My Life in France

Paperback

English language

ISBN:: 978-0-274-80398-9

(1 review)

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 …

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.

1 edition

urn reviewed My Life in France by Julia Child

Review of "My Life in France" on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

She's got a lot of zingers in here, but at heart, this book succeeds because of its joyous but simple recounting of several food-filled decades.

What I wasn't expecting was to be struck by political commentary in a food memoir. Which is to say Julia ain't no socialist, but there's familiarity in the struggles she had with her conservative father and various folks scared of la différence.

Still, Julia child had some moolah, and while travel is certainly life-expanding, her financial and education privilege does put a damper on some of my aspirational admiration. I will absolutely cook her sole meunière recipe within the month, but reading about her several houses, USIS adjacent or otherwise does put me into that deep millennial/climate-change depression where I imagine international travel and home ownership are generally drifting out of reach.

...also, I love reading books by and about women who did not …

She's got a lot of zingers in here, but at heart, this book succeeds because of its joyous but simple recounting of several food-filled decades.

What I wasn't expecting was to be struck by political commentary in a food memoir. Which is to say Julia ain't no socialist, but there's familiarity in the struggles she had with her conservative father and various folks scared of la différence.

Still, Julia child had some moolah, and while travel is certainly life-expanding, her financial and education privilege does put a damper on some of my aspirational admiration. I will absolutely cook her sole meunière recipe within the month, but reading about her several houses, USIS adjacent or otherwise does put me into that deep millennial/climate-change depression where I imagine international travel and home ownership are generally drifting out of reach.

...also, I love reading books by and about women who did not have children.

Subjects

Biography