In her own words, here is the captivating story of
Julia Child’s years in France, where she fell in love
with French food and found ‘her true calling.’ From
the moment the ship docked in Le Havre in the fall of
1948 and Julia watched the well-muscled stevedores
unloading the cargo to the first perfectly soigné
meal that she and her husband, Paul, savored in Rouen en
route to Paris, where he was to work for the USIS, Julia
had an awakening that changed her life. Soon this tall,
outspoken gal from Pasadena, California, who didn’t
speak a word of French and knew nothing about the
country, was steeped in the language, chatting with
purveyors in the local markets, and enrolled in the
Cordon Bleu. After managing to get her degree despite
the machinations of the disagreeable directrice
of the school, Julia started teaching cooking classes
herself, then teamed up with two fellow gourmettes,
Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, to help them
with a book they were trying to write on French cooking
for Americans. Throwing herself heart and soul into
making it a unique and thorough teaching book, only to
suffer several rounds of painful rejection, is part of
the behind-the-scenes drama that Julia reveals with her
inimitable gusto and disarming honesty. Filled with
the beautiful black-and-white photographs that Paul
loved to take when he was not battling bureaucrats, as
well as family snapshots, this memoir is laced with
wonderful stories about the French character,
particularly in the world of food, and the way of life
that Julia embraced so wholeheartedly. Above all, she
reveals the kind of spirit and determination, the sheer
love of cooking, and the drive to share that with her
fellow Americans that made her the extraordinary success
she became. Le voici. Et bon
appétit!
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