by Y-SpaceAlien & ZeBot Planet DooF
“Learn how to cook: try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless –
and above all, have fun.”
- Julia Child
Our favorite cook in the galaxy gave us that advice on the GastroPod screen when we were traveling through the solar system on our way to Planet Earth. Even though we were far away from home and had NO idea what cooking was, Julia Child made us feel confident that we could do it – learning from our mistakes and having fun the whole time.
Who was Julia Child, you ask? Well, she was a super-nice Planet Earth woman who would have been 100 years old today. She didn’t even start cooking until she was a grown-up, but she became one of the most famous food lovers in the whole galaxy, writing lots of cookbooks and starring in what some humans call the best food TV shows ever.
ZeBot and ZoeBot explore the art of French Cooking.
As a space alien and zebra who know pretty much nothing about food, ZeBot and I feel like Julia is someone who can teach us a lot – even if she doesn’t live on Planet Earth anymore.
We’ve been reading her books and discovering all sorts of important things about learning to cook.
Even zebras count on Julia Child for kitchen wisdom!
Read on for some of our favorite Julia quotes –
and the important things we learned from them!
Julia teaches ZeBot how to transform cream into billowy clouds!
The delights of dough were a mystery to ZeBot – until Julia showed him the secrets!
1. “Once you have mastered a technique, you hardly need look at a recipe again.”
Well, that makes perfect sense to us. So we’ve been practicing everything from whipping egg whites and cream to kneading bread dough. We love the way touching the food (with clean hands/hooves, of course) makes us feel. It seems like magic to feel the billowy clouds of whipped cream – and the velvety dough that gets softer and more willing to help us the more we knead it.
Julia encouraged ZeBot & ZoeBot to make up a green song: “Hail to the Kale!”
Asparagus makes green super-fun all the way from A to Zebra!
2. “When you serve fine, fresh green vegetables, you want them to show off their color.”
Yes – exactly! This was especially meaningful to me, since I am 100% green myself. But even though ZeBot’s black-and-white, he agrees: fresh green = good. We spend as much time as we can at farmers’ markets learning about fun new vegetables – and the exciting stories behind them.
ZeBot learned that homemade salad dressing is the very best!
Julia taught ZeBot that one secret to an awesome vinaigrette is to use really great olive oil!
ZeBot says: “Now THAT’S a vinaigrette!”
3. “The perfect vinaigrette is so easy to make that I see no reason whatsoever for bottled dressings.”
ZeBot and I first learned how to make a vinaigrette at a class with some cool kids in Brooklyn, New York. We learned how to mix really good olive oil with different kinds of vinegars and seasonings. Then we tasted our vinaigrettes on lettuce, veggies and fruit. And you know what? Homemade salad dressing is AWESOME!
When ZeBot visited the French Laundry gardens, this chicken was nice enough to lay an egg just for him!
4. “It behooves us to choose eggs carefully and to treat them right.”
DooFians think that you should choose EVERYTHING carefully and treat it right – from your eggs to the chickens who are generous enough to lay them for you. We’ve learned that when you’re kind and treat the world with respect, it treats you the same way!
ZeBot randomly met Julia’s doctor on the beach – and he told ZeBot a great Julia story!
5. “Small helpings, no seconds. A little bit of everything. No snacking. And have a good time.”
Julia said this lots of times – but ZeBot and I heard it from her favorite doctor, a very nice man we met on the beach in Captiva (which is where the GastroPod splashed down when it landed on Planet Earth). He told us that this was some of the best advice he’d ever heart about food – so he passed it on to us and to his two grandchildren Max & Lulu, who built ZeBot a beautiful sandcastle while their grandfather told us his Julia story.
This is what Julia’s favorite soufflé looks like – ZeBot is going to make it today!
ZeBot uses his trusty citrus zester to make fresh orange zest for his soufflé.
Chuck Williams was right: a souffle dish is the EXACT same shape as a dog dish!
6. “You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients.”
Space aliens and zebras just aren’t fancy, so we’re glad we don’t have to pretend to be. Julia’s taught us that you just need good ingredients. Her friend Chuck Williams (who is our friend, too) told us that cooking is easier if you have the right tool for the job – but it doesn’t have to be fancy. For example, he told us you can make a perfectly good souffle (an amazing puffy egg creation) in a VERY clean dog dish. “It’s exactly the shape you need,” he said. “A straight-sided bowl. (If you want, you can read Chuck & Julia’s dog dish story here!)
ZeBot arranges pears in a perfect spiral so his cake will look as wonderful as it tastes!
ZeBot loves to arrange fresh veggies – can you tell he’s had his hooves all over these?
7. “It’s so beautifully arranged on the plate – you know someone’s fingers have been all over it.”
Well, yes – or in ZeBot’s case, someone’s hooves. Julia taught us that you eat with your eyes as well as your mouth. When you take the time to make your food look beautiful, it tastes better than ever!
ZeBot learns to use a knife from his cooking teacher friend, Sheila.
ZeBot finds out how to cook like a pro from his friend Chef Joel in the kitchens of the
Napa Valley restaurant, Bottega.
8. “…no one is born a great cook, one learns by doing.”
When I told that one to ZeBot, he started nodding his head like crazy and saying, “Well, I heard THAT. So I’m going to practice and practice and practice until I’ve earned my kitchen stripes!”
Julia taught ZeBot that when it comes to cooking, the most important ingredient is love.
9. “I think careful cooking is love, don’t you? The loveliest thing you can cook for someone who’s close to you is about as nice a Valentine as you can give.”
ZeBot and I think so, too – on Valentine’s Day or any day. When you cook with love, you’re adding a magical ingredient that transforms any dish into something very special. So remember that when you’re cooking, okay? The secret ingredient is love!
ZeBot knows that one secret to discovering the magic of food is to always look for brand new ingredients!
ZeBot thinks that one of the best ways to keep learning is to read fun cookbooks!
10. “Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.”
DooFians are curious by nature – we’re always exploring and trying to figure out how and why things are the way they are. In fact, we’re tremendously interested in everything. So we were very happy to learn that, when it comes to cooking and life, all we need to do is be passionate and keep feeding our interests.
That sounds like tons of fun to us – and we hope it does to you, too!
In fact, we’re going to celebrate Julia’s birthday by having an adventure in the kitchen right NOW.
Happy birthday, Julia — we love you!
So this is Y and Z saying : “Happy Birthday, Julia – and bon appétit!”
If you’re hungry for info about Planet DooF and ZeBot’s Planet Earth mission with Y-SpaceAlien and our favorite food-loving kids, just click here (you’ll be glad you did).
And stay tuned for more adventures — see you soon!
Intergalactic © 2012 Laura Martin Bacon
Tags: #cookwithjulia, Julia Child, 100th birthday, kids’ cooking, easy recipes
What a great tribute to a great chef — and by a space alien & zebra! Julia would be proud!
I’ve always been impressed by ZeBot’s cooking skills, and now I know why: he had a great teacher!
LOVE this!!!!! Lovely article and great photos.
I think it’s great that DooF is teaching kids about Julia Child. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her writings approached in quite this way before. Thanks for the fun article – keep up the good work.
Thanks for sharing this great story ZeBot. I’m impressed with how much culinary knowledge you have gained since you arrived on planet earth and from the writings of Julia Child no less. Good work!
I can’t wait to see what you will do next.
What a great way for kids to learn that cooking a meal with fresh, healthy ingredients is a fun way to do something nice for/with your friends and family! Julia was a great cook but she always laughed it off if she made an on-air goof. Kids will enjoy seeing that she wasn’t always perfect, but she always had fun doing what she loved for others to enjoy!
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great way to get kids interested in food. love the zebra!
Have celebrated Julia’s 100th on quite a few blog sites, but this must be one of the most fun ones to read and notice! Hello, Zebot: for goodness sake, I had not heard from you for ever so long and thought I was in your ‘black book’ [OK, let Y explain!]. And [shush], just quietly whisper: who is Zoebot? I’m hoping you have found a special friend?
This is absolutely brilliant – thanks for writing this!! So many good truths about food and life…!!
Great job, ZeBot and ZoeBot! (ZeBot, that’s quite an attractive, smart and talented new girlfriend you have introduced to us. Do I hear wedding bells in your future???)
One of my favorite movies (besides “Chocolat”, of course) is “Julie and Julia”. Perhaps you and ZoeBot can curl your hooves up on the couch together and watch it while nibbling on a Julia Childs dish that you have made together!
Julia Child would have loved cooking with a zebra! As a sous chef – not an ingredient (let’s hope). Great post!
This is some of the best writing for kids (and goofy adults) I’ve ever seen. I’d put Zebot right up there with Winnie the Pooh and the Muppets, with a little dash of SNL thrown in for good measure. As a librarian, I’ll be looking for the Y and ZeBot books coming soon!