I still remember the very first” meal” that I ever cooked for someone. It was in my first apartment and for my favorite former Marine – hot dogs boiled in water and green beans with almond silvers. (Strange, I know, but one doesn’t argue with the taste buds of a Marine.) Not the greatest culinary master except when under the tutelage of my grandmother cooking or baking, I burned the hot dogs – and I mean burned. An event warranting a reminder over 30 years later, you can imagine my horror, and his, at my then lack of skill in the kitchen. Thank heavens for Julia Child as that very week I trotted to the local bookstore and bought myself a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. What impressed me most about the cookbook was Child’s use of butter. Having spent my life eating my grandmother’s butter laden German cooking, how could any chef or cookbook not be good when espousing the beauty of butter. It didn’t take long before I was soon able to debone a fish, make perfect whipped cream, bake a chicken, and plow my way through the recipes for a myriad of other tasty delights. So when Julie Powell embarked on her Julie & Julia project (cooking all 524 recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 365 days) some years back, needless to say, my curiosity was piqued. In a manner of speaking, Julia Child had helped saved my life – at least from total embarrassment in the kitchen – and Child was now saving Powell from the horrors of turning 30, all with the help of 524 recipes.
Fast forward to 2009. Enter uber-scribe and director, Nora Ephron. Calling on two best selling memoirs, My Life in France by Child and Julie & Julia by Powell, Ephron whips together one of the tastiest treats to satiate the hunger of any filmgoer, melding time and space through food, cooking, creativity, food, marriage, life and food (did I say food?) with the charming JULIE & JULIA; a perfect recipe for comedic delight with the lightness and texture of the sweetest souffle. Continue reading MOVIE REVIEW: JULIE & JULIA →
