"My Life in France," by Julia Child

[flamingyouth]

I can't wait to read this. She led such a fascinating life and has always been one of my favorite women.

"My Life in France"
by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme
Knopf, 317 pp., $25.95

Julia Child's memoir "My Life in France" is really a love story: a couple's love for each other, and Child's love for a country and its cuisine.

The book is not so much written as it is told: Her grandnephew and co-author, Alex Prud'homme, has put together these autobiographical stories from his conversations with her as well as from the numerous letters written by Child (who died in 2004) and her husband when they lived in France.
The result captures her charm, warmth and, above all, her determined and robust spirit.

Julia Child has become such a culinary icon that it is surprising to learn she came from a family of ordinary cooks. She says, "As a girl I had zero interest in the stove."

The book begins and ends with her recalling her first meal upon arriving in France in 1948. The dish was sole meuniere, "a large, flat Dover sole that was perfectly browned in a sputtering butter sauce with a sprinkling of chopped parsley on top." She refers to this in her closing paragraph as a "life-changing experience."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/foodwine/2002917911_julia10.html

[madaboutharry]

1. I ordered this book and I'm looking

forward to its arrival. I really can't wait to read it. I think she was a fascinating woman and lead a fascinating life.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

2. The French Chef "chicken" episode was a "life-changing experience" for ME.

So famous, it only needs to be referred to as "the chicken episode," but I saw that as a kid and it certainly changed MY life. Julia, with that distinctive voice, with the knives and cleavers and cutting boards swinging that chicken around like a Weapon of Mass Deliciousness.

She was the living embodiment of Emerson's call to "not go where the path may lead, but go where there is no path and leave a trail."

:toast:

[stubtoe]

3. "Weapon of mass deliciousness"

:D love that!

I have long adored Julia. I should go order that book too.

[newyawker99]

4. Did you ever see the "yule log" episode?

It is one of the funniest shows
I have ever seen.

I loved Julia.