Fun
Julia Child
Dear Kay,
I never get tired of hearing the story of Julia Child. It is the ultimate case of someone going all in. It’s just amazing, when you look at the arc of her life and the never-ending joy she brought to an entire country.
Over the holidays, Hubbo and Number 1 Son and I watched an episode of the PBS series American Masters, “Julia! America’s Favorite Chef.” Weeks later, I’m still thinking about it.
I think about how Julia Child’s life erupted into a passion only after she had a failed career as a writer. I think about the fortunate moment that she and her husband Paul happened to have dinner at a restaurant in Normandy where the menu included sole meunière, the dish that famously captivated Julia so completely that she signed up for cooking classes at Le Cordon Bleu. It was the first step toward her decade-long odyssey of writing the book that would launch her career: Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It was published when she was 49, and she would live another 43 years. Her life is a reminder that early birds don’t always get the worm—there are plenty of worms later on, if you work hard and follow your curiosity.
She was so, so natural in front of the camera. When she was wacky (and she often did hilarious and unpredictable things), it’s priceless.
We watched this by recording it on our DVR, so you may be able to catch it by recording the American Masters series. I don’t see a streaming source, but a DVD is available from Netflix (who are these troglodytes who won’t stream a classic documentary?) or Amazon.
If you have never seen an episode of The French Chef, the TV series that taught America how to cook in the French style, well, here’s 1964’s “Boeuf Bourguignon.”
The PBS site for the documentary offers all sorts of Juliana.
The recipes may be as good as the show, now that I think about it:
She is endlessly quotable, and endlessly inspiring: “The only time to eat diet food is when you’re waiting for the steak to cook.”
Bon appetit!
Love,
Ann
A related recommendation that sadly you can’t watch on TV (and I can’t find how to listen):
As Always, Julia collects Julia’s correspondence with Avis Devoto, the woman who made the publishing connections that eventually brought Mastering . . . to the masses and Julia to WGBH. Of course there’s a lot about cooking, and about politics, as Julia and Avis worry about the Republican administration and anti-Communist witch hunts of the 50s. But more interesting to MDK fans is how the relationship between the women moves from polite but friendly stranger to confidante as they discover shared interests and values over the 8 or so years before Julia moved back to the US.
This sounds wonderful—a good correspondence is so juicy!
She was an amazing woman and one of my heros. I’ve read both My Life in France and Dearie. I highly recommend them. Thanks for this post. I was unaware.
I haven’t read Dearie—thanks for the idea!
When I lived in Boston, I had a coworker who lived down the street from Julia Child. I loved listening to Judy tell us stories of when Julia came to her dinner parties I get cold sweats thinking about cooking for Julia Child, but she sounded just lovely.
I am a bit miffed that you would refer to readers who won’t stream a classic document as troglodytes. Perhaps you don’t know that quite a few of us do not have access to the technology for streaming.
I think the troglodytes she is referring to are Netflix/Amazon for not offering us both options , not us the Dear Readers of this blog. I actually no longer have a working DVD player, annd Julia is even more delightful on the big screen.
I am old enough to have watched those early shows on my black and white TV, and while I could not afford to cook as she did, I did learn technique. But my favorite Julia story comes from Hawaii: we were on vacation there, and read in the newspaper about the opening of a new annd fancy restaurant. The chef had been incarcerated as a youth, and the prison TV had been set to public television. That being their only option, they watched whatever was on, starting with Sesame Street in the morning, through the news at night. He had become fascinated with Julia Childs, and watched every episode repeatedly. When he was released, he got a job in a restaurant washing dishes, and saved money to go to cooking school…JUlia Childs had literally saved his life.
That is such an amazing story, Ellen.
Respectfully,Mary, I think Ann is referring to Netflix, not us.
Ummm, I believe she’s referring to the streaming sources as troglodytes for not having this series available – not the readers without streaming…
Definitely no troglodytes on MDK! Sorry for the bad writing!
Hilariously, I bought beef yesterday to make this – but I can’t find my cookbook (living in a rental while my house is being renoed). So I was gonna have to look up the Bourguignon. Kismet. Thanks for the link!
I made it for New Year’s Eve, and it really is the ultimate comfort food. Enjoy!
My mom and I made it for New year’s day, a classic.
What an excellent suggestion. There are a number of the old PBS shows available on YouTube or can be purchased and streamed on Amazon. My dad, who did. not. cook, became a big Julia fan after he retired. He would watch her on the local PBS station while eating his lunch. Never cooked a thing, just loved the woman and her style. Looking forward to spending time with Julia over the coming weeks. thanks!
Just for edification, not everyone can stream. If you are in a rural area, you are forced to use satellite for internet service. To sum it up, a slow form of torture that you must pay 10xs more to enjoy
She’s critiquing Netflix for not offering the service (there’s a thread above clarifying that point.). 🙂 Not a critique of MDK readers.
Where did Julia get her accent from?
As I know from my daughter’s fourth grade report on famous Californians, Julia was from a well-off Pasadena family. So, oddly enough, SoCal. 🙂
She’s one of my heroes. Thanks for letting us know about this documentary, I will find it!
I’m a new one, my other half bought me a stand mixer for Christmas…my grandmother and I used to watch Julia on PBS….then we’d put our aprons on, and get to work!! Great memories Thank you for keeping us in love with our kitchen memories!
Her appearance on David Letterman is available on YouTube and is priceless. I remember laughing until I cried. 🙂
When I was in high school in the 70s I was on a committee that included Julia’s sister, Dorothy Cousins. She had the exact same accent as Julia.
Julia’s former PA was a teacher at my eldest daughter’s previous school. She was really lovely – I met her when I went along as parent help for a cooking class for the kids. I loved watching Julia’s programmes on Saturday afternoons as a kid. Gratin dauphinoise occasionally gets a run at our place, and there’s never leftovers…..
Julia was so beautiful! Her passion unmatched!
Finally got to watching the Julia shows. What a trip! I was at my first post-college job when the series started, but I had no TV. But other friends did, and one friend had a BIG apartment,so she said we could watch the series at her place. Then we all agreed that having the book (Mastering the Art of French Cooking) would be good to have. So the same friend went to Koch’s and Brentano’s in NYC, said she wanted to buy 4 books, and demanded a discount! Which she got!
We dashed to her apartment each week at the appointed time (after work) and followed along with the recipe of the evening. I think we all tried to “do it ourselves” before the next show. I really did learn to cook thanks to Julia Child, and I still have the original cookbook.