What would the holidays be without food? This obscure little blog seems ripe for reprint about now...(12/23/2011)
In 1948 a newly-married Julia Child went to live in Paris with her husband Paul, who was in the Foreign Service. She was a terrible cook, but she loved good food. She decided to learn how to make the food she and Paul enjoyed eating, so she signed up for classes at the famous Cordon Bleu. She started shopping at the open market for the freshest ingredients and the very best tools. She learned technique at the Cordon Bleu, but it was at the market talking with vendors that she discovered how to make the magic that is French cooking. And so she became the Julia Child who revolutionized kitchen-laboratories across America.
One of Julia's favorite and most revered suppliers was the cheese lady. You could walk into her shop and, after waiting in line, tell her what meal you were preparing and what wine you were serving. She would then recommend a cheese, but only after asking you exactly when you were planning on eating it, because the best cheese should be eaten when it was perfectly ripe. And she could, without fail, pick the right one for the perfect dinner.
Then there was the gentleman who ran a certain shop that sold the finest professional cooking supplies: shiny copper pots in every shape and size. Julia bought many - not to decorate her kitchen, but because a mediocre cooking vessel would not modulate heat correctly and would therefore not produce the desired result. (The success of Williams-Sonoma in the US owes some debt to Julia's weakness for la sauteuse juste.)
[Video: the art of making fine tools, by Mauviel]
At one point Julia became fixated on the need for a giant mortar and pestle to make a certain fish dish. Her extremely accommodating spouse went with her to the Paris flea market, where, astonishingly, they found exactly what they were looking for. (And, luckily, they owned a very large American station wagon to haul it back to their apartment in.) Indeed, the fish dish was perfection, and Julia and Paul credited the marble tool for its crucial role in the outcome. A less demanding cook would make due with a lesser piece of equipment, but then she wouldn't be Julia Child.
Success is in the details, and life science researchers know this as well as a Cordon Bleu chef does. They also know where to go to discover the perfect tools and reagents to get results that are accurate and absolutely reproducible in the laboratory. A laboratory equipment supplier who shares the scientist's passion for quality and is always looking for ways to improve the tools that optimize the research process is a valuable resource and one worth cultivating.
Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. creates the face-to-face marketplace environment where top laboratory equipment suppliers and top scientists meet, network, and share the information about laboratory equipment needs and new product availability that drives breakthrough life science research. Get in touch with your inner (Julia) Child at a BioResearch Product Faire™ lab exposition, a BioResearch Product Faire™ Front Line research event, or Biotechnology Vendor Showcase™ science trade show, on a research campus in your area.
What are the tools that make your best work possible?