Julia’s Child’s memoir of her years in France is a poignant tribute to a way of life in France that is not completely gone, perhaps, but is greatly changed. Julia’s first meal in France was as memorable for her as mine was for me; encountering real French bread for the first time was by itself a revelation to me. Her descriptions of adapting to the different ways of doing things in France is funny, but shows the wisdom she brought to the task of living in a foreign country. I was struck by the fact that Julia and Paul Child sailed to France in 1948 on the ocean liner, SS America, the same ship that took my parents to France in 1959 when my father was assigned to NATO Headquarters, which was in Paris at that time.

The kindness with which she was received by most of the French people she dealt with is a lovely part of the story of the Childs’ time in France. Julia’s descriptions of the beauty of the French countryside are as fresh today as when recorded her impressions in letters seventy years ago, and her respect for the French people and their remarkable achievements in culture and cuisine is a constant theme. Her relationship with her father was difficult; he embodied the sneering attitude of some Americans toward France, and Julia’s and her father’s political views could not have been more different. Julia and Paul Child had an amazing marriage, characterized by mutual support and a shared sense of curiosity about the world in general and a love of France in particular.

While I am not a dedicated cook, I appreciated the way in which Julia approached the writing of her famous books on French cuisine. I have on occasion attempted to produce meals using recipes from cookbooks, and I have almost always been frustrated by the vagueness of the instructions. Julia took a scientific approach, and insisted on exact measurements for her recipes; she was, of course, recording recipes for traditional French dishes, but her starting point was often verbal description, or a vague written recipe. She learned how to cook each dish, and as she did this, often a dozen times for each recipe, she recorded the exact amounts of the ingredients, something which had simply never, in most cases, been done before.

But over and over, it was the people she met, who helped and guided her, who stand out. Chef Bugnard at Le Cordon Bleu recognized her genuine interest in French cuisine, and, in addition to teaching her how to cook, he introduced her to the vendors of Les Halles and taught her how to choose good quality ingredients, and, just as importantly, how to build relationships with those vendors. Her friend, Simca, shared her deep knowledge of French cooking, and became her co-author, and ultimately the Childs built a house on Simca’s property in Provence. Almost any chef or restaurant owner who found her in their restaurant recognized Julia’s love for the rigorous process of producing great food, and so they would share what they knew.

In all, a lovely story, whether or not you are interested in food.

Well what can I add to my loving Julia Child as a food personality and chef. She is iconic in her love of life and someone I have always admired.
Never Apologize!!

I found this an absorbing read, and I'm no foodie. But I think what's striking in this memoir of Child's love affair with French food is her drive, her dedication to excellence, her passion--there's something attractive in that no matter what the endeavor--as well as fascinating to get a picture of such an elite, esoteric world as high cuisine. It all started for Julia in 1948, when she had her first French meal. When she came to France she knew only a smattering of such French phrases as "Merci, Monsieur" (wretchedly pronounced) and was a terrible cook. She didn't even know what a shallot was, let alone what to do with one. One taste of sole meunière and she had an "epiphany." One that would lead her to study French cooking at the renowned Cordon Bleu culinary school, learning to cook everything from "snails to wild boar" and eventually lead to her collaboration on the ground-breaking cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking and to her television show, The French Chef.

I'm not even sure after reading this if I like Julia Child. She came across at times as ruthless (she calls herself "unsentimental"), stubborn, opinionated--and ironically dismissive of those of different beliefs. I say ironically because she's so hard especially on her father and what she considered his ignorant views and intolerance. She was a liberal Democrat, he was a conservative Republican. And therefore, it seems to her, naturally a boob compared to the sophisticated Julia. Except that as she admits, it was only due to his generosity that she and her husband, living on his salary as a government employee, could live an affluent lifestyle consuming fine wines, escargot, truffles, Camembert cheese and foie gras. (Admittedly, one can understand her bitterness towards the GOP given what she related about her husband's brush with McCarthyism.) And while Child paints her father as xenophobic--well, her comments on the English made me cringe, and she characterized Germany as a "land of monsters." (Admittedly, when she and her husband were posted to Bonn, it hadn't been long since World War II. As for the English, she didn't care for their cooking--and that seems to have been a capital crime to Julia Child.)

Did I mention this is about a love affair with French cooking? Because it is. This made me salivate at the descriptions of Brie, bouillabaisse, baguettes. On the other hand, my vegetarian friend would probably find this book nauseating, and there's enough odes to red meat, cream, mayonnaise--and above all butter--to make a cardiologist weep. Nor could I imagine putting the effort, the time and expense, into cooking that Child described here. I'll happily leave the making of brioche and quenelles de brochet to professionals and limit myself to recipes no more complicated than tabbouleh. But I did enjoy the picture of post-war Europe. This was written by Child with the help of her grandnephew and based on the letters her and husband wrote at the time, so her reminiscences, especially of her time in Paris and Marseilles, are vivid and evocative.

This is an autobiography of Julia Child. I was too young to have been a fan of her cooking show, but I do own one of her cookbooks. It amazes me how one event in life can alter the rest of your life...forever. Her pivotal moment was moving to France. I enjoyed her story. She found her passion and then she sought to perfect it. I admire that kind of dedication....it was sort of a labor of love for her. I was completely impressed with her tenacity..... 4 stars

I find Julia Child's narrative voice very engaging and likable. Her life was certainly interesting, and reading about food is fascinating, but she also has wonderful descriptions: (a mortar and pestle) "was about the size and weight of a baptismal font. The pestle looked like a primeval cudgel made from a hacked-off crab-tree limb;" (visiting England after living in France) "It was truly horrible to eat, but a wonderful cultural experience....The Old Sod never laid a haunting melody on me gut strings." Besides being about her career as a chef, the book is about her relationship with her husband Paul ("he had a real thirst for knowledge, was widely read, wrote poetry, and was always trying to train his mind") and choosing a different life from the one in which she was raised ("moneyed, materialistic, not at all introspective). I love that Julia Child succeeded at doing what she loved. She did not waste time lamenting, nor was she deterred by ways that she did not fit in (an American in France, a woman in a man's profession, an average looking person in the glamour-oriented television business).

3.5 stars
I've never owned a Julia Child cookbook, or even cooked a recipe by Julia Child. Based on My Life in France, it's evident that many of her recipes are meat-based, so as a vegetarian it's unlikely that most of her recipes will ever enter my kitchen. But despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about her boundless energy and determination to create excellent french cuisine. At times, the book was a little too detailed when it came to describing the recipes, and I almost felt exhausted just reading about how much work some of them must be to create! But I came to deeply admire Julia for her relentless work ethic, tireless enthusiasm for cooking, and determination to ensure that each and every recipe was the very best that she could create.

Julia's life in France with her very supportive husband sounded truly enchanting. The 1940's and onwards certainly were a different era than today's social media dominated world. I enjoyed reading about how she progressed from an amateur, mediocre cook to an accomplished chef hosting her own cooking show. That being said, I don't think she represented the average woman of her time. It certainly seemed as though she and her husband must have had ample money to spare, as her endless recipe testing would have been expensive and Julia essentially devoted 10 years of her life to the full-time job of co-creating her first (700+ page!) recipe book.

I enjoy reading about other people's life experiences, especially when they've taken a relatively ordinary task that we all do most days -- in this case, cooking -- and make it a major lifestyle component, and even better, a successful career.

I love Julia Child, it turns out! This memoir is fun and I want to live her life. I want to live in Paris, Marseille, Oslo and Boston too, creating sumptuous recipes, hanging out with James Beard and decorating a summer house in Provence. Seriously, why am I not her? I wouldn't even mind being dead since 2004.

I am totally convinced that her cookbooks are the foremost authorities on French cooking, now that I've seen how many times she would experiment with a basic recipe to get it right. Makes me want to read her cookbooks cover to cover to actually learn how to really cook. Good thing her "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" vols. 1 and 2 have been on my Amazon wishlist for a year...and my birthday is coming up...these might be fun for several people to go in together on...there are also her "The French Chef" dvds, also conveniently located on my wishlist...

I am nothing if not subtle.

I cried when I finished this. I laughed while I was reading it. I was utterly charmed, from beginning to end, by Julia, her love of food, her love of France, her love of Paul, her love of life, really. She is inspirational (she didn't discover she loved food until she moved to France at 36--it took her more than 10 years after that to write her cookbook and get on TV--it's never too late to find your calling!), she's funny, she's big hearted, and she just seems to be delighted by life. She actually reminds me a bit of Mr. Rogers--someone who sees the good in people and who is constantly delighted by people and what life has to offer.

Anyway, I loved this book. I already know I'll be buying a copy of it to reread when I need to reinvigorate my interest in food/cooking (be prepared to want to cook after reading this--I've already planned a baking/cooking schedule and tried a simple recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking). Or when I just need a reminder that life is an adventure and is to be enjoyed and savored.

She talks a lot, in encyclopedic detail, about different meals she ate and food preparations, and how she perfected recipes. I found this all completely fascinating, but I'm also someone who can still talk in depth about the savory granola I ate in Hawaii 5 years ago and what made it so good, so if you're less excited about food, you may not love those sections as much as I did. But I find it hard to believe that anyone wouldn't fall in love with Julia and her spirit after reading this book, even if you find the foodie parts go a bit overboard. I highly recommend this, and know I will return to it again.

When I was a kid, I watched Julia Child on TV with my dad nearly every week. I was too young to follow the cooking instructions, but I liked listening to her big, warm voice ("This is Julia Child. Bon appetit!") and seeing her bustle around the kitchen. As an adult, I'm intrigued by the personal journey that led her into her career. Perhaps self-servingly, I see a few similarities between us:

1. We're both taller than the average European bed frame is long.
2. We were both less than absolutely certain of our career directions throughout our twenties. I was surprised and pleased to learn this, since she always struck me as a born cook -- in fact, maybe she was, and it just took her a while to get to know herself.
3. I'd be willing to bet that we share the "S" dimension of our Meyers-Briggs personality type. (As I understand it, Sensing types, as opposed to the more abstract and visionary Intuitive types, must know the "how" and "why" of something.) I was impressed by how she capitalized on this aspect of her personality, and on the rest of her natural make-up, throughout her career.

All in all, this book was a cozy, entertaining journey that left me feeling inspired. And hungry, very hungry.

I love Julia Child, and she is one of my lifetime heroes. This book was an amusing and thoughtful window into her life and thought processes.

She found her life calling for French cuisine when she was well into her thirties, and approached the topic with curiosity, discipline, and fierce energy. I think this means that there is still hope for me to find my true career and inspiration.

If you want to learn how to do something, or change your life, it requires hard work. And visiting the kitchen or the page every day, if you want to truly be a good cook or a writer. I admire her self-discipline, and her ability to still remain spontaneous, and see each day as an opportunity to improve.

She and her husband Paul lived an unconventional life together, where they made the choice to travel and continually inspire one another. They took a lot of flak from family and others about their choices, but I also appreciated their refusal to apologize for being who they were.

A lovely, rich memoir of food, France, and the fifties. It's very encouraging to watch Julia discover her life's great passion later in life (she is about my age for the beginning/bulk of this book), and also trash talk historical conservative assholes like Roy Cohn. But mostly this is a lot of wonderful descriptions of types of food and styles of living that are sadly now out of reach. God, I would kill to attend one of Julia and Paul's decadent dinner parties. (My poor tummy would need days to recover after, but it would be worth it.)

It's strange, or perhaps not so strange, how what we watched or read as children sticks with us forever. When I was very young, I remember watching Julia Child on television. My parents loved her. Last year, my local PBS station ran the first three episodes of Child's program during fund raising. I couldn't change the channel. I'm the same with Muppet Show, All Creatures Great and Small, and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. I might not go and buy the DVDs, but I'll watch on tv.

The point is, when I saw this book at my local BJ's, I had to pick it up. It called to me. I love this book. It's great. It's wonderful. It's Julia Child for crying out aloud. The best gosh darn television chef ever. Food Network has nothing on her.

Despite the fact that her nephew complied or finished the book after her death, Child's voice is captured here. Prud'homme deserves a round of appaluse for this. The book tells the story of her time in France as well as the events leading up to her television show and first two cookbooks. Additionally, there are photos taken by her husband, Paul Child, including a Valentine's Day card photo that is an unique look at the couple to say the least. While the book is filled with Child's love for food and France, what comes across most clearly is the love that Paul and Julia Child had for each other. In many ways, the book is a wonderful story about a marraige. It's lovely. It's beautiful. It's real. Child seems completely open and honest, making her very attractive in the sense that she's just like everyone else. You learn about the Childs, about food, about France, about writing, and about television. A wonderful book.