I finished reading “My Life In France” by Julia Child and Alex Prud’Homme. I found it a great book where Julia shares with her tidbits of her life and more importantly her passion for French cooking.
Up until now, I only knew Julia Child through her cooking show aired on PBS. I remember one of the first times I saw her on TV, she was cooking with Jacques Pepin, she totally didn’t look like a professional cooking, but the way she held herself in the kitchen on TV really gave the show a little twist.
Julia and France
If you are someone fond of France, her book is really a delight to read. She talks about France and the French people with great enthusiasm. She clearly showed a lot of respect for French cooking which was illustrated with her curiosity to understand all the dishes and ingredients. She talks about France and its region in a very charming way, and sometimes it really feels like she became more French than the French themselves. I very much envy her traveling and eating through France at a time where life seemed to be simple.
Julia’s gift to the american public
Besides sharing her passion for French cooking in the American kitchen, I think Julia Child has really left a legacy in the way we look at food is shown in the media. She really took cooking on TV to a whole different level, and all the stars on the Food Network definitely owe her something for that. She is a great inspiration to anyone who wants to become a chef in his/her own kitchen. As she moved back to California from the East Coast, she donated her kitchen and many of her cook utensils to the Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C. I had the chance to see it, and could only think of how great of her person she must have been.
I also cannot not mention the bible of French cooking that Julia Child co-authored with two of her French friends (Simon Beck, Louisette Bertholle), “Mastering the Art of French Cooking“. This is a book about French cooking for the American kitchen. Julia Child went to great length of testing recipes and ingredients in order to report back to America how to cook fine French food in its own kitchen. Also, this masterpiece almost did not see the light, if it was not for Judith Jones, back then editor at the Knopf publishing house. Indeed, it was Judith Jones’ intuition that pushed her to pitch for the hefty and lengthy book to get published, and so it did. Judith Jones already had a good sense of what was bestseller material, previously as an editor assistant, she had convinced her editor to get publish “Ann Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl”, in the U.S., so she couldn’t possible be wrong about with “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”.
The story was also wonderful to read because it showed her free spirited personality, her almost flawless relationship with her husband Paul Child, and just the way she embraced life in a stress free manner.
My random thoughts about the book: Julia Child, life in France, traveling, fine food, simple life, relationship with her husband Paul Child, passionate and curious about French food, cooking experiment, culture shock, cooking in America, precursor of cooking show on TV, Bon Appétit!.
Lastly, Julia used quite a bit of French vocabulary in her story, not always translated, which can make it hard to comprehend the subtleties and humor in some part of the book, in that respect, I feel very fortunate to know that language.
