julia

I finally saw Julie/Julia and of course I loved it. Like the book, My Life in France, it filled me with an overwhelming sense of possibility. I first read the book while living in Italy. I had just gotten married and had given up my tenured teaching position to move to the Tuscan countryside, where my husband was studying Tibetan Buddhism. The plan was for me to find a teaching position in an international school while my husband studied. It didn't exactly work out that way. Instead I became a stay at home wife with an abundance of time. To fill my days I read and I cooked. Amongst my stack of books was Julia's memoir.

Full disclosure; I am a self declared food lover and had heard of Julia Child, but really didn't know much about her besides that she had written an influential cookbook. I had never laid my eyes on any of her cookbooks before our honeymoon in Biarritz when the woman we rented our apartment from insisted that I borrow a copy of Julia and Jaques Cooking at Home.

It was with my relative ignorance of the phenomenon that is JOOOlia that I began to read about her improbable journey to culinary superstardom(I am taking liberties with the spelling to channel her distinctive voice). What struck me was that the great Julia Child could not boil an egg for the first 30 years of her life! She had a reputation for being a horrible cook. It was encouraging to read about the transformation from kitchen newbie to culinary goddess. But what is truly remarkable is that she had started this endeavor at 35 years old! Her accomplishments did not happen overnight or even in a year. Her magnum opus, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, took ten years to write and publish. She diligently studied, tested, wrote and re-wrote her recipes. Julia's measured movements in the kitchen seemed scientific, carefully teasing out each variable that would affect the outcome of the recipe.

With the release of the movie and the abundance of press surrounding it, there is a resurgence in Julia's popularity. Certainly this attention and acclaim is well deserved, but it also makes me feel like I am merely jumping on the culinary bandwagon when I say that Julia, but more accurately her memoir, has been influential in my decision to change my life.

I am going to culinary school in part because Julia showed me that I am never too old to become the person I want to be. It may be trite, but for me it also happens to be true.