Julia: Doc by Makers of RBG is a Love Story about a Woman Who Changed How We Think of Food
By Karen Gordon
Rating: A-minus
Post World War II, and into the ‘50s and ‘60s, American cooking and ideas about what should be eaten were changing. A new era of convenience foods, sparkly efficient appliances and a changing culture, meant less time in the kitchen.
Broadly speaking, what was getting lost in the process in many homes were basic techniques that could turn out wonderful meals daily. Food made and enjoyed in one’s own home could be revelatory. Food and cooking needed a hero.
‘And they got one in the form of an intelligent, cheery, six-foot-three, fiftyish Cordon Bleu-trained American chef and author named Julia Child.
The documentary Julia is by the Oscar-nominated co-directing team of Julie Cohen and Betsy West (the documentary RBG about the late Supreme Court judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg). It’s an easygoing, highly enjoyable look at the life and considerable influence of Julia Child.
Born to a wealthy and happy family in Pasadena, California in 1912, Child perhaps surprisingly, did not grow up spending time in the kitchen learning techniques that would ignite passion. Neither food nor cooking were really on her radar.
Instead, she went to college and then joined the American foreign service. She met her soon-to-be husband Paul Child when they were both working in Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon). Paul was known as a gourmand, or what we’d call a foodie.
The earth moved for Child when Paul was transferred to France. Her first meal there was, she says, so incredible that she decided she was going to learn how to cook like this.
She enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu, one of the few women to attend to that time, and continued to study with other chefs. This led her to a women’s cooking club where she met two women who would prove to be pivotal to her: Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle.
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The three decided to collaborate on a book that would teach French cooking techniques and recipes to Americans. With the three of them living in different places, and sometimes different countries, and with their attention to detail in each recipe, the book was a labour of love that took more than a decade to write.
Getting it published was another hurdle. Mastering the Art of French Cooking was rejected by numerous publishers before it finally found its home with Alfred A. Knopf. It quickly became a best seller.
Things shifted for her again when Paul was transferred back to the States. Julia turned her attention to promoting the book. The turning point was an appearance on a local access book show on Boston’s public access network. Julia asked the bemused producers for a hot plate. and made an omelet. The phone lines lit up. The station decided that maybe it needed to give this cheery woman, with the odd voice and manner and fabulous technique, her own television show. Thus, began a new phase in her career and a new level of influence.
Her influence cannot be understated. Today cooking shows are ubiquitous. we have two TV channels dedicated to cooking. We talk about people as foodies. Cooking, the ability to make good food and the demand for great ingredients today, is part of the landscape on television and online.
North Americans may still not eat the way Europeans do, but cooking and eating is taken very seriously even here. There is a case to be made that this can be traced to the influence of Julia Child, and that seminal book Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Through her writing and books, and her television shows, Child brought the idea that is so ordinary in Europe into the kitchens of North America and beyond: that food should always be a sensual pleasure.
Julia is a life and times documentary, but it’s also an appreciation. Celebrity chefs, including José Andrés, Ina Garten, Marcus Samuelsson, Ruth Reichl, Jaques Pepin and Sara Moulton discuss Julia’s influence on them.
Julia herself is a beloved figure, whose passion for food, for teaching cooking and for travel never abated even as she got into her later years.
Her life is also a love story. Julia was all about passion. She loved life and every aspect of it. And, by all accounts, had a fiery, passionate relationship with her husband Paul.
So Julia is the story of how home cooking and how an appreciation for good food acquired a heroine in the nick of time. Almost 60 years after it was published, Mastering the Art of French Cooking remains a classic, still bought and passed down to new generations.
Julia herself remains a beloved figure. She had quite a life. But what is, to me anyway, most striking about Julia Child is just how much fun she had along the way.
Julia, written and directed by Julie Cohen and Betsy West, featuring. Ina Garten, Jacques Pepin, Ruth Reichl and José Andrés. Julia opens November 26th in Toronto and Montreal, December 3 in Vancouver and Ottawa, and December 10 in other Canadian cities.