LUCY BURDETTE: No one would ever accuse me of being a trendsetter, including my recent obsession with Julia Child. I did watch the movie Julie and Julia (twice) and absolutely adored the performances of Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci as Julia and Paul. But I don’t own Mastering the Art of French Cooking, either volume one or two. I do have a lot of other books about Julia Child but until now I hadn’t read them.
But things changed as we watched the new mini series called Julia, focusing on the launch of her television career. Sarah Lancashire is brilliant as Julia. And now I’ve become officially obsessed.
If you’ve seen it or if you decide to see it and you become infatuated with the show and the characters as I have, here are some other fun places to dive deeper.
A podcast about the making of each episode. You might think this is a dull topic, but it's not, it’s so interesting! (Including one for you Hank, about the inclusion of the black woman producer, who is one of the few completely fictional characters in the show.)
Here's Adam Robert’s interview with the Director, Daniel Goldfarb, in addition to a chat with Dorie Greenspan.
French pastry chef David Lebovitz wrote a long article in his newsletter about what the show got right, and what wrong—he has met and worked with a lot of the big name chefs under discussion so it’s fascinating to hear his take.
Baker and cookbook author Dori Greenspan has two recent articles, one about Julia’s influence on her, and the other about the food stylist for the TV show, Christine Tobin. Both fascinating!
Because we had a discussion behind the scenes of our blog about what was real and true in the show, I finally read My Life in France by Julia Child (written with her nephew Alex Prud’homme.) Amazing book! She was an incredible woman, indomitable and totally unflustered by roadblocks in her cooking career, or in her life. It’s also a primer on having a good marriage.
And I forgot to add this photo earlier--celebrating Julia Child's birthday in 2012 with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law Lisa, who is always on trend!
Over to you Reds. Do you own or use Julia's Cookbooks? Have you watched the show? What did you think?
