My Life in France
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4.5 • 247 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Julia's story of her transformative years in France in her own words is "captivating ... her marvelously distinctive voice is present on every page.” (San Francisco Chronicle).
Although she would later singlehandedly create a new approach to American cuisine with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her television show The French Chef, Julia Child was not always a master chef. Indeed, when she first arrived in France in 1948 with her husband, Paul, who was to work for the USIS, she spoke no French and knew nothing about the country itself.
But as she dove into French culture, buying food at local markets and taking classes at the Cordon Bleu, her life changed forever with her newfound passion for cooking and teaching. Julia’s unforgettable story—struggles with the head of the Cordon Bleu, rejections from publishers to whom she sent her now-famous cookbook, a wonderful, nearly fifty-year long marriage that took the Childs across the globe—unfolds with the spirit so key to Julia’s success as a chef and a writer, brilliantly capturing one of America’s most endearing personalities.
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
My Life in France
This is a marvelous story of Julia Child's life when she lived in Paris and Marseille. This autobiographical sketch is engaging, positive and encouraging. Even if you aren't a cook this is a
marvelous read!
Good historical read
Being new to this country in 2001 I lacked the understanding for the reverence and fascination with Julia Child.
This book opened my eyes.
Beautiful scenery and descriptions and as I read I was often hungry.
It is a pity more of the French was not translated as there were whole sentences I was left with no understanding.
Overall a good book giving some insight into an American Icon.
Out to buy her original cookbook now.
My Life in France - a gift from a visionary
I have been lucky to have met Julia Child on several occasions and to have entered the fine wine industry in Napa Valley at the onset of her and Robert Mondavi's vision of wine and food for America. This book is a revelation of the insights Julia saw about capturing and preserving the ways of growing and preparing exquisite cuisine. As I gazed yesterday at the abundance at Napa's Oxbow Market and this afternoon at Bouchon Bakery's pastries and perfect baguettes, I smiled with pleasure and gratitude for the gift of Julia Child. She truly was instrumental in making both food and wine a wonderful lifestyle and career path for me as well as elevating this American life for oh so many of us.