My Life in France
The Life Story of Julia Child
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4.7 • 7 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Bursting with adventurous and humorous spirit, Julia Child captures post-war Paris with wonderful vividness and charm.
When Julia Child arrived in Paris in 1948, a six-foot-two-inch, thirty-six-year-old, rather loud and unserious Californian, she spoke barely a few words of French and did not know the first thing about cooking. What's a shallot? she asked her husband Paul, as they waited for their sole meunière during their very first lunch in France, which she was to describe later as 'the most exciting meal of my life'.
As she fell in love with French culture, buying food at local markets, sampling the local bistros and taking classes at the Cordon Bleu, her life began to change forever, and My Life in France follows her extraordinary transformation from kitchen ingénue to internationally renowned (and loved) expert in French cuisine.
‘Child's exuberant, affectionate and boundlessly charming account ... chronicles, in mouth-watering detail, the meals and the food markets that sparked her interest in French cooking, and her growing appreciation of all things French.’ New York Times
‘Luscious … The large-as-life presence of Julia Child looms on every page.’ Washington Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With Julia Child's death in 2004 at age 91, her grandnephew Prud'homme (The Cell Game) completed this playful memoir of the famous chef's first, formative sojourn in France with her new husband, Paul Child, in 1949. The couple met during WWII in Ceylon, working for the OSS, and soon after moved to Paris, where Paul worked for the U.S. Information Service. Child describes herself as a "rather loud and unserious Californian," 36, six-foot-two and without a word of French, while Paul was 10 years older, an urbane, well-traveled Bostonian. Startled to find the French amenable and the food delicious, Child enrolled at the Cordon Bleu and toiled with increasing zeal under the rigorous tutelage of minence grise Chef Bugnard. "Jackdaw Julie," as Paul called her, collected every manner of culinary tool and perfected the recipes in her little kitchen on rue de l'Universit ("Roo de Loo"). She went on to start an informal school with sister gourmandes Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, who were already at work on a French cookbook for American readers, although it took Child's know-how to transform the tome after nine years, many title changes and three publishers into the bestselling Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961). This is a valuable record of gorgeous meals in bygone Parisian restaurants, and the secret arts of a culinary genius. Photos. First serial in the New York Times Magazine and Bon App tit.
Customer Reviews
Wonderful
I didn’t want it to end, what a delight Julia was.