanilla.

Beat up the melted chocolate with a whisk; it should be smooth and silky. Scrape it into the egg-sugar mixture, blending rapidly with a rubber spatula, and when partially incorporated, fold in the whipped cream, deflating cream and eggs as little as possible. Turn batter into prepared cake pan, which will be about two-thirds filled.

Set it at once in the pan of hot water in the preheated oven.

Cake will rise some 1/8 -inch above edge of pan and is done when a skewer comes out clean after about 1 hour of baking.

Then turn off oven, leave oven door ajar and let cake sit for 30 minutes in its pan of water, so that it will sink evenly.

Remove from oven, still in its pan of water, and let sit for another 30 minutes so that it will firm up before unmolding and serving. Cake will sink down as it cools to about its original volume.

This cake is at its most tender and delicious when eaten slightly warm; however, you may cook it even a day or two in advance, leave it in its pan (covered when cool and refrigerated), then set it in a 200-degree oven for 20 minutes to warm gently.

Unmold the cake and decorate with a sprinkling of confectioners’ sugar or with pipings of vanilla whipped cream.

Kim Davaz writes a biweekly cookbook review column for The Register-Guard.

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