#23 My Life in France by Julia Child, Alex Prud'Homme

[missingvolume]

This was a really great read. Not only do you find out about Julia Child's journey learning how to cook French food but you also get a slice of how life was in the 1950's as well. I did get hungry reading the book and I also broke down and got her cookbooks.  The book goes into quite a bit of detail about writing the cook book and was a surprise to me how many times it was rejected.  If you like bios or travel books about Europe this will be an enjoyable read.



                                                                         

Comments

[tinne.livejournal.com]

I just saw "Julie & Julia" the other night (more Julia/Meryl; less Julie, plz!) and told my husband during the movie that I have to read My Life in France. Soon. (She's a spy! She's a Cordon Bleu chef!) As it was, I pulled out my grandmother's 1966 edition of MTAOFC that same night and paged through it with fresh eyes.

I think the initial rejections and the process of getting published in the movie was pretty interesting too - plus, the meeting scene between Child and Beck with Irma Rombauer was hilarious. I stupidly gave my 1978, non-updated edition of "Joy of Cooking" to my brother and only have the later, sanitized version now. The one that left out the roadkill stews and improved the wildly-iffy recipes. The original "Joy" is an interesting read and a bit of 1930's Americana all on its own. I also had no idea that Rombauer and her daughter were hosed by their publisher, if true.

[missingvolume.livejournal.com]

In the book she talks about how she updated one of the baking recipes that tells people to use an asbestos tile in the oven and hit it with water to get steam to get the right crust.

I'll have to look for the Rombauer book.

I've heard people talk about recutting the movie to slice out all the Julie scenes.