The Julia Child Issue of Gastronomica
by Celia Sin-Tien Cheng
September 17, 2009
This month’s winners are Gillian and Jason!
Below is the original Baking Friday post.
Q: WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON JULIA CHILD?
Scroll down to enter a comment, and click “submit” after the preview appears on screen. Send us your answer by midnight tonight for the chance to win a copy of the Julia Child Issue of Gastronomica. Winners will be contacted via email. This Baking Friday is open to participants living in all 50 states within the U.S.
You might think that Julie & Julia was just a summer phenomenon, but what remains is a resurgence of love, reverence and curiosity surrounding Julia Child. Her memoir, My Life in France, has not only climbed back onto the best seller list in the US, but it’s also topping lists as far away as China. Now that’s phenomenal!
Most people to whom I’ve spoken about the movie wish there had been less Julie and more Julia. But thankfully, reading material on Julia Child is not difficult to find.
Gastronomica has also just re-launched its 2005 Julia Child Issue, published the year after her death. This commemorative issue is a collector’s item with birthday poems from Paul Child, tributes and insights from Jacques Pépin and Sara Moulton, and glimpses into her childhood and life at Smith. And this wonderfully quirky photo of Julia and Paul in the bathtub (below) reminds us how mesmerizing Julia Child was.
Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University
If you want to get your hands on this beautifully compiled farewell tribute to Julia Child, or you just want to be inspired again, enter this week’s Baking Friday!
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D
September 18, 2009
Renewed publicity has opened my eyes — more appreciation of her depth and admiration for her accomplishments.
taylor
September 18, 2009
complex, for sure. but you have to respect what a hard working and passionate person she was. detail oriented and thorough as all hell. a dynamic personality, indeed.
Adria
September 18, 2009
That she is very accessible. I started cooking Julia Child’s recipes when I was 12 yrs. old. I hosted my first dinner party for 8 ppl at that age and one of the recipes served was right out of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”. I think she was an inspiration to many.
Denise
September 18, 2009
Famous Julia quote, “I don’t think about whether people will remember me or not. I’ve been an okay person. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve taught people a thing or two. That’s what’s important.”
My immediate thought is I wish would have had the pleasure to meet her! A friend told me, “When someone passes a little of them lives in you forever”. When I cook I feel like I am keeping Julia’s spirit alive!! -A foodie at heart.
Ariel
September 18, 2009
I don’t know much about her, but do remember that my friend in Santa Barbara said that the delicious, but unassuming place we had Mexican food was Julia’s fave Mexican restaurant. She knew about haute cuisine but loved down home cooking too, like me.
:-)
Gillian
September 18, 2009
Julia has taught me that while eating and cooking is necessary to live, it can be something that can bring joy to your life everyday and challenge you to realize that you can create beautiful meals from basic ingredients. Most of which is butter, of course ;)
christoff
September 18, 2009
Perhaps the first person to make french cooking accessible to America at large. Thank you Julia!!!
Tony
September 18, 2009
First thing I ever made from a cookbook was in Julia’s….and it came out perfect!!!
Patricia Grande
September 18, 2009
Julia displayed an honesty and candor that is rarely seen, in the culinary world or in life, for that matter. She taught us about the great amount joy there is in the small things in life – a delicious peach, a crunchy piece of baguette with wonderful butter, a perfectly cooked fish. We could all learn so much more than cooking from her.
Patty
September 18, 2009
I thank Julia for helping my French-Canadian mom finally learn how to cook at the age of 57! She loves Julia and I’ve supplemented her literary passion for Julia’s cookbooks with her French Chef DVDs. Without Julia, I’d still be breakfasting on box-mix cornbread muffins when I go home to visit. But now, now it’s 30 second egg omelletes with enough butter to slow my heart until lunch.
sarah
September 18, 2009
she and her husband seemed like a loving and supportive couple – great photo!
September 18, 2009
I love Julia because she stayed true to herself and persevered, despite other people’s perception of her before she became famous!
Jason
September 18, 2009
I just watched an episode of Julia and Jacques and she was a pistol, calling people who give up on a recipe because they don’t have all the ingredients crazy. “OF COURSE you can still make it!”
September 18, 2009
I always had a funny feeling about her because my name is also Julia but I remember her making an impression at a very young age. As a child I somehow put her in the same category as Sesame Street, must have been the voice and all that PBS we watched.
Eric
September 19, 2009
Melissa and my sis Maureen love Julia… those are my only thoughts on her;)
September 19, 2009
I attended an 80th birthday celebration for Julia in Los Angeles, and covered her passing for People. In both instances, I was amazed by the absolute adoration a wide roster of chefs, American and French, felt for her. There was tremendous gratitude for what she had done for French cuisine in America. And great stories about her incredible joie de vivre: like the one of Julia at a party in Boston, not long before her death, almost single-handedly demolishing a very large tin of caviar!
phyllis ostrofsky
October 9, 2009
I loved Julia Child … she made cooking well approachable. But, I often wonder why Dionne Lucas (who was on TV light years before Julia) … why didn’t Julia give her due credit.
Comments (17)