ANTICHEF: Beef Bourguignon CAGE MATCH: Julia Child vs. Anthony Bourdain vs. Thomas Keller

[Warpy]

3. Watched this some time ago and it took me back

I did Julia Child's boeuf Bourguignon and I did my own version of relatively non boozy Irish stew and the wasband liked my version better. I think the amount of wine actually threw him off, his mother had been one of those New England plain cooks who'd warn dinner guests if there was any preground pepper in it.

So I greatly reduced the amount of hooch in her recipes

As for Keller's offering, I applaud his reduced fat concept, but two things carry flavor: fat and alcohol. You reduce one, you kind of need to use more of the other. Also, straining the juices seems really counterproductive, this is a rich STEW, not a thin soup.

Never mind how he over complicates things by cooking everything separately. That seems fine for portion control, but at home the best idea is to know when to add each element into the pot for optimum cooking time* while letting more flavors blend. I think that's on reason his stew lost out on flavor. The other is that he's so fat phobic that he kept straining the stew.


*Except for the mushrooms, if you're using them. Those do need to be sauteed separately so they don't run into rubber.