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Spreading the love for a long-footed sister

How can you not love Julia Child?

• She said things like "Zut! We had muffed it!"
• She admiringly described other women as being "as vigorous as a pirate" and "a wonderfully tough old bird."
• She was a total food geek. "It would eventually take us two years and something like 284 pounds of flour to try out all the home-style recipes for French bread we could find." "In order to really understand chocolate, I invited a Nestlé food chemist to 103 Irving Street, and asked him all about the chemical composition of American chocolate, the best way for a home cook to melt it, and so on." Anorak. In the best possible way.
• She wore size 12 shoes.

Anyone who is into cooking should read her new autobiography. I suppose her straightforward charm and brutal honesty were what made her TV shows and books so popular, and there's plenty of that in this book. But reading her stories about her life in France during the 1940s and 50s made me want to go to France, eat French food, and most of all, wish I had known the woman. She (along with her husband Paul) would have been an awesome person to hang out with, and not just because she was a kick-ass cook.

And if anyone local wants to borrow the hardcover, drop me a line. But when you return it, I expect the book to be accompanied by a pot of perfect bouillabaise à la marseillaise.

April 29, 2006 6:44 PM