Julie and Julia

Last week I went to see Julie and Julia, the movie about Julia Child chef and author, and Julie Powell, author and blogger who became famous by following Julia’s recipes in: Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I can’t believe it has been nineteen years since I went to chef school and Julia Child signed my copy of her latest cookbook: The Way to Cook. We had just returned from a trip to France at Restaurant School in Philadelphia. .

I didn’t know she was ninety years old at that book signing. She certainly didn’t look it. We were told not to bother her took much but I just had to meet her. I asked her to sign my copy of the book and she wanted to know more about me. I told her had gone to the public library and taken out Mastering the art of French Cooking every week for a year since classes started at the Restaurant School, and that I was thirty-nine years old and changing my profession. Until then, the only thing I knew how to do was teach English as a Second Language. She asked me how I got interested in cooking. I told her it was because of my grandmother. She was a great cook and I was always in the kitchen helping her.

The movie was excellent.  Meryl Streep is the best living actor of this century. It showed a woman with the determination of a bear. I remember Ms Child telling us we had to love cooking or we would be on our way out of the business in two to six years. She was right. After about two years I started teaching French cuisine and by the end of another six years I was out of the business. Eight years, the last two I knew I would not be cooking for the rest of my life. If you’ve got a chance to go see the movie, don’t miss it. Meryl Streep is fantastic in it, as are all the other actors in the movie. It’s great!

© Sergio A. Ortiz 2009