“rather cavalierly”: JC letter to David Ives, December 1973.
6. FROM JULIA CHILD’S KITCHEN
“For our next book”: JC to JBJ, December 22, 1981.
She and her siblings: Philadelphia Cousins (Julia’s niece), e-mail to the author, September 9, 2015.
Her struggle to find a comfortable: Sheridan, “The Visionary Editor Behind Our Great Cookbooks.”
“a dreadful sight”: Child, From Julia Child’s Kitchen, 441.
When Julia’s grocer: Ibid., 398.
Her most vociferous critics: Ibid., 349.
“I saw your show”: Ibid., 173.
Caesar Cardini: Ibid., 431–32.
In April 1974, Julia wrote Simca: JC to SB, April 16, 1974.
“Your decision”: Michael Rice to JC and PC, June 28, 1974.
“We wish to terminate”: JC and PC to WGBH, June 7, 1974.
Season One of the show: WGBH memo to author, courtesy of WGBH, “Julia Child Series at WGBH,” n.d.
Julia and Paul had privately: Numerous instances, such as JC to SB, March 5, 1970.
“real male men”: JC to SB, December 10, 1974.
“Homosexuality. Haw Haw”: JC to ADeV, 1955, quoted in Shapiro, Julia Child, 136.
“Thank God there are two sexes!”: Laura Shapiro, “Just a Pinch of Prejudice,” Boston, April 2007.
When William Rice: Shapiro, Julia Child, 139.
“Good food is also love”: Shapiro, “Just a Pinch of Prejudice.”
“It wasn’t a roaring lion”: MLiF, 296.
“Recovery is slow”: JC to SB, December 10, 1974.
“like a snail”: JC to SB, February 6, 1975.
“Not everybody realizes that Paul and I”: Whitcomb, “Life Started Cooking at 50.”
“We each need long, silent times”: G. S. Bourdain, “Julia Child Is Stirring Up More Treats,” The New York Times, December 24, 1978.
“I think the role of a woman”: JC interviewed by John Callaway.
“I’m not driven”: Christopher Lydon, “Julia Child and the Sex of Cooking,” August 16, 2004 (blogs.law.harvard.edu/lydondev/2004/08/16/julia-child-and-the-sex-of-cooking/).
“Communication is the glue”: PC notes for an undelivered speech, “COMMUNICATION,” March 1973.
“He had a sophisticated eye”: JC, typescript for article “About Paul Child,” Family Circle, January 17, 1999. Courtesy of the Julia Child Foundation.
While Charlie “opted for chaos”: PC to CJC, November 25, 1968.
“Charlie brings out”: JC to ADeV, January 5, 1971. Julia Child Papers.
“Without Paul Child”: JC to the author.
“DOING something”: JC to SB, March 1, 1975.
“He is still having reception”: JC to SB, April 7, 1975.
“He was even on radio”: JC to SB, April 18, 1976.
“L’âge, ma chérie”: JC to SB, March 30, 1976.
“And thank heavens”: MLiF, 296.
“I have nothing more to say”: JC to SB, January 19, 1975.
“1,000 cackling women”: JC to SB, October 24, 1975.
“We are going to take”: Ibid.
just a third: From Robert H. Johnson, Esq., to Michael Rice, WGBH, April 15, 1975 (courtesy of WGBH).
7. THE SPIRIT OF ’76
Beard, whom The New York Times called: James Beard Foundation, “About James Beard,” in reference to The New York Times, n.d., 1954.
“in the 200 years”: JC and JB, from draft script for “American Cookery: Revolutionary Style,” n.d., 1975.
“The persecuted Puritans”: Ibid.
“As Massachusetts is the mother”: José Wilson, memo to JC and JB, “Research Material from José Wilson,” n.d., 1975, 1, Julia Child Papers.
“unlike the Southern states”: Ibid.
“When young daughters”: Quoted by Wilson, ibid., 2. Originally in Ann Seranne, ed., America Cooks: The General Federation of Women’s Clubs Cook Book (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1967).
Julia’s mother: JC and family members to the author.
“Bearded Child Manifesto”: JC handwritten notes on yellow legal pad, Julia Child Papers.
Julia and Jim planned: PBS Program/Series Proposal, “Julia and Jim: Classical American Cooking,” October 3, 1975.
“people feel very strongly”: José Wilson to JC, February 5, 1975.
“The Great Indian Pudding Controversy”: Craig Claiborne, “The Great Indian Pudding Controversy,” The New York Times, February 17, 1975.
“Within a generation”: JC and JB, script notes for “Thirteen Feasts,” n.d., 1975.
“This is the colonial kitchen”: JC narration of pilot, “Julia and Jim,” 1975 (courtesy of WGBH).
“Our great week of TV trials”: JC to SB, March 1, 1975.
“we’re presenting great American cuisine”: WGBH memo to JC, n.d.
Safeway: From Henry Becton, WGBH to Ronald Giglio, Safeway Inc., October 7, 1975 (courtesy of WGBH).
“Nothing at all has come”: JC to SB, July 1, 1975.
“There is still some brain injury”: JC to SB, n.d. (probably August 1975).
“Please give us a little more time”: Rice to JC, October 24, 1975 (courtesy of WGBH).
“Oy!!!!!”: Ibid.
Julia replied in a terse note: JC to Rice, October 26, 1975.
“We all (including Jim B.)”: JC to SB, July 9, 1972.
“Day in and day out”: Hugo Lindgren, “Another Reason You Might Not Want to Be President,” The New York Times Magazine, October 12, 2012, quoting John Hersey, The New York Times Magazine, April 20, 1975.
In a speech to the Grocery Manufacturers: “People in the News: Gerald Ford,” Kentucky New Era, June 18, 1974.
a tête de lard: JC to SB, December 10, 1974.
8. THE PRESIDENT, THE QUEEN, AND THE CAPTAIN
Inspired by a party: Betty Ford, The Times of My Life, 224–25 (excerpt available online: http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov).
“unavailable to the press”: Marian Burros, “White House Chef to Leave in Fall,” The New York Times, June 7, 1987.
“That’s not much of a problem”: Mimi Sheraton, “State Dinner for Queen Elizabeth: 224 Guests—and a Time Clock,” The New York Times, July 6, 1976.
“I’m not at all nervous”: Ibid.
“Washington is not a cookie town”: Ibid.
“Nixon didn’t eat many things”: Ibid.
“one does not show the queen eating”: Transcript of JC report to McCall’s, on audiotape, Tape Two, July 1976. The magazine provided Julia with a portable tape recorder, on which she recounted her impressions of the bicentennial dinner at the White House for a McCall’s column; the tape was then transcribed. Transcript of the tape, and a letter about Julia’s assignment from McCall’s editor Barbara Blakemore, in the Julia Child Papers.
“I hope that the viewers”: Ibid.
“adding a soft impressionistic touch”: Sheraton, “State Dinner for Queen Elizabeth.”
Guests at the head table: White House guest list, July 7, 1976, and press accounts.
“That was not very well”: JC to McCall’s, on audiotape.
“an absolutely superb dinner”: Ibid.
“For some reason, they thought”: Ibid.
“I found her delivery quite a bit”: Ibid.
“The Queen was easy to deal with”: Ford, The Times of My Life, 224–25 (http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov).
“Only a person with a dirty mind”: Robert Windeler, “Year of the Dragons,” People, October 18, 1976.
“I don’t know why they picked”: JC to McCall’s, on audiotape.
“I agree with Mrs. Child”: Tracy Hummel, “Speaking of Muskrat Love,” on Laura Ingraham Facebook Q&A: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=271042954725&story_fbid=10150928976689726.
“I laughed through”: “Talk Today: The Captain and Tennille,” USAToday.com, May 24, 2001.
> United States Marine Band: Col. John R. Bourgeois (Ret.), “The President’s Own”: A History of the United States Marine Band: http://www.jrbourgeois.com/presidents-own-6.html.
“is the kind of thing that I love”: JC to McCall’s, on audiotape.
“Quaint Spectacle”: Tom Shales, “Quaint Spectacle of a State Dinner,” The Washington Post, July 8, 1976.
“Dear Channel 2”: April Oray, letter to Channel 2, July 12, 1976 (courtesy of WGBH).
“Your coverage of the State Dinner”: Archibald Murphy, letter to Channel 2, July 1976 (courtesy of WGBH).
“was the one bright spot”: Mrs. Eugene Klein, letter to Channel 2, July 16, 1976 (courtesy of WGBH).
In a postmortem on July 8: Memorandum from Ron Nessen to Bob Mead, re “TV COVERAGE AT DINNER FOR THE QUEEN,” July 8, 1976. From box 300, folder “Television Advisor Resignation,” the Ron Nessen Papers at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
by the end of the day: Robert A. Mead, letter to President Gerald R. Ford, July 8, 1976. Ibid.
“one could not help wondering”: Sheraton, “State Dinner for Queen Elizabeth.”
By the time Julia’s article: JC, “A White House Menu,” The New York Times Magazine, January 16, 1977.
9. THE NEW FRENCH REVOLUTION
It’s gotten much more expensive: Clifford A. Ridley, “La Cuisine? La Julia!,” National Observer, May 1, 1976.
“adventures in eating”: Linda Bird Francke, Scott Sullivan, and Seth Goldschlager, “Food: The New Wave,” Newsweek, August 11, 1975.
“Americans”: Ibid.
“There is a growing appreciation”: Ibid.
“We really noticed the changes”: Ibid.
They witnessed: Alex Kuczynski, “Public Lives: 30 Years of Love and Chronicling Cuisine,” The New York Times, August 20, 1998.
“There are now so many”: JC to LB, December 23, 1978.
“a bit like pornography”: Andrew F. Smith, The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink, 416–17.
“The older we get”: Beverley Jackson, “Dinner with JC,” Santa Barbara News-Press, January 9, 1977. In Fitch, Appetite for Life, 394.
The menu of a 1903 state dinner: “Dining in State,” The Old Foodie, May 2, 2006 (http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2006/05/dining-in-state.html).
The term “nouvelle cuisine”: André Gayot, “Nouvelle Cuisine: The True Story of This Culinary French Revolution” (http://www.gayot.com/restaurants/features/nouvellecuisine.html).
While the phrase “nouvelle cuisine” was used in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century France, and there has been confusion over who popularized the modern usage, and when, André Gayot wrote that his colleague Henri Gault “forged the name Nouvelle Cuisine” in 1972.
“protect the integrity”: Steven Englund, “The Simple Lion,” Time, April 9, 1973.
learned to butcher: Francke, Sullivan, and Goldschlager, “Food: The New Wave.”
“a little mean”: Ibid.
“A chef, even a bad one”: Englund, “The Simple Lion.”
“If Point was God”: Ibid.
la Bande à Bocuse: Francke, Sullivan, and Goldschlager, “Food: The New Wave.”
“It is a cuisine of friendship”: Ibid.
“an evolution seemed necessary”: André Gayot, “Nouvelle Cuisine: The True Story of this Culinary French Revolution.” Gayot.com.
“Down with the old-fashioned picture”: Ibid.
“les copains”: Ibid.
“a tool of Gallic”: “Pass Notes,” The Guardian, January 23, 1997.
Bernard Loiseau, of La Côte d’Or: Lloyd Vries, “French Furor Over Chef’s Apparent Suicide,” Associated Press, February 25, 2003. Also, William Echikson, “Death of a Chef,” The New Yorker, May 12, 2003.
“it is clearly too old-fashioned”: JC, “ ‘La Nouvelle Cuisine’: A Skeptic’s View,” New York, July 4, 1977.
“none of [them] seems the glorious temple”: Ibid.
“Manifesto of Nouvelle Cuisine”: “Manifesto of Nouvelle Cuisine,” Nouveau Guide, October 1973. Gayot, “Nouvelle Cuisine: The True Story of This Culinary French Revolution.” Gayot.com. Also, Smith, The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink, 416.
“The French Revolution”: Gayot, “Nouvelle Cuisine: The True Story of This Culinary French Revolution.” Gayot.com.
“an accordion-pleated affair”: Craig Claiborne, “Food View: Nouvelle Cuisine: Here to Stay,” The New York Times, December 18, 1983.
“Nouvelle cuisine is the greatest”: Ibid.
“When people go to a French restaurant”: Francke, Sullivan, and Goldschlager, “Food: The New Wave.”
“Without butter, cream”: Ibid.
“does not develop the essential taste”: JC, “ ‘La Nouvelle Cuisine’: A Skeptic’s View.”
“Humph!”: John Kifner, “The New French Food Revolution? Julia Child Says, ‘Humph,’ ” The New York Times, September 5, 1975.
“Nouvelle Cuisine was debased”: Beck, Food & Friends, 90, 273.
“just doing the same thing”: Kifner, “The New French Food Revolution? Julia Child Says, ‘Humph.’ ”
“that Paris PR game”: Ibid.
“Well, if they can get away with it”: Ibid.
“One thing to remember”: JC to Philip W. Nash, November 13, 1973.
“It began with sausage”: Englund, “The Simple Lion.”
In September 1971: John L. Hess, “7 Chefs Cook ‘Dinner of Century’—Were There 6 Too Many?,” The New York Times, September 8, 1971.
“quite simply”: John L. Hess, “The Life of a Food Critic Has Its Indigestible Moments,” The New York Times, December 11, 1973.
“like putting seven artists”: Hess, “7 Chefs Cook ‘Dinner of Century’—Were There 6 Too Many?”
“The dinner is énormément trop”: Gael Greene, “Paul Bocuse: Trial by Pig’s Bladder,” New York, February 5, 1973.
“Never was there a more elegant hustle”: Gael Greene, “Nobody Knows the Truffles I’ve Seen,” New York, November 12, 1973.
“the very clever French publicity”: JC to Philip W. Nash, November 13, 1973.
causing her “feminist spirit”: Gael Greene, “More Confessions of a Sensualist: The Dinner for Women,” New York, January 28, 1974.
Lillian Hellman: JC to SB, January 13, 1974.
no sacquépage!: In her letters Julia often used the made-up word “sacquépage” to describe the cosmetological work done on her face in France. (She was not vain, but she understood the importance of looking youthful on TV.) Though I can’t be sure, I suspect sacquépage was an in-joke between Julia and Paul, a conjoining of the name of the doctor she frequented in Cannes—Dr. Sacquépée—and the French word décapage, meaning “chemical peel.”
The loup was overcooked: Greene, “More Confessions of a Sensualist: The Dinner for Women.”
“Dinner with 12 women”: JC to SB, January 13, 1974.
“ ‘Down with Escoffier’ ”: JC, “ ‘La Nouvelle Cuisine’: A Skeptic’s View.”
“Dieu! How can one refuse”: Ibid.
“Where would any of us be”: Ibid.
Guérard sank into despair: Francke, Sullivan, and Goldschlager, “Food: The New Wave.”
“I don’t want to make dieting”: Ibid.
“He is the only one who really did invent”: Beck, Food & Friends, 273.
“I don’t think people are really going to want to go out”: Kifner, “The New French Food Revolution? Julia Child Says, ‘Humph.’ ”
“a really original style of cookery”: JC, “ ‘La Nouvelle Cuisine’: A Skeptic’s View.”
“for all the world like liquefied bouillon”: Ibid.
“It’s not that I don’t appreciate”: Ibid.
In a 1984 interview: Hudgins, “A Conversation with Julia Child, Spring 1984.”
“a refreshment of traditional”: Ibid.
When Michel Guérard helped: Gael Greene, �
�Full House for the Queen of Clubs?,” New York, May 10, 1976.
culinary puns: Smith, The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink, 416–17.
“with a twist”: Ibid.
“What that movement”: Ibid.
“the culinary shift to”: Christopher Kimball, “Book Review: ‘Provence, 1970’ by Luke Barr,” The Wall Street Journal, October 18, 2013.
10. A GO-TO CULTURAL FIGURE
“It’s not very tender,” Julia says reprovingly: From Julia & Jacques Cooking at Home—Series Highlights, A La Carte TV (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7mtEoMFJ60).
“It always felt completely natural”: JP to the author in a series of interviews, 2013−2015.
Johnson had started the business: Anthony Mitchell Sammarco, A History of Howard Johnson’s: How a Massachusetts Soda Fountain Became an American Icon (Charleston, S.C.: The History Press, 2013), 15.
Howard Johnson’s included: Howard Johnson International, Inc., company profile (http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history/He-Ja/Howard-Johnson-International-Inc.html).
“We were foot soldiers”: JP, The Apprentice, 164.
“For me, Howard Johnson’s reliable”: Jacques Pépin, “Howard Johnson’s, Adieu,” The New York Times, April 28, 2005.
“Jean-Claude and I”: JP, The Apprentice, 182.
fourteen fractures: Joe Yonan, “Hip Pain Forces Jacques Pépin to Cancel Book Tour,” The Washington Post, November 1, 2011.
“I am in the mood”: JP to the author.
“speak out on any subject”: Hartman and Raichlen, “Julia Child.”
“nuts and berries”: JC to the author.
“that dreadful woman”: Adelle Davis: Shapiro, Julia Child, 160.
“never met a healthy, normal nutritionist”: Ibid.
“the dinner table is becoming a trap”: Carol Lawson, “Julia Child Boiling, Answers Her Critics,” The New York Times, June 20, 1990.
“The only time to eat diet food”: Nancy Verde Barr, Backstage with Julia: My Years with Julia Child (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2007), 64.
“Personally, I don’t think pure”: Karen Grigsby Bates, “Slice of History,” People, June 7, 1999.
“You, of all my favorite”: Shapiro, Julia Child, 165.
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