Friday, Saturday & Sundae - There's an Art to being a Chef ~ Helene Darroze

A female chef under the microscope this week - not only a female chef, but one who actually carries out her profession according to its job description. So many in the food industry nowadays have migrated to presenting TV shows, writing cookbooks and otherwise doing celebritous (new word) things. I prefer to feature chefs who cater to the public in restaurants or hotels. If they write the odd book, that's fine, if they appear on TV once in a while, that's fine too, but the main thrust of their career must be catering to the public, not becoming a celebrity.

With that in mind, I had a hard job finding a female chef whose birth data is available. I found one eventually: Helene Darroze. The name might not be familiar to you or I, unless a passing reader lives within a very high income bracket. This lady, well known in France for her Paris restaurant, in 2008 crossed the English Channel to open another in London, at the extremely swish Connaught Hotel.

I'm wondering now, if, or how Brexit might eventually affect Ms Darroze's work - London/Paris.



Ms Darroze is exactly the kind of chef I'm looking for. She will divide her time between London and Paris, while still caring for her young child, adopted in Vietnam. She has said that it's important for her to be in the kitchen of the restaurant where her name is, so that it is not just "a brand name on the door."

Helene Darroze's father and grandfather were both chefs. She says that she was practically "born in the kitchen". She was actually born on 23 February 1967 in Mont de Marson, Landes, in the south-western area of France. I found her data on a French page of Wikipedia. My schoolgirl French isn't up to translating much of the rest of the page, but this chef's arrival in London last year spawned a slew of newspaper articles. These have afforded some nice detail about this lady.
(Sources linked at end of post.)

Her natal chart, set for 12 noon, in the absence of a time of birth.




Here's a quite different flavour of personality from last week's chef - Escoffier.

There is one clear similarity to Escoffier's chart here though - the opposition of Uranus and Pluto to the cluster of personal planets around their natal Suns. I called this Escoffier's "engine room" in my post. Here's a mini version of his chart.


Helene Darroze obviously has oodles of energy, to keep up a London/Paris commute on a regular basis, as well as being a single mother.

A chef, she has said, "cooks with heart, with personality. A dish is part of ourselves so the way I will cook will be very different from the way Tom Aiken or Gordon Ramsay cook."

I'd say that as well as being something of a human dynamo, Ms Darroze has a soft and intuitive heart coming from her 4 Pisces planets. Her Moon would be in Leo whatever time of birth, and this Leo-ness at her inner core enables her to take center stage in her kitchens. She doesn't "lord it" over her staff as some famous male chefs are said to do though. She calls her staff her "collaborators" and insists on being called "Helene" rather than"chef". This is coming from the emotional intelligence born of Pisces.




There's a Grand Trine in Water signs in her chart. It links Saturn/Venus in Pisces to Jupiter in Cancer and Neptune in Scorpio. The presence of both Venus and Neptune in this Watery, emotional circuit underlines her artistry and creativity, while Saturn draws in a well-integrated work ethic. Her energy, as well as being reflected in the opposition already mentioned, is further emphasised by natal Mars (the energy planet) in harmonious trine to her Sun.

I think that hers could also easily be the natal chart of an artist or musician. This is where environment and background make a difference. Ms Darroze happened to be born into a family of chefs, her artistry was thus focused towards food, from an early age.



This lady sounds so very different from some celebrity chefs who hit our TV screens. I'm glad!

'Oh, you know, I'm just like anyone else,' says Darroze waving her hand dismissively. She blithely ignores the TV crew and perches on a grey-blue armchair, sitting on the edge of the seat like an attentive schoolgirl. She does not look remotely like the sort of steely, ambitious figure one might expect. She has a ready smile and a delightfully easy manner, recalling those friendly patronnes you find occasionally serving double measures of pastis from behind village bars in rural France. Compact and short, she has cropped peroxide-blonde hair and twinkly eyes. She is sweetly pretty, but I get the impression that such trifles do not especially concern her. Her face is bare of make-up, the grey cardigan she is wearing has a hole in one arm that keeps threatening to unravel each time she moves and she wears little jewellery apart from an enormous gold crucifix that dangles almost all the way down to her navel.

SOURCES

THIS IS LONDON

THE GUARDIAN

THE INDEPENDENT

Friday, Saturday & Sundae ~ There's an Art to Being a Chef

Once upon a time I decided it might be interesting to investigate the astrology of famous chefs. Here's one, a chef who is world-famous, king of all the chefs:
Georges-Auguste Escoffier.

Before starting to write, I asked myself what I'd expect to find prominent in the charts of those whose life's work is to prepare and present food. My first thought was of the element Earth, and the zodiac sign Taurus in particular. My second thought was that preparing food is a nurturing activity - nurturing others - the zodiac sign of Cancer relates to this. Beyond those factors, any successful individual, in whatever sphere they choose to operate, will need drive and energy. Any occupation involving the mass preparation and serving of food is demanding, make no mistake about that! Presentation of food is very important, so an artistic eye would be helpful. When you get right down to it, preparation of food is artistry in itself. Individual chart factors will be determined by any sidelines a chef might engage in: writing, for instance, would entail some strong Mercurial input.

Born 28 October 1846 at 10am in Villeneuve-Loubet, France (Astrodatabank). My software doesn't have that city as an option, but Nice is at almost exactly the same latitude/longitude, so I've used it.




Well - was I wrong, or was I wrong? No Taurus, no Cancer planets. We do have an artistic streak via Venus/Mars in Libra (ruled by Venus, planet of the arts), and this at 10th house, the area of career. What we have here is a very Airy chart, in spite of the fact that natal Sun and Mercury lie in Watery, intense and passionate Scorpio.

There's a nice Grand Trine in Air linking the Libra planets to Jupiter in Gemini and the three planets in Aquarius. This reflects a high degree of natural intelligence, an intellectual nature.

Sagittarius was rising as Escoffier came into the world, and right opposite, on the descendant is Jupiter (Sagittarius' ruler) in Gemini. Sagittarius and Jupiter relate to excess, exaggeration, publication, and travel and are generally a benign influence. There's a link to the enjoyment of good food here, and a definite link to writing about food, which Escoffier did in several well-known volumes.




What about Aquarius though - how does that relate to the work of a chef? This particular chef was known for inventing new dishes (Peach Melba, we all know) and re-organising the way restaurant kitchens were run. There is the Aquarius influence! His philanthropic endeavours as mentioned in the quote below reflect another side of Aquarius, and of course, his benign Sagittarius ascendant.

Three of Escoffier's most noted career achievements are revolutionizing and modernizing the menu, the art of cooking and the organization of the professional kitchen. Escoffier simplified the menu as it had been, writing the dishes down in the order in which they would be served (Service à la Russe). He also developed the first à la Carte menu.

He simplified the art of cooking by getting rid of ostentatious food displays and elaborate garnishes and by reducing the number of courses served. He also emphasized the use of seasonal foods and lighter sauces. Escoffier also simplified professional kitchen organization, as he integrated it into a single unit from its previously individualized sections that operated autonomously and often created great wasted and duplication of labor.

Throughout his career, Escoffier wrote a number of books, many of which continue to be considered important today. Some of his best-known works include Le Guide Culinaire (1903), Le Livre des Menus (1912) and Ma Cuisine (1934).

As well as making changes in the culinary world, Escoffier undertook several philanthropic endeavors including the organization of programs to feed the hungry and programs to financially assist retired chefs. (See here)

The dynamic tension, the engine room of Escoffier's nature, comes mainly from the oppositions Aries to Libra, Uranus opposes Mars, Pluto opposes Venus. Both Uranus and Pluto represent the urge for change and transformation - which is exactly what Escoffier achieved in his kitchens.



Something I've learned from this experiment already: Earth isn't a necessary ingredient in the natal chart of a chef - Escoffier's contains no planets in Earth signs.

When restaurants were restaurants, and chefs were chefs: Adolphe Dugléré

Continuing yesterday's theme of food and restaurants, let's take a look at a chef, from a time before chain restaurants, and when chefs were chefs and not TV stars: Adolphe Dugléré . He was born on 3 June 1805 in Bordeaux, France, died in 1884.

Dugléré was a pupil of Marie Antoine (Antonin) Carême, head chef of the Rothschild family. In 1866 Dugléré became head chef of a famous 19th century Paris restaurant, the Cafe Anglais. He is generally credited with creating the potato dish, Pommes Anna, said to have been named after actress Dame Judic (real name: Anna Damiens/Anna DesLions. He also created Germiny Soup, a cream of sorrel soup, dedicated to the head of the Banque de France, the Comte de Germiny.

It was at the Cafe Anglais that Duglere served the famous banquet, 'Dinner of the Three Emperors,' on 7 June 1867, for Tsar Alexander II of Russia, and King William I of Prussia. Opened in 1802, the restaurant was named in honor of the Treaty of Amiens, a peace accord signed between Britain and France. In the beginning, its clientele were coachmen and domestic servants but later became frequented by actors and patrons of the nearby Opera House. It was after the arrival of chef Adolphe Dugléré that the Café Anglais achieved its highest gastronomic reputation. It was then frequented by the wealthy and the aristocracy of Paris.

The Dinner of the Three Emperors was, acording to King William I of Prussia who frequented the cafe during the Exposition Universelle, to be a meal to be remembered and at which no expense was to be spared for himself and his guests, Tsar Alexander II of Russia, plus his son the tsarevitch (who later became Tsar Alexander III), and Prince Otto von Bismarck.

The banquet consisted of 16 courses with eight wines served over eight hours. Full details at Wikipedia HERE. The cost of the meal was, back then, 400 francs per person. When a chef of today tried to replicate the menu as far as possible in the 21st century, the cost turned out to be in the region of $7,500 per head , (another source calculated it at 9,000 Euros per head).

At 1 o'clock in the morning, Tsar Alexander is reported to have complained that the meal had not contained foie gras. Burdel explained that it was not the custom in French cuisine to eat foie gras in June. The Tsar was satisfied with the answer. Each emperor was sent a terrine of foie gras as a gift the following October.

TSK!!!!! (I shall limit myself to just that).

Adolphe Dugléré was described as a taciturn and serious person who demanded ingredients of the highest quality and abhorred drunkenness and smoking. He forbade his employees to smoke even outside of the workplace. Neither were customers allowed to smoke until dinner was over, at which time the maître d’hôtel went from table to table lighting cigars. Little more is known about him because he left no publications but he did leave some notebooks which are on permanent loan to the National Library in Paris.

This chef's natal chart, set for 12 noon as no time of birth is available:

Sun conjunct Venus in Gemini; if I didn't know this was the chart of a chef I'd have guessed at someone in the arts - writing, painting. Chefs are artists too - with food. I like to see some Taurus emphasis in a chef's chart, Taurus surely has to be the "foodiest" sign in the zodiac, and Mercury is there in Dugléré's chart.

Chef's Moon would have been in either early Virgo or late Leo. I'd bet on Virgo, bearing in mind the descriptions above: "taciturn", "serious", demanding of the best, fastidious in requirements of staff and customers. Moon was quite likely conjunct Mars in Leo too. Mars here could add touch of aggression to his demanding nature. I found, during my times working in hotel offices in my youth, that chefs on the whole were quite an aggressive species. I've seen more than one chef, brandishing a knife, pursuing a waiter around his kitchen. I guess working in constant heat and pressure could do that to a person.

Uranus conjunct Saturn in Libra; Neptune conjunct Jupiter in Scorpio. Uranus and Saturn, usually opposites, here perhaps reflect the chef's inventiveness (Uranus) in his work (Saturn) environment - new dishes and methods. Neptune and Jupiter conjoined in the Scorpio and Sagittarius cusp area: Jupiter in its own sign has to mean excess, with Neptune so close, perhaps even an addiction to excess. Maybe I'm being adversely influenced by that obscenely excessive menu described in the post though!

PS:There are some archived posts featuring chefs, accessible by - would ya believe - clicking on "chefs" in the label cloud in the sidebar.

Monday's Make-over Maestro ~ Robert Irvine of Restaurant Impossible

We happened upon the TV show Restaurant Impossible quite accidentally while channel surfing this summer. The British accent of the guy who appeared to be in charge of proceedings interested me, so we watched that show, and a few weekly episodes thereafter. The presenter, a British-born chef, Robert Irvine is, each week, tasked with re-vamping an unsuccessful restaurant whose owners are about to "go under". Reasons range from inexperience, laziness, lack of imagination or just plain bad management.

Chef Irvine has two days and $10,000 with which to re-decorate, re-train, enhance menus, re-advertise etc. This is always a struggle - of course. It wouldn't be an interesting show if all went strictly to plan. The shows do tend to become formulaic after a while. Always there's the last minute panic to get the floor covering down and furniture in place, and to find ways of doing what would normally cost many tens of thousands of dollars for just a fraction of that. He has a couple of helpers on the decorating side, he deals with the catering, menu improvement and training - and often has to demand some very deep cleaning of disgustingly neglected kitchen areas.

That's something that has rather put me off eating in independently owned establishments. Chain restaurants have their faults, but lack of cleanliness isn't often one of 'em, and though food there can be is predictable, and boring, it's usually reliably edible.

Robert Irvine was a new face to us, but I now find that he has been part of the "food on TV scene" for a while. He has appeared in several foodie shows, Dinner Impossible, for example.

My research indicates that Chef Irvine has not always been 100% truthful about his credentials, having enhanced and embroidered his résumé far beyond generally acceptable self-promotion. In the past he has claimed to have been involved in making Princess Di's wedding cake, to have been awarded a high honor by Queen Elizabeth, worked with US presidents, and other, similar exaggerations, aka lies.
This trait cost him his place on one TV series, when found out, though he was later reinstated, possibly because in spite of his faults he's good at what he does.

He's entertaining to watch - a cross between a pitbull and a cuddly bear. Ex-navy, arms akin to Popeye's, looks as though he spends 12 hours-a-day in the gym, and has the bearing and attitude of an old-time sergeant major. He pulls no punches, minces no words, and can be very, very candid, even hurtful to those he considers need a kick up the rear end. Yet in two shows, featuring elderly restaurant owners who were likely to lose their retirement savings along with their restaurants if things didn't improve, his attitude changed dramatically. I believe he even had tears in his eyes in one case. So he ain't all bad - like the rest of us - he has his moments. He's what my husband calls "a flim-flam man".

Taking a look at his natal chart (set for 12 noon as time of birth isn't known): Wikipedia has his birth date as 24 September 1965; "raised in Wiltshire", born Salisbury, Wiltshire. Yet his accent is not of Wiltshire. One of my grandfathers came from near Salisbury, Wiltshire. He never lost his accent, which was much different from our East Yorkshire tones. I reckon Chef Irvine's accent is more Salford than Salisbury. Maybe life in the navy rubbed the Wiltshire out of him. He now lives in New Jersey with his wife and two daughers.

Sun in first degree of Libra and Mercury in very late Virgo - though in different signs these are conjoined - so his core self and his mental processes are a blend of Libran diplomacy and Virgo's perfectionism and tendency to criticise, with Virgo looking to be the stronger element; stronger because Moon was certainly somewhere from mid to late Virgo, with Pluto conjunct Uranus also in that sign. His need for perfection comes out clearly in Restaurant Impossible, and in his cooking and presentation skills too. But his penchant for embroidering the truth? That's hardly a perfectionist's trait. Let's see. Jupiter is where I'd pin exaggeration, and Jupiter was in square (challenging) aspect to Sun/Mercury - that fits! Jupiter's love of exaggeration challenges Libran tact and Virgoan critical perfectionism.

Saturn in Pisces is in harmonious trine to Venus in Scorpio - I interpret that as "tough love" - which is what he gives the restaurant owners and their staff in Restaurant Impossible.

MONDAY MARINADE ~ Paul Liebrandt ~ Correction courtesy of his mother!

One of the pleasures of blogging, for me, is to receive comment on an old post with some updated, or better information than was available to me at the time of writing. This happened a week or so ago when I received a comment on a post about a chef, Paul Liebrandt, about whom I'd posted as part of a brief "Monday Marinade" series.

"His date and time of birth are wrong, he was born at 10.20pm on the 26th August 1976 in Salisbury Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) I know , because I am his mother. Do hope this helps you to do the correct chart for Paul (Liebrandt) Best Wishes Veda (Paul's Mother)."

My original post is copied below, including the wrong natal chart and incorrect astrological notes. This is followed by the correction, with thanks to Mr. Liebrandt's mother. I'm posting both the wrong chart and astro notes for a reason: I had expressed some doubt or puzzlement about the chart in the first place (highlighted in the copy below) - and for this I give myself a wee feather in my astrological cap for having a nagging sense that all was not as it should be.

FROM 3 AUGUST 2009

In choosing my subject for today's blog I hit some serious frustration. I don't want to focus on celebrity chefs, whose numbers seem to grow daily. What's up? Don't chefs enjoy being in a proper kitchen any more? Too hard work ? It is hard work, even today with all the best equipent and technology to hand, it's still hard to run a big kitchen to a high standard. So much easier to stand in front of a TV camera and pontificate, or to curse and swear in a reality TV show as though that were the root of a chef's skill-set.

In the words of a commenter at Huffington Post on an article about one of Gordon Ramsay's recent outbursts:

"At what point in the last 20 years did being a total uncivilized dick become acceptable, even lucrative, behavior? Did it start with Howard Stern? Jerry Springer? We have a whole generation of people that think watching or listening to people be really horrible, nasty and cruel to each other is great entertainment. WTF?"

I'm less than enchanted by the current crop of celeb chefs who appear on TV, write book after book, open cooking schools, give lectures, open strings of restaurants bearing their name but which they never visit to cook in the kitchens. There has to be at least one more chef for me to investigate, one who is actually doing a chef's work, on a daily basis.

My eye fell upon the name Paul Liebrandt. He's still in the kitchens! Bet I can't find his date of birth.




I did, eventually: Born 26 August 1975 in Zimbabwe to British parents. No city specified, so I've used the capital Harare (formerly Salisbury). He was raised in London and trained in some of the finest kitchens in Europe. He moved to New York in 1999, and currently is chef and co-owner of the Corton restaurant in Tribeca, a neighborhood in lower Manhattan.

"The tables are covered with white linen and set with pink roses. The whitewashed walls are bottom-lit, like a giant fresco, and stenciled with butterflies, birds, and sylvan tree branches colored here and there with a solitary gold leaf. There’s a peaceful, palate-cleansing quality to all this icy, Altoid whiteness, and as dinner progresses you get a sense of time suspended, of being pleasantly inoculated from the cares of the outside world.
Peace and light aren’t chef Paul Liebrandt’s usual M.O., of course. The English wunderkind (he’s only 32) has been known to sprinkle eel with crystallized violets and flavor his côte de boeuf with coffee grinds before theatrically finishing it in clouds of burning hay. But on this latest tour through the New York restaurant jungle (this is his fourth in eight years), the perpetually promising chef has found his footing"(HERE)

What made you decide to become a chef?I don't know. I like cooking. I like the excitement of the kitchen. I like the heat, the violence, the sweat, the punishing hours. It's freedom in the kitchen.
What was it like working for Marco Pierre White?
Hard. But he's a very fair man. If you go in there, and you're young, and you work your bollocks off there's a lot to be learned. If not, you wouldn't last in his kitchen two seconds.



What did you learn from him?
Discipline. How to beat people. You notice the scar above my eye here? Well, there you go. How to take a bunch of young guys like I had here when I started six months ago, who didn't know how to hold a frying pan properly and beat them, literally, beat them into shape within a matter of a couple of months and get three stars from the New York Times. I wouldn't have been able to do it without having the solid training I did."

Sounds as though Gordon Ramsay-type antics are par for the course in chefdom then! I should have realised as much from my own experience of watching more than one chef chase a waiter with a carving knife, when I worked in hotels, long ago.

This chart for Paul Liebrandt will give correct planetary placements in signs,(NOTE IT WAS INCORRECT - see later in this post) apart from degree of the Moon and rising sign. That will suffice for my purpose. He has moved around from Africa to England to France and Europe to the USA, so relocation will have shunted the ascendant and houses more than once.




Natal Sun conjoining Venus - an artistic guy, in Virgo - a discerning and fairly disciplined one to boot. Mercury lies at the other end of Virgo - one of its home signs so is pure and unsullied: he'll be a clear thinker, and expect precision from others.

The 2009 Eat Out Awards describe his food:
"Renegade chef Paul Liebrandt's studied food is as artful on the plate as it is on the palate."
(Phtograph by Melissa Hom)


If I didn't know this is the chart of a chef I'd have guessed at writer and/or illustrator. Moon will be in Aries, somewhere in the second half of the sign. This Aries influence reflects his "get-up-and-go", the energy he has needed to pursue his dream, and with Jupiter, planet of expansion, exaggeration and luck lying also in Aries (possibly close enough to be termed conjunct) his energetic go-getter nature is further underlined.

Saturn, planet of discipline, business and tradition is the sole planet in Cancer and lies sextile (helpful aspect) to Mercury. This hints at a disciplined, organised mind - a definite plus for a chef who wants to "run a tight ship" - as the best of them do. Mars in Gemini is in harmonious trine to Pluto in Libra, and opposite Neptune in Sagittarius - so Mars, the personal energy planet is linked to the two outer planets which represent power and creativity.

Liebrandt has the reputation of being something of a renegade, inventive as well as creative. It's interesting then, that Uranus, the renegade's planet is in harmonious (though out-of-sign) sextile to his Sun/Venus conjunction.

There's nothing to specify food preparation in this, or in fact in any of the chef charts I've looked at. What has to, and does, come through is creativity, discipline, energy, business sense and an artistic nature. These characteristics could be put to work in a number of professions or jobs. It's surprising that there isn't some tiny indicator which points towards catering. This could, of course, come via house position, which remains unknown without a correct time of birth. It could come via ascendant or midheaven. 6th house is the house of service, midheaven the area of career, ascendant the side of character shown to the world at large; any or all of these could underline a leaning towards a career in food, which I continue to think might involve Taurus, and/or Cancer, at 6th house or midheaven or ascendant.

NATAL CHART WITH CORRECT DATA




What pleased me a lot was to see Taurus rising in this corrected chart with a reliable time of birth, thanks to the mother of Paul Liebrandt. EarthyTaurus rising (practical, love of the good things in life)is a very good fit for a chef - especially one with Earthy Sun and Moon, as here, and Taurus IS one of the signs I wrote that I'd expect to see in a chart involving food preparation (see above).

Moon was not in Aries after all - but in Virgo, with his natal Sun - Sun is no longer conjunct Venus - but Moon IS - exactly - so the artistic streak remains equally strong, maybe even stronger, along with extra emphasis on the discipline and discernment of Virgo.

Saturn in the corrected chart is in Leo, not Cancer and in trine to creative Neptune instead of Mercury as before. I'd interpret this as Saturn putting a business-like rein on Neptune, harnessing its creativity - putting it on display on the tables of his restaurant.

The "renegade chef" reference comes through loud and clear in the corrected chart - natal Virgo Sun is in exact helpful sextile to Uranus the rebel planet in Scorpio.

Mercury (mental orientation) and Mars (energy and drive) are conjoined in Libra in the corrected chart. Libra, ruled by artistic Venus, is the sign of charm and tact. In a quote above Mr. Liebrandt said he enjoys "the heat, the violence, the punishing hours" involved in being a chef: that's Mars conjunct a very persoanl planet, Mercury. Though no doubt capable of the odd outburst himself, this chef is highly unlikely, courtesy of Libra, to indulge in the same kind of tantrums certain TV chefs display as their signature.

MONDAY MARINADE ~ Julia Child (+ Paul)

"Julie and Julia", a movie released last week, features the work of TV food expert, Julia Child. I had been going to write about Julia as part of a brief series about chefs, but really she wasn't a chef at all, in my own definition of the word. She was, to the American public, a well-loved TV personality who taught, wrote and talked about cooking and food. As far as I can tell, she didn't ever run a hotel kitchen or a restaurant. In my brief researches though I did see Julia Child as an interesting subject, especially in regard to her very happy and enduring marriage to Paul Child. I was interested to see both natal charts.(Photograh, left: Julia with her husband, Paul C. Child, whipping cream in the kitchen of her Cambridge home, November, 1963 (photograph by Dick Fish). From here.)


Julia Child was born on 15 August 1912 in Pasadena, California.


Paul Child on 15 January 1902 in Montclair New Jersey. (Time of birth unknown - chart set for 12 noon).



Julia didn't set out with any thought of a career with preparation of food at its core. She came from a wealthy background, majored in history at university, worked as a copywriter for a New York furniture company and outside of work led the life of a minor socialite.... until the outbreak of World War 2. She was too tall (6ft2ins) for the uniformed forces, so Julia joined the OSS (Office of Strategic Services - the intelligence agency), after a spell as typist in the Office of War Information.

All quotes come from a Vanity Fair article by Laura Jacobs:

"Julia, it turned out, had formidable organizational skills: soon enough, she was supervising an office of 40 people. In 1944 she shipped out to India. “The war,” she said, “was the change in my life.” "

"Formidable organizational skills" screams Virgo organization and Leo leadership - Julia's sun in Leo, with Mercury, Venus and Mars in Virgo fit the bill exactly!


After later being transferred to China she became romantically involved with Paul Child.

"A worldly intellectual with a poetic sensibility, an artist and photographer who relished wine, women, and song, he designed war rooms for General (Lord) Mountbatten in Kandy and for General Wedemeyer in Kunming."

Intellectual = Air signs - Paul has Mercury and Mars in Aquarius. Poetic sensibility - his planet of the arts (Venus) is in dreamy poetic Pisces. Sun, Saturn and Jupiter in business-oriented, common sense Capricorn added to the rest produced an intriguing blend of art and practicality, that was something always likely to appeal greatly to Julia's Leo/Virgo/ Libra (Moon.) blend.
(Photograph, above, by Paul Child: Julia Child and Jeanne Villa from 'My Life in France').

"Paul thought Julia unworldly, unfocused, and doubtless a virgin—“a hungry hayseed” is how she would describe herself—but also steady, game, a “classy dame,” and “brave,” he wrote his twin brother, Charlie, “about being an old maid!” He was 42 to her 32, five feet ten to her six feet two. He was looking for a soulmate, but had counted Julia out. And yet their sure-footed friendship, forged over Indo-Asian food and shared danger, was climbing, slipping, into love. Which led to bed. And then, in 1946, when the war was over, marriage."

Paul introduced Julia to the joys of the culture and cuisine of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and China and later, of France, after his transfer to Paris.

"Back in the States, the couple’s love letters reflected the playful and frankly lusty nature of their relationship. “I want to see you,” Paul wrote, “touch you, kiss you, talk with you, eat with you ? eat you, maybe.” Come 1948, could there have been a better diplomatic posting for Paul and his wife of two years than Paris? "

"Paul, when he first met Julia, in the O.S.S., described “her slight atmosphere of hysteria.” No doubt he was referring to Julia’s almost operatic vocal tonalities, the here floating, there plunging falsetto she seems to have been born with."

I wonder if this peculiar voice thing might relate to Uranus (the eccentric planet) quincunx (scratchy aspect) communications planet Mercury?

It was in France that Julia's draw to the kitchen took place. She fell in love with France, its culture and the innate flair of the French for knowing how to cook and present food. She enrolled in the Paris cooking school Le Cordon Bleu. “I would go to school in the morning,” she once said in an interview, “then for lunch time, I would go home and make love to my husband.”

Sounds like a good combination of Virgo (service) and Leo (fun and enjoyment)!

"Paul Child died at the age of 92, in 1994. Ten years later, in 2004, Julia Child died two days short of her 92nd birthday. "

In addition to her now iconic set of TV series, Julia Child, wrote several books on cookery as well as being co-author of a two-volume cookbook titled "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" (1961), now considered a classic in its field.



A video to illustrate Julia's style of presentation. She teaches how to make an omelette:

MONDAY MARINADE ~ Paul Liebrandt

In choosing my subject for today's blog I hit some serious frustration. I don't want to focus on celebrity chefs, whose numbers seem to grow daily. What's up? Don't chefs enjoy being in a proper kitchen any more? Too hard work ? It is hard work, even today with all the best equipent and technology to hand, it's still hard to run a big kitchen to a high standard. So much easier to stand in front of a TV camera and pontificate, or to curse and swear in a reality TV show as though that were the root of a chef's skill-set.

In the words of a commenter at Huffington Post on an article about one of Gordon Ramsay's recent outbursts:

"At what point in the last 20 years did being a total uncivilized dick become acceptable, even lucrative, behavior? Did it start with Howard Stern? Jerry Springer? We have a whole generation of people that think watching or listening to people be really horrible, nasty and cruel to each other is great entertainment. WTF?"

I'm less than enchanted by the current crop of celeb chefs who appear on TV, write book after book, open cooking schools, give lectures, open strings of restaurants bearing their name but which they never visit to cook in the kitchens. There has to be at least one more chef for me to investigate, one who is actually doing a chef's work, on a daily basis.

My eye fell upon the name Paul Liebrandt. He's still in the kitchens! Bet I can't find his date of birth.

(NOTE: this birth data is not correct. A correction has been posted on 27 December 2010 SEE HERE

I did, eventually: Born 26 August 1975 in Zimbabwe to British parents. No city specified, so I've used the capital Harare (formerly Salisbury). He was raised in London and trained in some of the finest kitchens in Europe. He moved to New York in 1999, and currently is chef and co-owner of the Corton restaurant in Tribeca, a neighborhood in lower Manhattan.

"The tables are covered with white linen and set with pink roses. The whitewashed walls are bottom-lit, like a giant fresco, and stenciled with butterflies, birds, and sylvan tree branches colored here and there with a solitary gold leaf. There’s a peaceful, palate-cleansing quality to all this icy, Altoid whiteness, and as dinner progresses you get a sense of time suspended, of being pleasantly inoculated from the cares of the outside world.
Peace and light aren’t chef Paul Liebrandt’s usual M.O., of course. The English wunderkind (he’s only 32) has been known to sprinkle eel with crystallized violets and flavor his côte de boeuf with coffee grinds before theatrically finishing it in clouds of burning hay. But on this latest tour through the New York restaurant jungle (this is his fourth in eight years), the perpetually promising chef has found his footing"(HERE)

What made you decide to become a chef?I don't know. I like cooking. I like the excitement of the kitchen. I like the heat, the violence, the sweat, the punishing hours. It's freedom in the kitchen.
What was it like working for Marco Pierre White?
Hard. But he's a very fair man. If you go in there, and you're young, and you work your bollocks off there's a lot to be learned. If not, you wouldn't last in his kitchen two seconds.



What did you learn from him?
Discipline. How to beat people. You notice the scar above my eye here? Well, there you go. How to take a bunch of young guys like I had here when I started six months ago, who didn't know how to hold a frying pan properly and beat them, literally, beat them into shape within a matter of a couple of months and get three stars from the New York Times. I wouldn't have been able to do it without having the solid training I did."

Sounds as though Gordon Ramsay-type antics are par for the course in chefdom then! I should have realised as much from my own experience of watching more than one chef chase a waiter with a carving knife, when I worked in hotels, long ago.

This chart for Paul Liebrandt will give correct planetary placements in signs, apart from degree of the Moon and rising sign. That will suffice for my purpose. He has moved around from Africa to England to France and Europe to the USA, so relocation will have shunted the ascendant and houses more than once.

(NOTE - birth data incorrect. Correction posted on 27 December 2010 - SEE HERE)




Natal Sun conjoining Venus - an artistic guy, in Virgo - a discerning and fairly disciplined one to boot. Mercury lies at the other end of Virgo - one of its home signs so is pure and unsullied: he'll be a clear thinker, and expect precision from others.

The 2009 Eat Out Awards describe his food:
"Renegade chef Paul Liebrandt's studied food is as artful on the plate as it is on the palate."
(Phtograph by Melissa Hom)


If I didn't know this is the chart of a chef I'd have guessed at writer and/or illustrator. Moon will be in Aries, somewhere in the second half of the sign. This Aries influence reflects his "get-up-and-go", the energy he has needed to pursue his dream, and with Jupiter, planet of expansion, exaggeration and luck lying also in Aries (possibly close enough to be termed conjunct) his energetic go-getter nature is further underlined.

Saturn, planet of discipline, business and tradition is the sole planet in Cancer and lies sextile (helpful aspect) to Mercury. This hints at a disciplined, organised mind - a definite plus for a chef who wants to "run a tight ship" - as the best of them do. Mars in Gemini is in harmonious trine to Pluto in Libra, and opposite Neptune in Sagittarius - so Mars, the personal energy planet is linked to the two outer planets which represent power and creativity.

Liebrandt has the reputation of being something of a renegade, inventive as well as creative. It's interesting then, that Uranus, the renegade's planet is in harmonious (though out-of-sign) sextile to his Sun/Venus conjunction.

There's nothing to specify food preparation in this, or in fact in any of the chef charts I've looked at. What has to, and does, come through is creativity, discipline, energy, business sense and an artistic nature. These characteristics could be put to work in a number of professions or jobs. It's surprising that there isn't some tiny indicator which points towards catering. This could, of course, come via house position, which remains unknown without a correct time of birth. It could come via ascendant or midheaven. 6th house is the house of service, midheaven the area of career, ascendant the side of character shown to the world at large; any or all of these could underline a leaning towards a career in food, which I continue to think might involve Taurus, and/or Cancer, at 6th house or midheaven or ascendant.

MONDAY MARINADE #3: Helene Darroze

Number 3 in this series, and I wanted it to be about a female chef. Not only a female chef, but one who actually carries out her profession according to its job description. So many in the food industry nowadays have migrated to presenting TV shows, writing cookbooks and otherwise doing celebritous (new word) things. I want to feature chefs who cater to the public in restaurants or hotels. If they write the odd book, that's fine, if they appear on TV once in a while, that's fine too, but the main thrust of their career must be catering to the public, not becoming a celebrity.

With that in mind, I had a hard job finding a female chef whose birth data is available. I found one eventually though: Helene Darroze. The name might not be familiar to you or I, unless a passing reader lives within a very high income bracket. This lady, well known in France for her Paris restaurant has recently crossed the English channel to open another in London. It's at the extremely swish Connaught Hotel, which has recently undergone a 70 million pound makeover (that'd be over $100 million at current rates, I guess). Recession? Hmmmm!



Ms Darroze is exactly the kind of chef I'm looking for. She will divide her time between London and Paris, while still caring for her young child, adopted in Vietnam. She has said that it's important for her to be in the kitchen of the restaurant where her name is, so that it is not just "a brand name on the door."

Helene Darroze's father and grandfather were both chefs. She says that she was practically "born in the kitchen". She was actually born on 23 February 1967 in Mont de Marson, Landes, in the south-western area of France. I found her data on a French page of Wikipedia. My schoolgirl French isn't up to translating much of the rest of the page, but this chef's arrival in London last year spawned a slew of newspaper articles. These have afforded some nice detail about this lady.
(Sources linked at end of post.)

Her natal chart, set for 12 noon, in the absence of a time of birth.




Here's a quite different flavour of personality from either Escoffier or Puck ( chefs featured on the past two Mondays.)

There is one clear similarity to Escoffier's chart here though - the opposition of Uranus and Pluto to the cluster of personal planets around their natal Suns. I called this Escoffier's "engine room" in my post. Here's a mini version of his chart.


Helene Darroze obviously has oodles of energy, to keep up a London/Paris commute on a regular basis, as well as being a single mother.

A chef, she has said, "cooks with heart, with personality. A dish is part of ourselves so the way I will cook will be very different from the way Tom Aiken or Gordon Ramsay cook."

I'd say that as well as being something of a human dynamo, Ms Darroze has a soft and intuitive heart coming from her 4 Pisces planets. Her Moon would be in Leo whatever time of birth, and this Leo-ness at her inner core enables her to take center stage in her kitchens. She doesn't "lord it" over her staff as some famous male chefs are said to do though. She calls her staff her "collaborators" and insists on being called "Helene" rather than"chef". This is coming from the emotional intelligence born of Pisces.




There's a Grand Trine in Water signs in her chart. It links Saturn/Venus in Pisces to Jupiter in Cancer and Neptune in Scorpio. The presence of both Venus and Neptune in this Watery, emotional circuit underlines her artistry and creativity, while Saturn draws in a well-integrated work ethic. Her energy, as well as being reflected in the opposition already mentioned, is further emphasised by natal Mars (the energy planet) in harmonious trine to her Sun.

I think that hers could also easily be the natal chart of an artist or musician. This is where environment and background make a difference. Ms Darroze happened to be born into a family of chefs, her artistry was thus focused towards food, from an early age.



This lady sounds so very different from some celebrity chefs who hit our TV screens. I'm glad!

'Oh, you know, I'm just like anyone else,' says Darroze waving her hand dismissively. She blithely ignores the TV crew and perches on a grey-blue armchair, sitting on the edge of the seat like an attentive schoolgirl. She does not look remotely like the sort of steely, ambitious figure one might expect. She has a ready smile and a delightfully easy manner, recalling those friendly patronnes you find occasionally serving double measures of pastis from behind village bars in rural France. Compact and short, she has cropped peroxide-blonde hair and twinkly eyes. She is sweetly pretty, but I get the impression that such trifles do not especially concern her. Her face is bare of make-up, the grey cardigan she is wearing has a hole in one arm that keeps threatening to unravel each time she moves and she wears little jewellery apart from an enormous gold crucifix that dangles almost all the way down to her navel.

SOURCES

THIS IS LONDON

THE GUARDIAN

THE INDEPENDENT

MONDAY MARINADE #2 ~ Wolfgang Puck

Chef du jour: Wolfgang Puck. Born in Austria, trained in France, achieved fame and fortune in the USA.

I first came across this name at O'Hare airport in Chicago, while en route for my last trip back to Blighty in 2005. I ate at a restaurant bearing his name - had the best Caesar Salad ever. I wasn't aware then of his reputation. As I ate my salad I just pondered on his rather strange surname, one I'd only encountered before in Shakespeare's play "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Wolfgang Puck is both chef and entrepreneur these days. He now owns some of the most splendid restaurants in the USA.

Puck maintains a cutting-edge role as a creative culinary force with signature dishes like gourmet pizza topped with smoked salmon and caviar. He has also launched companies, including Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group, Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. and Wolfgang Puck Catering.
The Wolfgang Puck Companies encompass 15 fine dining restaurants, premium catering services, more than 80 Wolfgang Puck Express operations, and kitchen and food merchandise, including cookbooks and canned foods. He is the official caterer for the Academy Awards Governors Ball, and has parlayed his celebrity into acting; his credits include Frasier, a recurring role as himself on Las Vegas and a cameo appearance on The Weather Man. He also appeared as himself on Iron Chef America: Battle of the Masters, as well as Cooking Class with Wolfgang Puck on The Food Network, and in an American Idol season finale episode where he introduced unusual foods to Kellie Pickler in comic relief segments. He also made a cameo appearance as himself on an episode of Tales from the Crypt, and appeared in a TV commercial advertising California (along with famous people such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jack Nicholson).

Puck is active in philanthropic endeavors and charitable organizations, co-founding the Puck-Lazaroff Charitable Foundation in 1982. The foundation supports the annual American Wine & Food Festival which benefits Meals on Wheels and has raised more than $15 million since its inception.

(Information from Wikipedia)

Born on 8 July 1949 in Sankt Veit an der Glan, Austria. Birth time isn't known. Chart below is set for noon. Ascendant and Moon degree will not be as shown, other placements are correct.



So here's a chef with Sun in Cancer, the nurturing sign. This is one of the two signs I most expected to find prominent in a chef's chart. I was wrong lat week in Escoffier's case though.

Wikipedia tells us that Puck learned cooking from his mother, who sometimes worked as a pastry chef. As Cancer also relates to the mother, there's a nice correlation here.




Puck, like Escoffier, is said to delight in innovation. Innovation has to be a large part of a chef's agenda, in order to hold the interest of his customers. Uranus conjunct Mercury reflects this flair for innovation. Uranus represents invention and novelty, Mercury, strong and unadulterated in its own sign of Gemini relates to Puck's obvious talent for communication. He has written books, as well as appearing on or acting in several TV shows. His two Leo planets fold in to this facet of his personality.


Puck's artistry and creativity (and his draw towards acting) relate back to Venus (planet of the arts) in outgoing Leo sextile Neptune (creativity) in Libra (ruled by Venus).

Saturn lay in Virgo as Puck came into the world. And the world welcomed another perfectionist. Cooking led on to a chain of business interests, gradually beoming a veritable catering empire. Jupiter in Capricorn speaks of luck in business, and expansive outlook, which Puck obviously has, in spades. Moon in Sagittarius no doubt has a hand in all this expansion too.

There's no emphasis on Aquarius in this chart, as there was in Escoffier's, but Uranus is important here, conjoined as it is to Mercury. Saturn and Capricorn play an important part, as do Sagittarius and Jupiter, again. We'll see if these continue to be highlighted in more charts during coming weeks.

It seems that (some) talented chefs are not be content to simply cook and run a kitchen, they must feel driven to expand and expand. I'd love to do a post on a chef who is just a chef, but a stellar one. These types though will not hit the internet with birth data and detail, so unless I can dig out information on a straightforward working chef, this series will have to focus on "celebrity" chefs - which is a bit of a shame.