My Life in France
Julia Child (2006)

THE A5 BOOK REVIEW

While most know the name Julia Child, not everyone knows the story of how she learned to cook and how she became one of the most endearing American cultural personalities of the last fifty years.  And they should.  My Life in France is the best-selling memoir describing Child’s move to France in 1948 with her husband and how, despite not really knowing any French, she passionately dove into French cuisine to learn the pleasures of good cooking.  This is the story of her experience falling in love with French culture, taking classes at Le Cordon Bleu, getting real-life lessons in food at French markets, and ultimately how she discovered her passion and talent.  Child would ultimately write go on to write one of the most famous cookbooks of all time, Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961). 
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ABOUT JULIA CHILD

Julia Child was an American chef, author and television personality known for French cooking and a television personality, most notably with The French Chef, which premiered in 1963.  She has published a number of cookbooks, starting in 1961 with the 726 page Mastering the Art of French Cooking .  Child was a popular and important part of American culture, and a winner of many awards including multiple Emmys and a Peabody Award, among others.
Photo Credit: By Lynn Gilbert (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

GREAT QUOTES:

“The sweetness and generosity and politeness and gentleness and humanity of the French had shown me how lovely life can be if one takes time to be friendly.”
- Julia Child, My Life in France

INTERESTING LINKS:

  • Read the 2006 review by Alan Riding on My Life in France in the New York Times​​​.
  • In 2009, Nora Ephron wrote and directed a film called Julie and Julia, a story comparing the life of chef Julia Child in her early years with the life of Julie Powell, a New York culinary blogger who aspires to cook all 524 recipes in Child's cookbook.  See the trailer below.

JULIE AND JULIA - THE TRAILER