You are such an inspiration Ruth! I love this article and all the potential rabbit holes it can take you down. I enjoyed Julie and Julia and I can't wait to see the new series. It's not available in Australia yet, but hopefully it will be soon. She was such an amazing person. I admire her spirit.
Ruth, I love this so much! Beautifully written and so much great information - love the pic of the Chicken Sisters! How wonderful to have your Mom’s copy of Mastering. (And thanks so much for the shout-out) ❤️
Thanks for applying your keen historian’s eye to Julia’s letter exchange with Iris DeVoto. Now I’m eager to read same. I agree that it’s really the person that captivates our interest, though the food does set us dreaming, if not cooking. Yes, the British women of that era--and my mother was among them--were examples of grit and humor under stress that I also miss. Thanks for pointing this out, Annette.
Ruth, I never paid Julia the slightest attention after I came to America in my teens. And then I read Julie and Julia, which I enjoyed. But it was the movie version that really captured me: Meryl Streep and the filmmakers did such an amazing job of bringing her *and her era* to life. So now I had my historian hat on. I read Julia's letters to and from Iris DeVoto, and just was smitten. It's not the food: It's the person. A woman who said what she thought, was sharp and yet uncynical, who didn't have time for shallow self-promoters, and who inspired great loyalty from everyone around her--except the gatekeepers, whom she simply ploughed through by keeping on. THAT's the role model we need now. I knew her British peers (not as cooks, but as people) and miss them terribly, these women who survived the War, and for whom life held no more terrors after that. I bought her cookbooks, and have yet to try any of her recipes. I probably never will. And that's ok. But keeping Julia Child in the conversation and our consciousness seems to me terribly important, and however I can help in that, I will.
This is a great piece! Clearly I love anyone with the name Julia, but JC takes our name to the next level!
You are such an inspiration Ruth! I love this article and all the potential rabbit holes it can take you down. I enjoyed Julie and Julia and I can't wait to see the new series. It's not available in Australia yet, but hopefully it will be soon. She was such an amazing person. I admire her spirit.
Ruth, I love this so much! Beautifully written and so much great information - love the pic of the Chicken Sisters! How wonderful to have your Mom’s copy of Mastering. (And thanks so much for the shout-out) ❤️
Thanks for applying your keen historian’s eye to Julia’s letter exchange with Iris DeVoto. Now I’m eager to read same. I agree that it’s really the person that captivates our interest, though the food does set us dreaming, if not cooking. Yes, the British women of that era--and my mother was among them--were examples of grit and humor under stress that I also miss. Thanks for pointing this out, Annette.
Ruth, I never paid Julia the slightest attention after I came to America in my teens. And then I read Julie and Julia, which I enjoyed. But it was the movie version that really captured me: Meryl Streep and the filmmakers did such an amazing job of bringing her *and her era* to life. So now I had my historian hat on. I read Julia's letters to and from Iris DeVoto, and just was smitten. It's not the food: It's the person. A woman who said what she thought, was sharp and yet uncynical, who didn't have time for shallow self-promoters, and who inspired great loyalty from everyone around her--except the gatekeepers, whom she simply ploughed through by keeping on. THAT's the role model we need now. I knew her British peers (not as cooks, but as people) and miss them terribly, these women who survived the War, and for whom life held no more terrors after that. I bought her cookbooks, and have yet to try any of her recipes. I probably never will. And that's ok. But keeping Julia Child in the conversation and our consciousness seems to me terribly important, and however I can help in that, I will.