Online
News April 21, 2006
Events
 Alex Prud'homme
Tuesday, April 25 at 4pm
Meet Julia's great nephew and reminisce.
My Life in France
Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme
It was exquisitely simple sole meuniere that changed both the life of one woman
and the course of North American cuisine. In her newly published memoir, Julia
Child traces her love affair with everything French, particularly the food, from
that day in November, 1948 through the labour of love that became Mastering
the Art of French Cooking to her final visit in June, 1992. Though
written with her great nephew, Alex Prud'homme, it is Julia herself
whose words make this memoir so vivid that one can hear her glorious, rumbling
trill in every
paragraph.
Read a review of My Life in France by
The Cookbook Store's Jennifer
Grange.
Saturday, May 6, 1 to 4 pm.
Sante:
Bloor-Yorkville Wine Festival
This year we are tasting the extraordinary wines from Stratus
Vineyards in Niagara. Andy Shay of Shay Cheese will
be sampling a wonderful range of Canadian cheeses.
Saturday, May 13, 2 to 3 pm.
Bonnie Stern
Heartsmart
The best of the Heartsmart series with
100 new recipes. Come and sample Heartsmart treats
with Bonnie Get an autographed copy for the perfect Mothers
Day gift for May 14th .
New & Noteworthy Book Reviews
Repertoire des Fromages du Quebec
Richard Bizier et Roch Nadeau
Although in French it doesn't really matter, as most of us can read
food French as well the layout has a colour photo for each cheese
as well as an easy to follow description. There is so little written
in French or English on Quebec cheese this a must for anyone interested
in the area. Softcover, 316 pp, $27.95.
Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving
Edited by Judi Kingry & Lauren
Devine
As there are many of us who love to bottle and jar practically everything
this tome has it all, including a decent pickling section. Softcover,
448 pp, $27.95.
Championship BBQ Secrets for Real Smoked Food
Karen Putman
Putman loves to cook her food next to the fire, slow, low and flavoured
with wood smoke as opposed to the hot, fast grilling over direct
heat for hamburgers, or a steak. A succulent change of pace. Softcover,
368 pp, $27.95.
CIA Grilling
Culinary Institute of America
From the acclaimed chef training school comes this latest missive
on grilling for us home cooks. Sections on vegetables, sides & sandwiches,
breakfast and dessert round out a colourful book on a favourite year
round pastime. Hardcover, 229 pp, $42.00.
Express Lane Meals
Rachael
Ray
Does this woman never stop? A new tv show, a new magazine (which
we carry) and a book-a-week it seems! More recipes of the style her
fans love, easy technique, easy to find ingredients and the all important
quick to do. Softcover, 248 pp, $24.95.
French
Damien Pignolet
Beautifully produced, updated classics from this Australian chef.
The recipes are easy to prepare with maximum results both visually
and on the taste buds, eg. Pistachio Saffron Cake. Hardcover, 403
pp, $60.00.
Giada's Family Dinners
Giada de Laurentiis
What's a best selling author (Everyday Italian, $42.00) and Food
Network star to do for an encore? Write another book of course. If
you liked the first one you'll like this one as well. More straightforward
recipes that will always work. Kudos for making this a book that
doesn't feel like a collection of recipes that didn't make it into
the first effort. Hardcover, 256 pp, $43.00.
Healthy Helpings
Norene Gilletz
Originally self published as Mealleaniyumm! this is a new updated
version, with a healthy looking green cover to boot, from Whitecap
publishers. Gilletz is a popular Toronto cooking school instructor.
Softcover, 430 pp, $29.95.
New American Classics
David Burke
A decade has gone by since Burke's last book, Cooking with
David Burke, which was very popular amongst the chefs. Burke is chef and
co-owner of davidburke & donatella in New York city. This innovative
book will give you the classic recipe and then a contemporary version
and finally a second day dish recipe. All very yummy and easy to
do. Hardcover, 300 pp, $50.00.
The Omnivore's Dilema: A Natural History of Four Meals
Michael
Pollan
Pollan, the best selling author of Botany of Desire, poses the question
of what we should have for dinner. Should we eat organic? Or perhaps
something we hunt, gather or grow ourselves? Or a fast food hamburger?
What to do? Pollan follows the food chains of industrial food, organic
and food we forage for - from the source to the final meal. Hardcover,
450 pp, $38.00.
Starting Out
Julie Van Rosendaal
For those in their first kitchen this is a straightforward sensible
and healthy book. Cooking terms defined, buying tools and stocking
a basic pantry, as well each recipe comes with information on what
to do with leftovers and other things to do with the recipe. This
is the third book from this highly popular Canadian author. Softcover,
342 pp, $24.95.
A Taste of the Country
Jimmy Doherty
If every farmer looks as delicious as Doherty there will be a stampede
back to our rural roots! Not only are there great traditional British
farmhouse recipes with a twist, but also information on gathering
wild food, cooking with edible flowers, keeping a few chickens and
best of all whittling walking sticks! Hardcover, 320 pp, $45.00.
Weekend Cooking
Ricardo
Ricardo is a popular TV cook in Quebec and if the book is any indication
we can see why. A beautifully photographed book of recipes you want
to make now! Softcover, 191 pp, $29.95.
A
Year of Cooking Like Mummyji
Vicky Bhogal
This is one of Nigella Lawson's favourite authors and we can see
why. A fusion of Asian, Indian, and British sounds rather ominous
but Bhogal pulls it off amazingly. Softcover, 176 pp, $35.95.
Classic Wines of New Zealand (2nd Edition)
Michael Cooper
For those who have fallen in love with New Zealand wines and want
something more than Cloudy Bay. Hardcover, $39.95.
Gault Millau Guide to German Wines
Arguably producing the finest, food friendly wines, yet it's hard
to decipher the producers and labels. This book will go a long way
in changing all that. Softcover, 751 pp, $37.95.
Italian Wines 2005
Gambero Rosso
This annual guide to Italian wines is a must as there is so little
written in English on the subject. It comes out in Italian first
which is why this is the 2005 edition. Softcover, 471 pp, $38.95.
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My Life in France
by Julia Child
Review by Jennifer Grange
It was an elegantly simple sole meuniere,
served in a small restaurant in Rouen, that triggered the love
affair which changed the life of
one woman and the course of cooking in North America.
It was November
3, 1948. The woman whose husband had chosen the main course for
her first lunch in France knew nothing of the language
or the country. Julia Child was the product of a comfortable and conservative
Pasadena, Calif., where there was a deep suspicion of everyone and
everything
French. Although she graduated from Smith College and served the
Office of Strategic Services (now the CIA) in China during the Second
World War, her life to the time that she left for France had been
rather rudderless. After two years of marriage to Paul Child, she
could barely cook. By the time Julia Child reached Paris, where her
husband was to be a display officer with the United States Information
Service, she was a woman in love with France and everything related
to it.
This memoir, newly published almost two years after her death,
was originally conceived by Paul Child in 1969. It is based on
the masses
of letters written by the couple to Paul's twin, Charlie.
In the end it was Charlie's grandson, Alex Prud'homme,
who helped Julia bring the project to reality. Though the memories
range from their arrival in France to the last visit in 1992, the
focus is the Paris years and the creation of Mastering the
Art of French Cooking. She paints a vibrant portrait of France as it recovered
from war and a rather more ambivalent one of the United States, which
was
becoming less insular while also under the thrall of Senator Joe
McCarthy and his Communist witch hunt. But it is the picture of Julia
that emerges from her own words that fascinates.
In some ways she
was the very embodiment of the post-war American in Paris, both toweringly
healthy and astonishingly ignorant of the
French way of life. However, unlike much of the ex-pat community,
she immediately set to work to learn the language. She haunted the
shops and markets. Never afraid to show her ignorance, Julia, curious
to the end of her life, simply kept asking questions until she knew
everything she needed to know on any topic. It was an ability which
served her well both as an author and cooking teacher.
While she has
always come across as the eternal optimist, here she reveals the
self-doubts that beset her both during her time at the
Cordon Bleu and later as she wrote Mastering the Art of French
Cooking.
As with her ignorance, she was always able to turn her doubts to
her advantage to move herself forward. The ballast of her life was
her relationship with her husband Paul who supported her at every
turn--as she did him-- through her obsession with French cooking
to writing her books.
The facts of her cooking life are well-known--classes
at the Cordon Bleu, meeting and giving classes with Simone Beck and
Louisette Bertholle.
This memoir fleshes out those experiences. At the Cordon Bleu both
the directrice and her fellow students-many of them G.I.s aiming
for a job rather, than true understanding of French cuisine-deeply
resented her inquiring mind. Still she worked on. While at the Cordon
Bleu, she attended a class with a disciple of Mme. Saint-Ange whose
cookbook was the first aimed at the middle class. Through Louisette
Bertholle, she met the gastronome Curnonsky with whom she became
friends.
The memoir reveals the tensions amongst the three authors
of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. When they met Julia, the
two French women
wanted to write a book on French food for the American housewife,
despite knowing little about American housewives. Julia, the eternal
innovator, was often at odds with the doctrinaire Simca. Louisette,
the only one of the three with children, was often lost in domestic
crises.
With the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking,
Julia became an "overnight" success after a decade of testing,
retesting and re-retesting recipes. Several publishers had begged
off before Knopf and the talented young editor, Judith Jones, finally
signed on. The rest is history. The PBS series, The French
Chef,
made Julie Child a household name. By the end of her life, Julia
Child was the culinary icon of twentieth century North American cooking.
Alex
Prud'homme, Julia's collaborator on this project, the recorder of
the memories elicited by the letters, deserves the
highest praise. Although the syntax of the last few paragraphs reveals
a different voice, through almost every phrase from her first "la
belle France" to that final "toujours bon appetit" one
can hear the glorious, rumbling trill that was Julia's voice.
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