My Life In France

Author: Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme
ISBN: 1-4000-4346-8
Year Published: 2006
Date Read: 3/22/08
Why I Read This Book: I have an interest in cooking and have enjoyed and used Julia Child's cookbooks
Number of Pages: 302
File Under: Autobiography, France, cooking, Child

Comments: This book came to me from a dear friend who knew of my interest in cooking. After all, she had supped many times at our house and enjoyed hours of entertainment which often accompanied the meal.

I was first introduced to Julia Child through the spoofs of her cooking shows on Saturday Night Live. Even with that introduction, Julia Child seemed interesting. I happened to find some of her shows on Public Television as I travelled about. She was direct, fun, polite, no nonsense, and told a story with every recipe. Her food looked delicious and her descriptions allowed you to smell the meals through the TV screen. She loved teaching, she loved food, and you got the sense she loved life. My Life in France provides us with the background of Ms. Child's life which led to the cookbook which led to the cooking shows on Public Television in Boston which led to the spoofs on SNL.

The book was co-written with the grandson of the twin of her husband, Paul. Paul had died in 1994 after a long marriage to Julia. They had embarked together on a foreign services posting to Paris in 1948 after World War II. The couple enjoyed all that France and Paris had to offer. For Julia the food was a new sensation which she had never experienced. Her home, growing up, had been a meat and potatoes operation with little need or interest for innovation. When she hit France she ate sole meuniere for the first time and was hooked. She wanted to be able to experience this mouth based sensation over and over again.

She tells us about every wonderful sight, sound, and taste experienced by Julia. There are many superlatives used in this book. Everything is wonderful, most delightful, more beautiful than can be imagined, or tremendous. The book was written from Julia's memory and from snippets taken from the hundreds of letters sent by Paul to his twin brother while Julia and Paul were in France together. As of the writing of this book, Julia has lost Paul to the great beyond and she has been away from her home in France for over a decade. I do not begrudge the author for painting a plus positive picture of France. If perchance Julia only had wonderful memories then that is how the story should be told.

The underpaid couple set up a household in Paris in a centuries old building which had survived the War. Paul has been a fancier of good food and wine and has traveled more than Julia. As a result, Paul is always introducing Julia to new chefs, restaurants, and taste sensations. Julia is smitten but then wants nothing more than to learn about this great passion the French have for food. She wants to learn the artistry of the great chefs. She signs up for classes in Paris' Cordon Bleu school.

The experience there is not a very good one for Julia or for any women at that time. She does learn fundamental skills and makes friends. It appears that Julia made friends throughout her life and also managed to keep these friends for decades. She opens her own cooking school, on a small scale, in her apartment with good buddies Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. Simone and Louisette ask Julia to participate with them in writing the ultimate book on French cooking. My Life In France takes you through those many years in Julia's life from when she first landed in France (1948) through the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961) until Julia and her family shut down their home in the French countryside in 1992.

In the process, Julia and Paul receive different assignments in France and have to move from Paris to Marseille to Germany. By the time the couple is assigned to Germany, Julia, Simone and Louisette are well along their way in writing their book. Julia takes an all too scientific approach to defining the recipes. She has the task of converting the ingredients only found in Europe to American equivalents. That task is more than just changing metric measures to quarts and ounces but also involves trying to find American canned equivalents to many of the uniquely French foods found in their markets or on the wharf.

The book often reads like a travelogue but carries us through the entire process of writing (with two other authors) and then publishing a cook book unlike any other previously written. Once the cookbook is published and the trio of authors become a success, there is a demand for another book and Julia gets invited to start a cooking show on Public Television in Boston, which obtains its own success. The book tells us about Julia throughout her successful career. By the time My Life In France was published, Julia had died in 2004. Many personal details appear in the autobiogrpahy, so it appears that Julia poured much of her memories into the book. You can hear her voice when you turn each page.

There are many delightful aspects of this book. Julia met and feasted with almost all of the great chefs in France and in America. They shared their love for food, their recipes, and would cook for each other when they got together. One feast after another in recounted in mouth watering detail. Julia never went to or left a location in France without giving the greatest details of the colors, smells and tastes she experienced in each locale.

Paul was an accomplished photographer. The pictures appear grain by today's standards but they show the well trained eye of the journeyman shutterbug. His pictures are mostly of Julia so you get to see her grow up as a woman. The couple had a practice of sending Valentine cards to all of their friends with a posed photograph showing some aspect of their love. One such picture appears on the front of the book. Others are stuck deep inside. There is a lot of love in this book.

If you are hungry, read this book. If you have never experienced French food, read this book. If you have an interest in post-WWII France read this book. If you want to read an upbeat story about a treasure of a woman read this book.