Help Me Create The Ultimate Julia Child Bookshelf
I’ve long held the opinion that the most interesting use of social-networking sites for books (Shelfari, LibraryThing, GoodReads) is to help people come up with excellent lists (because, honestly, how many people really care about what I’m reading just for the sake of what I’m reading?).
So I’d like to challenge the Author, Author audience to help me build a complete Julia Child “bookshelf.” Who better to do so than a public-broadcasting-focused audience? We may not have an application here to build a visual shelf… but why not see what we come up with? I’ll get us all started with a few titles, but I want to first say: the books we choose do not have to simply be books by or about Julia Child herself, although those of course should all be on there. I think the “ultimate” Julia Child Bookshelf will include titles about food, chefs, and other things that influenced Child’s remarkable life.
Join me! I think we have the chance to make a list that will live on this site for quite a while — and provide all of us with some wonderful new reading choices about the woman who changed American kitchens forever.
My five Julia Child picks:
Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume I – by Julia Child, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle
Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume II – by Julia Child and Simone Beck
My LIfe in France – by Julia Child and Alex Prud’homme
Simca’s Cuisine – by Simone Beck
The Way to Cook — by Julia Child
What are your choices/additions?
on November 10th, 2008 at 11:12 am
I read a good book a few years ago called Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously. Here’s the Product Description on Amazon:
Nearing 30 and trapped in a dead-end secretarial job, Julie Powell resolved to reclaim her life by cooking, in the span of a single year, every one of the 524 recipes in Julia Child’s legendary Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her unexpected reward: not just a newfound respect for calves’ livers and aspic, but a new life–lived with gusto.
I think it’s supposed to be made into a movie too!
on November 10th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
The United States of Arugula by David Kamp. This book profiles the people that changed America’s attitudes towards food & cooking. There’s one fantastic Julia quote in there–won’t repeat it here, but I almost died laughing.
on November 11th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Julie P. and Sara, thanks for these — they’re perfect! “Julie and Julia” is being made into a movie, and I can’t recall who is starring in it — anyone else remember?
Now we’ve got seven titles total…keep ‘em coming! And please send a link to this entry to any cooking/book blogs you can think of, too. Thanks for reading…
on November 13th, 2008 at 10:27 am
‘Julie and Julia’ will star Amy Adams (of ‘Enchanted’) as Julie and another somewhat-known actress as Julia: Meryl Streep! A perfect pick for this list (and a truly delightful book for desperate office slaves and thwarted chefs).
I’d also suggest Ruth Reichl’s ‘Tender at the Bone.’ I’m limiting myself to one Ruth book here though her others are also great for cooking lovers.
on November 13th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
IMDb says the movie “Julia and Julia” will be out next year and star Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci. Should be fun!
on November 13th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I would think that you should include at least one book by her dear friend James Beard. My vote would be American Cookery.
on November 13th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I like The French Chef Cookbook, taken from her TV shows. I’m a little less thrilled with the format of Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home but have found it somewhat useful.
on November 13th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Stand Facing the Stove: The Story of the Women Who Gave America The Joy of Cooking by Anne Mendelson. The Joy of Cooking is probably on Julia’s shelf as well.
on November 13th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
This is an excellent book:
Fitch, Noel Riley. Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child. New York: Doubleday, 1997.
Also, I read a year or so ago that Joan Cusack had signed to play the lead in a biographical movie on Julia Child, but it’s not mentioned under her entry on imdb.com so maybe it fell through or something.
on November 13th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
There’s no question that Julia would have owned Escoffier’s Le Guide Culinaire, which is the “repository of all that is best in Classical French and International cookery,” first published in 1907. And the Encyclopedia of Practical Gastronomy by Ali-Bab, a classic French text from the early 1900’s that was as ubiquitous in France as Joy of Cooking is here. She is also likely to have owned Brillat-Savarin’s The Physiology of Taste, probably M.F.K. Fisher’s translation. She may have owned some of M.F. K. Fisher’s other works about living and eating in France which have been collected in The Art of Eating and various memoirs like Among Friends about her childhood in Whittier, CA in the early 20th century. Julia grew up just a few years later in a similar family, nearby in Pasadena, CA. The works of the English writer Waverley Root, The Food of France and The Food of Italy, published in the 1950’s were greatly appreciated by food lovers, so they were likely to have been in the Childs’ library. And I will hazard a guess that American Food, The Gastronomic Story by Evan Jones was in her book collection–probably a signed copy, since Evan Jones was the husband of Judith Jones, Julia Child’s discoverer and long-time editor at Knopf.
on November 13th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
I have enjoyed “Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom”, published a couple of years before JC passed away. Even my 20 year old nephew, who is NOT a cook, liked it!
I liked Julie Powell’s blog much better than her book, which I never finished. It was just too ….smart alecky, if that makes any sense. Also, a friend of mine sent her a donation (which she asked for) when she was doing her blog, and she never even thanked him, which really rankled with me.
on November 13th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
I’m quite sure that the 1927-published French cookery tome “Le Bonne Cuisine” by Madame Evelyn Sant-Ange would be a must on Julia Child’s bookshelf!
on November 14th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
This is a tough one.. I rely so heavily on the web for recipes! Any time food is fresh/in season, there is always some wonderful blogger making my life easy by writing about it.
Would you consider including some food blogs?
the virtual book!
on November 15th, 2008 at 10:53 am
I lived in Boston in the early & mid 70’s and when I joined WGBH the premium was a first edition of “From Julia Childes Kitchen”. I think I’ve made just about every recepie in the book and it is now held together with tape and a prayer not to mention all the foon splatter that landed on the pages. For me it taught me how to cook & enjoy food, a remarkable journey.
In addition to the above Julia would have had Larousse Gastronomique. One modern author she would enjoy is Anthony Bourdain, just for his attitude if nothing else.
on November 15th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Don’t forget that for the movie “Julie & Julia” that they are actually combining the original book with “My Life in France” to create an all out Julia fest. The book J&J has fictional scenes depicting what Julia’s life might have been like, so the filmmakers thought it would be better to incorporate true accounts.
on November 15th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Oh, and not though it didn’t inspire Julia, “The Tenth Muse” is about and by her editor. Excellent book.
on November 21st, 2008 at 4:29 pm
~ Everything by Elizabeth David
~ “Home Cooking” and “More Home Cooking” by Laurie Colwin (essential)
~ “The Solace of Food: A Life of James Beard” by Robert Clark
~ “Making of a Chef,” “Soul of the Chef,” and “Reach of the Chef,” by Michael Ruhlman (Julia would have doted on Ruhlman)
~ Mark Kurlansky’s microhistories with food at their center: “Salt,” “Cod,” “The Big Oyster”
~ a few recently published books on regional cuisine stand out: “Gumbo Tales” by Sara Roahen and “Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper” by Fuchsia Dunlop
Artisan, which published “The French Laundry Cookbook” is a great publisher to look at for cookbooks with strong essays, as well as succulent photography. I think Julie would be want to expand her world view, as well as re-visit the corners of the world where she spent time. Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid’s books, also Artisan, would fit the bill.
on November 30th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
The Tenth Muse - Totally awesome.
on December 11th, 2008 at 10:48 am
[...] site to add their own reading suggestions. The more titles we have, the better — just as with the Ultimate Julia Child Bookshelf, we can make a list that can be disseminated in many [...]
on March 11th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Провокационный пост. Поэтому такие и комментарии
on June 13th, 2009 at 4:51 am
Жесть! Все очень понятно и грамотно, и в то же время без умствований и самолюбования, и на доступном языке. Редкий случай когда человек делится актуальной и интересной инфой. Спасибо автору!
on August 18th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
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on October 22nd, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Indeed, Yongli-Jiuda had inched toward majority 55% market share by 1937, thanks for the most part to its participation in Japanese imperialist expansionism. ,