An imagined gathering
1978 · Provence, France
Olney cooks for Child and Franey, and three French-trained cooks debate how simple a dish should be.
Olney's kitchen is small, cool, and full of the tools he has collected for years, and he cooks at his own pace. Julia Child, who has known him since the days of the French Menu Cookbook, has come down from Paris with Paul; Pierre Franey, on holiday from New York, has driven over with a bottle of Burgundy.
The meal is Olney's: a pissaladière, then scallops and a chicken with mustard, and a sole meunière that Franey insists on finishing himself. Child and Franey, both trained in France and both practical, press Olney on why he will not simplify, and he presses back. It is a long, affectionate, stubborn evening among people who all cook very well.
Host: Richard Olney
Julia Child — Old friend and a fellow cook who had made French technique public.
Pierre Franey — French chef and New York restaurant man, in France for the summer.
First course
This gathering is an editorial recreation grounded in the biographies of those present; it did not necessarily take place as described.