Pearls, Curls & French Cuisine – Chapter 1: Julia Child

Dearest reader,

Do you believe in coincidence? That everything in life is only a random series of events which have no real meaning or connection to each other. That things simply happen and those who try to forcefully feed deeper dimentions into life are basically paranoid lunatics destroing the fuits of western civilisation build on stern pilars of science, technology and critical thinking. Or are you like me, someone, who cannot help but see connection all around? To whom life is a peculiar event deeply connected to everything happening everywhere all at once. And that life, in its peculiarity, is never random but magically leads you to where you are suppose to go.

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Well, as it happens, one of those so called meetings with faith took place past weekend when mom and I were home alone and incharge of Saturday's midday movie. It turned out to be Julie & Julia (2009): a whimsical story of Julie – a New Yorker suffering from quarter life crisis – who starts a blog in order to document her journey of cooking through all Julia Childs recipies in 365 days. The recipe book? Mastering the Art of French Cooking which, after graduating from Le Cordon Blue, Julia – an American in Paris cooking whilst wearing pearls – wrote with Luisette Bertholle and Simone Beck. The cookbook was finally published after a decade of hard work in 1961 by Alfred A. Knopf and is nowadays known as a classic among cookery literature not only as a book for cooking but also as a guide for living a good life (albeit, serventless).

In the same afternoon, with the movie over and both of us tucked into bed after two slices of rhubarb pie each, I got a hunch.

– I wonder! Surely, it's not Julia's book we have, which dad picked up free from one of those library sales back in the 90s, and from which I have even shared a crêpes recipe in my blog, obviously not paying attentiont to its writers.

The next day I took out our French cookbook and was utterly shocked (as usual) because, of course, it was the exact Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. The very same book as in the movie had been sitting in our cupboard all these years. An entire French way of life in 575 pages and 800 original recipies. I was shocked, mom was shocked and even dad was shocked. And then it turned out that mom's friend who lives in France was currently also using Julia's book! And she was shocked as well.

And while we were all shocked, it dawned on me that it wasn't at all shocking because each of us were already carring a part of that French way of life within our own existence: a love of simple home cooked meal, served with elegance, devoured with pleasure and pared with the right sauvignon blanc.

Needless to say, I am now left wondering, should this be taken as a sign? Should I start writing about French cooking according to Julia Child on my blog like Julie? After all, we have made crêpes already and having gotten the Julia Child set: pearls, curls and love of French cuisine (plus a French nose, in case it makes any difference) it would feel like a shame not to try. Besides, I know just the thing we are going to make next!

Before you leave

Get your volume of Julia Child's

Mastering the Art of Frech Cooking here

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Do you believe life is a series of random coincidences or is it controlled by faith?

Do you have Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking?

Have you ever made a French meal?

What should I cook next?

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Yours truly,

Siiri

P.S if you liked this post tap the heart below, so I know to make more like this!

Sources:

Child, Julia; Bertholle, Louisette & Beck, Simone. (1961). Ranskalaisen keittiön salaisuudet. WSOY 1983

Ephorn, Nora. (2009). Julie & Julia. Netflix