Meryl Streep plays Julia Child in Sony Pictures' Julie & Julia.
It's been two years but I can still feel the pain. I shouldn't have left my gigantic, hardcover Julia Child tome The Way To Cook by the glass table in the living room. I had meant to leaf through it while watching the food channels. Buddy, the constantly-teething housedog, sniffed it and decided it was what he'd be having for dinner.
I was left with a moist, dog-eared cookbook and a guilty-looking canine hiding under the table. The only untouched, ungnawed edges now started on page 353, with a recipe of Curly Endive with Bacon and Garlic Dressing. Mercifully, all the recipes remained intact, although I had to spend an additional hour separating the pages that were stuck together. The lower front of the book looked pitiful covered with opaque masking tape, and the inner hardcover bandaged like a mummy.
The book found me at a Booksale after I had passed over it in another branch. The title instantly captivated my heart–the way to cook. How could I resist it (and the Php340 price tag)? This 1989 masterpiece followed her other now-classic cookbooks–Mastering the Art of French Cooking, The French Chef Cookbook, and Julia Child & Company. Julia studied at the Le Courdon Bleu in Paris and went on to become the poster woman for French cuisine through her cookbooks, television cooking show and cooking classes. She died in August 13, 2004 at the age of 91.
The Way to Cook presents healthier recipes and encourages the reader to blend the basic techniques she outlined in the book with the more free-style American cooking approach. I have no intention of using the cookbook anytime soon. Although most of the ingredients may now be available at the gourmet sections of the supermarkets and delis, they are still expensive. Each dish must be planned and executed well to avoid any wastage.
Okay, so that's just a veiled excuse. Truth is, I am one of those who lovingly stare at her cookbook collection lined up primly on the book shelf, never once cooking from them. (Sorry for the preoccupation with cookbook posts, folks, but next to food, I devour food vicariously through them.) Sure, I'll read the table of contents, mark off recipes I will try one day, and salivate over the photographs in bed, but never once will I set the cookbook down in the kitchen and cook away.
But Julia Powell did. And lived to blog about it. And wrote a book about her experience of cooking all 524 recipes from the Mastering the Art of French Cooking and going through mid-career crisis. And now, the Powell book, Julie and Julia, is an upcoming movie starring Meryl Streep channeling Ms. Child and Amy Adams as Julie. It's actually been merged with another book, Child's memoir, My Life in France, so I expect something along the lines of The Hours but light, funny and at the end I'd be hungry instead of depressed.
I saw the trailer on YouTube and on the official site and instantly loved it. There's a scene where–in a moment of epiphany after seeing one of her successful friends nab a TV show through a blog–Julie says "I can blog. I have thoughts." Classic. And at another time and place, Meryl decides, "Why don't I go to cooking school?" (she even got the real Julia's deep voice right). I can't wait to see it in September with my mother and my sister Julie (!), who I am reminded I should teach how to cook soon. Hopefully, there will be no rats or book-chewing dogs in it.
Movie image from www.julieandjulia.com. Book cover from amazon.com.
