by Bob Spitz
“You want a red Bordeaux wine”: JC, script for Chicken Casserole, The French Chef, February 25, 1964, p. 3.
“I can hardly go out”: JC, letter to Bill Koshland, undated, 1965, SA.
“the local supermarkets sold more”: Bibb, “Harvard Meets ‘The French Chef.’ ”
“She told the audience they needed”: Morash interview, August 3, 2009.
“her followers”: Lapham, “Everyone’s in the Kitchen,” Time, November 25, 1966, p. 74.
“They all use it”: PC, letter to family, January 23, 1965, SA.
He opened letters from viewers: “The studio received today from Orono, Maine, an Ode to Julia, signed by two unknown authors.” Ibid.
Nineteen THE MAD WOMEN OF LA PEETCH
“the everyday”: Todd Gitlin, The Sixties (New York: Bantam Books, 1987), p. 203.
“The concern with good eating”: Louis H. Lapham, “Everyone’s in the Kitchen with Julia,” Saturday Evening Post, August 8, 1964, p. 74.
“operated in the conceptual territory”: William Grimes, “Joseph Baum, America’s Dining High Stylist, Dies at 78,” New York Times, October 6, 1998. p. B10.
“Dining out, in Joe’s view”: Barbara Kafka, interview with author, May 28, 2009.
“perhaps the most exciting restaurant”: Craig Claiborne, “Food News: Dining in Elegant Manner,” New York Times, October 2, 1959.
“not the hautest of haute cuisine”: Craig Claiborne, “People Actually Go to Maxwell’s Plum for the Food,” New York Times, July 30, 1970.
“It became chic to go out”: Rozanne Gold, interview with author, February 22, 2010.
“Otherwise, it was still the Dark Ages”: Korby Cummer, interview with author, November 23, 2009.
“our lady of the ladle”: Lapham, “Everyone’s in the Kitchen,” Time, November 25, 1966.
“That Time article catapulted Julia”: Russ Morash, interview with author, November 3, 2009.
“It made her the voice”: Jacques Pépin, interview with author, January 6, 2009.
“Around our house”: Letters: “Compliments to the Chef,” Time, February 13, 1966, p. 13.
“one of the most extraordinary talents”: “remarkable in the depth of her knowledge.” Joan Barthel, “How to Avoid TV Dinners While Watching TV,” New York Times Magazine, September 7, 1966, p. 30.
“another well-known professional cook”: Ibid., p. 33
Madeleine Kamman: Rose Dosti, “Madeleine Kamman: A Controversial Cooking Teacher,” by Los Angeles Times, June 7, 1990.
“the central question”: Molly O’Neill, “For Madeleine Kamman, A Gentler Simmer,” New York Times Magazine, January 14, 1998.
“Why would they want an American”: Ibid.
“I’m sure we shall get some angry letters”: JC, letter to Simca Beck, November 24, 1965, SA.
The station “has to turn away hundreds”: Alyne E. Model, “Julia Child and Her Runaway Bender,” Boston, May 1966, p. 32.
A “horridly bulky envelope”: “Today … brought in a horridly bulky envelope of WHBG mail inspired by the Time story.” PC, letter to family, November 30, 1966, SA.
the book’s sales tripled: Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 311.
Wisely, Knopf boosted its next print run: “Good news!” JC, letter to Simca Beck, April 8, 1966, SA.
There was new interest in licensing: “The [Latin American] shows will have to be dubbed in Spanish, of course.” PC, letter to family, January 3, 1967, SA.
Since there was no educational TV: “Legally we can talk to these people.” Ibid.
There were already 134 shows: “There were 134 programs taped in the three-year series, which are constantly being rerun on NET.” Paul Henniger, “Colorful Meals for TV’s French Chef?” Los Angeles Times, July 7, 1967, p. 12.
“I’m not going back”: “until certain changes are made she’s a holdout in doing any more programs.” Ibid.
several hundred NET “big-wigs”: “Next day, 500 National Educational Television big wigs from all over the USA visit studio WGBH to watch a taping in color of The French Chef.” PC, letter to family, April 17, 1966, SA.
“real strawberries look so much better”: Henniger, “Colorful Meals.”
“She was a tiger”: Morash interview.
“handicapped”: “Because Julia Child is such a perfectionist … she is aware of certain shortcomings in her TV program.” Henninger, “Colorful Meals.”
“difficult” pilot: “She’s having a difficult time with Joyce, who is rather impossible … It would drive me absolutely nuts to have to work with her.” PC, letter to family, November 30, 1966, SA.
“falling apart at the seams”: “Julie, last Sunday, let out a Potawattomie-type screech.” PC, letter to family, October 31, 1964, SA.
fended off cystitis, “the trots”: “Up and down all night she was.” PC, letter to family, January 23, 1965, SA.
“busted her toe for the second time”: PC, letter to family, April 17, 1966.
“So Jean and Simca became lords”: Jean-François Thibault, interview with author, November 20, 2008.
Part of her objective was to offer: PC, letter to family, February 15, 1964, SA.
“when they need to get away”: “We look on it as a place for our friends and families to go.” PC, letter to family, February 27, 1964, SA.
“My mother decided to let Julia”: Thibault interview.
“which would be gorgeous”: “Much planting around the outside.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, January 1, 1966, SA.
“The agreement was made with a handshake”: JC, My Life, p. 271.
“a shell of cinderblock”: PC, letter to family, April 8, 1964, SA.
“a little jewel”: “We can’t believe we are here in our own little house in Provence.” JC, to Avis DeVoto, January 1, 1966.
“Mimosa trees are in full flower”: PC, letter to family, January 23, 1965.
“absolutely hated it”: “The Childs hated that car and it spent most of the time in the garage.” Thibault interview.
“She was a very authoritative woman”: Thibault interview.
“She knows everything about everything”: “She is known in the region hereabouts as Mme. Houragon. And for good reason.” PC, letter to family, February 25, 1965, SA.
“a jolly pleasant symphony”: PC, letter to family, December 18, 1966, SA.
“carry on a running battle about food”: PC, letter to family, December 31, 1966, SA.
“The Mad Women of La Peetch”: PC, letter to family, December 19, 1966, SA.
“a tentative chapter list”: “I have finally started Volume II in earnest, and am doing outlines, gathering all your notes which you left me last spring …” JC, letter to Simca Beck, September 20, 1966, SA.
“Julia was determined that it contain”: Judith Jones interview, May 27, 2011.
“monster of an [ex-]husband”: PC, letter to family, December 16, 1966, SA.
So Julia paid Louisette’s share: “I cashed a cheque from Jean to me representing Louisette’s part of the Mastering royalties. I then gave the cash to Simca who sent it by post to Louisette.” Ibid.
“Her hands are so twisted”: PC, letter to family, January 24, 1967, SA.
“Are you insane?”: Jones interview, May 27, 2011.
“Bob was a publisher of this world”: Judith Jones interview, April 2, 2009.
“blasted Mastering off the pad”: “Astonishing!” PC, letter to family, January 29, 1976, SA.
James Beard “staged cooking classes”: Clark, James Beard, p. 235.
her gratitude to Time: “I am so grateful for that Time article it is the least I can do.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, February 28, 1967, SA.
“only had to read over everything”: JC, letter to Simca Beck, January 8, 1968, SA.
“to make sure what the writers”: “from the standpoint of correctly written French and of the dish itself.” PC, letter to family, March 13, 1967, SA.
“an uncompromising traditionalist”: Lapham, “Everyone�
�s in the Kitchen,” November 25, 1966, p. 82.
“He had a flair”: Jones interview, May 27, 2011.
“He had to be Mr. Food”: “When he decided to go into food, he had to territorialize everything.” Michael Batterberry, interview with author, November 3, 2009.
“They were wild”: Ibid.
“he was almost fascistic”: Nora Ephron, I Feel Bad About My Neck (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), p. 21.
Field “did not sentimentalize”: Clark, James Beard, p. 223.
he urged his students not to wash: Michael Field obituary, Time, April 5, 1971.
She sensed he was “a romantic who got”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, March 20, 1967, SA.
“Alliances were being formed”: Barbara Kafka, interview with author, May 28, 2009.
“the Jim camp and the Craig camp”: Batterberry interview.
“minimized Jim”: Jones, Epicurean Delight, p. 239.
“a larger than life personality”: Clark Wolf, interview with author, March 18, 2009.
“French cuisine was not simply a taste”: Clark, James Beard, p. 189.
“always just darling”: Curtis Hartman and Steven Raichlen, “JC: The Boston Magazine Interview,” Boston, April 1981, p. 88.
“Their affinities for honest food”: Jones, Epicurean Delight, p. 272.
“He is sort of hard to get at”: Ibid., p. 89
“he was the most influential voice”: “He didn’t put his imprimatur on everything.” Jones interview, April 2, 2009.
“totally commercial”: Jones interview, May 27, 2011.
“I wish I hadn’t said I would act”: JC, letter to Simca Beck, June 19, 1966, SA.
“He is a dabbler, I think”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, March 20, 1967.
“terribly high-strung and somewhat unstable”: JC, letter to Simca Beck, August 4, 1966, SA.
“he seemed to have a cooking block”: “I think he has probably taken on too much as he is always so enthusiastic.” JC, letter to Simca Beck, August 10, 1966, SA.
Fisher, “because she was nosy”: “M. F. K. Fisher was staying with Simca and went over to La Pitchoune.” Jones interview, May 27, 2011.
“The recipes for the Time-Life French cookbook”: JC, letter to Simca Beck, November 9, 1966, SA.
“the most dubious sample”: “The consulting editor for this work is Michael Field, a former concert pianist who might be excused perhaps on the grounds that he never played in the provinces.” Craig Claiborne, review of The Cooking of Provincial France, New York Times, February 19, 1968.
“had no choice but to agree”: Clark, James Beard, p. 234.
Twenty A HOUSEHOLD NAME
“the spoils of a gastronomic orgy”: Jean-François Thibault, interview with author, November 20, 2008.
“I cannot trust Simca’s recipes”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, March 20, 1967, SA.
“unscientific, instinctive, verbal”: “Julie is having creation troubles with Volume II … the biggest bugaboo of them all: dear old Simca.” PC, letter to family, February 6, 1967, SA.
“Simca pays no attention”: “She drives me nuts!” PC, letter to family, February 19, 1967, SA.
“zero interest”: JC, My Life, p. 177.
“I’m not going to have anything in this book”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, March 20, 1967.
“Judith Jones says she wonders”: JC, letter to Simca Beck, May 25, 1967, SA.
“a real disaster!”: “Try as we might, we couldn’t get the thing quite right.” Beck, Food and Friends, p. 189.
“I thought it was absolutely necessary”: “Nobody had ever done it before.” Judith Jones, interview with author, May 27, 2011.
“that was like trying to draw better”: PC, letter to family, March 10, 1967, SA.
Max Ernst: “With us was Max Ernst, the artist, and his loud-voiced, idiotic wife (also a painter).” PC, letter to family, March 11, 1967, SA.
“crust, crumb, flavor, and color”: Editors of Cooks Illustrated, “Baguettes,” in Baking Illustrated (Boston: America’s Test Kitchen, 2004), p. 86.
“They were hard and heavy”: “Paul used to send me these poor little loaves.” Jones interview.
“eighteen separate experiments”: PC, letter to family, May 26, 1967, SA.
“How to get it and how to regulate”: “Real steam in large quantities is necessary.” PC, letter to family, August 21, 1967, SA.
Their “wick system”: “it gives off more steam than just a plain pan of boiling water.” JC, letter to Simca Beck, May 26, 1967, SA.
“We even researched the medieval”: Mary Roblee Henry, “The Wonder Child,” Vogue, June 1969, p. 172.
“We’ll lick it yet”: PC, letter to family, August 21, 1967.
“Simca had no interest”: JC, My Life, p. 280.
it was Simca’s resourcefulness: “We flew up to Paris for one day because we had a marvelous chance, engineered by Simca, to take a breadmaking lesson from M. Calvel.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, December 11, 1967, SA.
She had been taking breadmaking lessons: Beck, Food and Friends, p. 217.
“Every step in his process was different”: JC, My Life, p. 280.
“too stiff a dough”: “Found we can have a less complicated dough system.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, December 17, 1967, SA.
“This seems to be the trick”: JC, letter to Simca Beck, September 14, 1968, SA.
“arcane craft”: “He probably knows more about that arcane craft than anyone else.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, December 11, 1967.
“learn through eye, ear, and by [her] own”: Ibid.
“Each of the several steps”: JC, Foreword, Mastering, Vol. I, p. viii.
“taking copious notes on how”: JC, My Life, p. 280.
“It’s all in the shape”: “She wrote a little postcard with just one sentence on it.” Jones interview.
“What was lacking for our perfect loaves”: Beck, Food and Friends, p. 219.
“I noticed the bricks”: Phila Cousins, interview with author, May 11, 2009.
“plopping a heated brick”: JC, Mastering, Vol. II, p. 70.
“two hundred-and-eighty-four pounds of flour”: Henry, “The Wonder Child,” p. 172.
“things were dropped on the floor”: “In those first weeks of towering passion, stimulus, agitation, and excitement.” PC, letter to family, May 14, 1968, SA.
“what came out of her oven”: Sara Moulton, interview with author, January 12, 2009.
“I got this package in the mail”: Pat Pratt, interview with author, December 2, 2008.
“That’s probably why”: Thibault interview.
“too self-absorbed”: JC, letter to Michael Field, October 4, 1966, SA.
“I saw you once on TV”: “a quiet but exciting breeze clearing the kitchen murk.” M. F. K. Fisher, letter to JC, June 6, 1966, SA.
“Mother of God, it’s the President”: Russ Morash, interview with author, December 11, 2008.
“The food could not have been”: Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 334.
“We were staggered”: PC, letter to family, May 2, 1968, SA.
the cookbook shot onto the Herald Tribune’s: “And just one month after publication.” PC, letter to family, May 14, 1968.
“This must not happen to our books”: “I have been thinking seriously about what happens to the books when you and I are no longer here.” JC, letter to Simca Beck, July 28, 1967, SA.
Julia had already planned to leave her share: “I am planning to leave my share of it to Smith college.” Ibid.
refused to honor her with the Smith medal: “Smith College is very stuffy about honorary degrees … I proposed Julia’s name last winter and met with some stuffiness.” Helen Milbank, letter to Avis DeVoto, July 28, 1967, SA.
Julia had done some investigating: “[Lovell] Thompson says $30,000, [Bill] Koshland says $25,000.” JC, letter to Simca Beck, September 14, 1967.
Louisette had more like $45,000: Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 331.
“You are at
or close to the peak”: “My dad, with a slide rule, calculated the eventual decrease of sales of the book.” Bern Terry, interview with author, August 27, 2009.
“she could accept a sum”: “Simca thinks she will accept, because she has never declared anything to the French taxes.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, January 7, 1968, SA.
A spirited voice-over was all: “Ruth and Paul and I hope we shall never have to do a ’film’ again. There are great stretches where the voice has to be recorded separately and pasted onto the film.” JC, letter to Simca Beck, February 10, 1968, SA.
“I’ve got breast cancer”: Pat Pratt, interview with author, December 2, 2008.
“What a nuisance!”: “But I agree it would be ridiculous to let anything of this sort be delayed.” JC, letter to Simca Beck, February 14, 1968, SA.
“One always feels that the doctor”: PC, letter to Freddie Child, March 10, 1967, SA.
“That angina pectoris”: “I realize I am not going to die any minute now.” PC, letter to family, January 8, 1968, SA.
“Death and degeneration sat”: “My capacity to be sensible and stable in adversity was severely tried.” PC, letter to family, April 22, 1968, SA.
“damn-fool emotions”: “I couldn’t stop it and I couldn’t sleep.” Ibid.
“Left breast off”: Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 336.
“I’m going to get a false titty”: Pratt interview.
“wasn’t life-threatening”: “That wasn’t part of the diagnosis she got.” Pratt interview.
“was a bit taken aback”: “I last saw Julia as Plascassier in mid-May [and] it was clear she was just beginning to come out of it.” Avis DeVoto, letter to Bill Koshland, July 28, 1968.
“very tired and depleted”: Cousins interview.
“They’d been working on the book”: Judith Jones, interview with author, April 2, 2009.
Julia admitted they could use five: “I need at least five more years to get this book right.” JC, My Life, p. 300.
Especially since only three of eleven chapters: “Simca and I had been working on the book for three years, and had written only three of our eleven chapters.” Ibid., p. 298.
“This is nothing new”: “Julie is having real trouble working with Simca.” PC, letter to family, June 8, 1968, SA.