This is my third time in three years to read this book. Like many people of my generation, I remember Julia Child – “The French Chef” – on the local PBS channel, playing on the kitchen tv as my mom cooked. I do not know if my mom ever “cooked along with Julia,” but maybe just having her voice and presence while one cooked was encouragement enough. I also remember the “Saturday Night Live” skit where Dan Ackroyd played Julia Child (“oh, I seem to have cut the dickens out my finger…”). Julia Child was just always there, you know? So when I first was given this book for a book club, I didn’t know anything other than my childhood knowledge that she cooked on tv.
How I loved getting to know her through this book. The book chronicles how she became a chef after she followed her husband Paul to Paris for his work. She was 37 years old and had not found a calling…until she began eating French food, visiting markets and eventually began classes at the Cordon Bleu. Her love of food began and through meeting new friends, she began work on her classic cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
While My Life in France describes her cooking lessons, various dishes and dinners she prepared, favorite meals from across France, the progress of how her book was published and her ascent to becoming Julia Child, the joy of the book is just getting to know Julia as herself. She has a self-confidence that allows her to share her failures, concerns and losses, and yet it does not diminish her in the least. She is rightly proud of herself when she finally concocts the perfect mayonnaise or spends months making the real French bread.
She does not shy away from the imperfect parts of life. She shares how her liberal political views clash with her seriously conservative father and the strain it caused within her family. She knows that at 6’2 and without a slight frame that she is not considered a great beauty, but her husband loves her and she truly seems content. She talks of her failures, her insecurities and relationships – she is quite real.
Most French people are very welcoming with her, but when one woman snappishly shares a recipe that Julia knows to be wrong, her response is succinct: “Balls.” You have to love this woman.
And you cannot spend an entire book with Julia without getting to know – and fall in love with – her husband Paul. Their love story is one of amazing support, partnership and sheer joy in each other. It is warming and encouraging without ever a hint of schmaltz or an eye roll.
While a few years ago it came out that while in France, Julia was a spy for the OSS, this is never hinted at in her book. She seems to have no spare time, so not sure how she was working for the government – but I guess that is why she was a good spy.
You may have seen the movie “Julie and Julia” a few years ago – the “Julia” part of the movie was based upon this book. The “Julie” part was based upon Julie Powell’s book and I was “meh” on both that book and that part of the movie.
My book club read this for our December selection and then everyone cooked a dish out of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I made the suggestion and after it was enthusiastically welcomed, I thought -- Lord, help me. I made the plan and now I am remembering how I am not that good of a cook. Well, if Julia believes in me, perhaps I can do it. (I ended up making Gratin Dauphinois – scalloped potatoes with garlic and Swiss cheese. It turned out pretty well and I know make it every few weeks.) By the way, the book club dinner was amazing and such fun.
Sidenote: “The French Chef” shows are on Amazon Prime and I showed Noa Julia making Boeuf Bourguignon – as she showed the cuts she prefers, she then showed the meat the butcher had given her. She calls it measly, compares it to cat food and flings it in a bowl of screen saying “and I don’t like it.”
I will reread and lend out My Life in France over and over. I highly recommend it. You will feel good after reading it. As Julia would say, “Bon Appétit!”
No comments:
Post a Comment