Julia and Julie: A tale of two cooks
September 28, 2005 - The Chicago Tribune
“Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen” (Little, Brown; $23.95), by Julie Powell, delivers a culinary-literature changeup that foodies may initially resist, but eventually enjoy.
Surely any book based on the idea of cooking every recipe in Julia Child’s kitchen classic, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” (reduced to the gut-cringing acronym “MtAoFC” in the book), must be all about food, right?
The answer is not so cut and dried.
It sounds like a wonderful premise, launched from Powell’s wildly popular blog about her year in the kitchen with Child’s book. What fun-loving foodie with a bit of time and money wouldn’t jump at the chance to master “The Art” themselves?
Powell’s relationship with Child, however, is different than expected. Instead of Child becoming a culinary mentor for Powell, the project becomes a way for the author to survive a pre-midlife crisis: She has a dead-end job, a hovering mother, a sex life that leaves something to be desired and her biological clock is ticking.
When that last bit shows up, followed by talk of a gynecologist’s speculum and a disturbing run-in with a homeless woman in the subway—all within the first few pages, readers might be tempted to double-check the whisk-laden cover.
Perseverance is rewarded, for Powell’s bawdy humor saves the book. Whether it’s about her life or her kitchen, there is consistently something to laugh at every few pages.
Plus, she’s pretty hard core. Not only does Powell break cardinal rules galore by continually cooking dishes for company that she has never before made, she prepared one such dish—veal kidneys—for Amanda Hesser of The New York Times.
Powell’s humor also carries into her cooking adventures. In one of the book’s finest moments, she gives beef councils across the country the best X-rated sales pitch for liver in a generation. If anyone can convince you to eat, let alone cook, things like liver, kidney and brains for the first time—and Child proposes quite a bit of offal—Powell is the one to do it.
Bawdiness is, in fact, Powell’s niche. She’s got a cheeky honesty, a crudeness, a plow-ahead, just-do-it courage that many home cooks could benefit from. This is where Powell channels Child. You can easily imagine her in an apron, knife held high over her head, mischievous Child-style grin on her lips, getting ready to hack her way into a turkey.
The wonderful upshot of “Julie & Julia” is a nostalgia for the real thing. Though it’s just over a year since Child passed away, Powell’s book rekindles our fascination and love for Child. Most fans still pick up Child’s cookbook and think of their own relationships with its legendary author. Memories of Child’s minor kitchen mishaps on TV, along with her amazing dishes, immediately come to mind when reading Powell’s book.
Powell may well inspire a resurgence of interest in Child’s many books and television programs. She helps readers rediscover a book she devoted a year of her life to, and motivates them to get back to the kitchen.
