Julie and Julia: A Project to Read

I genuinely wanted to like Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously (other editions are titled Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen and, more simply Julie and Julia) by Julie Powell.  I was intrigued by her “Project:” to cook every recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1.  It’s an enormous undertaking (especially with a full-time job to contend with as well), and it makes you consider how much cooking has changed in the forty-some-odd years since Child’s book was first published – the techniques, the ingredients (coming by kidneys and bone marrow isn’t so easy these days), and the time and effort most of us put into our meals.

Unfortunately, the Project is just a thread that barely ties Powell’s book together.  She uses the book as a sounding board to share fictionalized stories about her friend’s drunken sexcapades, true stories about her own marriage, and anything else that she feels like talking about – everything from her political leanings to her apartment’s plumbing problems to her laments about her depressing dead-end job.  In between reading e-mails from friends, yelling at her husband, and trying to sleep with another married man, there are some tales of Powell actually cooking some of Child’s recipes.  I wouldn’t even have minded the rest of her stories, but some of them were kind of offensive (and I think I’m usually pretty open-minded)  and most of them weren’t as funny as the book cover would have you believe.  Furthermore, Powell invents a lot of stories about Paul and Julia Child, which seemed unnecessary given the amount of information available on them.  It seems to be a weak attempt to draw parallels between her life and Child’s.

That said, the portions where Powell is actually cooking are interesting.  She places a cooking icon in a modern-day world and we get to see how relevant Child and her recipes are today.  It also causes one to give though to how different food and food television might be if it weren’t for Child.  Some of Powell’s adventures really are amusing - attempting to euthanize a lobster, poaching eggs in red wine and watching them turn blue, or figuring out how to get the bone marrow out of a large animal thigh bone.  The book is a quick read – I probably would have given up on it, but I was able to finish it quickly and move on to other foodie adventures.

Powell’s book is being released as a movie (also titled Julie and Julia)  this August, starring Amy Adams and Meryl Streep (the movie will purportedly follow Julia and Paul’s lives more truthfully than the book does).  Powell also has another book due in August, Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession.

Ruth Reichl’s Garlic and Sapphires – A Gem!

I stumbled upon Ruth Reichl’s books purely by accident.  It was a happy accident that has me working through all of her books (though working is really the wrong word) anecdote by anecdote, recipe by recipe.  She is, in my eyes, the foodie of all foodies.

My first Reichl book was Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise (though this is not the first of her books, if you wish to read them chronologically).  The premise of this particular book centers on Reichl’s work as a food editor to the New York times; a job with serious responsibility and serious implications.  Reichl had worked previously as a food editor, but never for such a high profile publication with such power to make or break a restaurant.  After uprooting her family and moving cross-country, Reichl quickly learned that restaurants across New York City were all but stalking her  – her picture and personal information were widely circulated (rather unnerving!) prior to her arrival.  Admirably, Reichl did not let this stop her or affect her ability to garner honest reviews of restaurants of all calibers.

Her inventive solution was to design and don disguises when dining in restaurants that she wished to review.  Reichl often returned to restaurants several times, often in different disguises.  The results are fascinating, and often hysterical.   Her candid revelations shed light on some of the most famous restaurants in the city (and, often, the country) and, in turn, about society.   In the process, Reichl learned a lot about herself and those around her.  Reichl has a way with food, and with words; you can practically taste the food that she describes.  Many of her reviews are reprinted in the book and she shares several recipes as well.  I can’t recommend this book highly enough to anyone with an interest in food or the restaurant world.  Even non-foodies will enjoy her observations.

Reichl is editor-in-chief at Gourmet magazine and has authored three books, with one more due out in April (I can’t wait!).  She has also co-authored and edited several other books.