As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child & Avis DeVoto by Joan Reardon (Epub)

Description

This revealing correspondence between the legendary French chef Julia Child and her dear friend is “a delicious read” (People).With her outsize personality, Julia Child is known by her first name alone. But how much do we really know of the inner Julia? Now more than 200 letters exchanged between Julia and Avis DeVoto, her friend and unofficial literary agent memorably introduced in the hit movie Julie & Julia, open the window on her deepest thoughts and feelings.This riveting correspondence chronicles the blossoming of a unique and lifelong friendship between the two women and the turbulent process of Julia’s creation of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, one of the most influential cookbooks ever written. Bawdy, funny, exuberant, and occasionally agonized, these letters show Julia, first as a new bride in Paris, then becoming increasingly worldly and adventuresome as she follows her diplomat husband in his postings to Nice, Germany, and Norway. With commentary by food historian Joan Reardon, and covering topics as diverse as the lack of good wine in the United States, McCarthyism, and sexual mores, these letters show America on the verge of political, social, and gastronomic transformation.“An absorbing portrait of an unexpected friendship.”—Entertainment Weekly“Two housewives, each in her 40s … let rip about all kinds of things, from shallots, beurre blanc and the misery of dried herbs to politics, aging and sex … Funny and forthright opinions about food and life.”—The New York Times “Entirely irresistible.”—The Boston Globe

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: From the Back Cover A National Bestseller Winner of an International Association of Culinary Professionals Award for Literary Food Writing An absorbing portrait of an unexpected friendship. Entertainment Weekly Julia s inimitable voice shines through . . . These letters offer [a] glimpse of how the truly great can merge heart and soul in the pursuit of excellence. Wall Street Journal Julia is known around the world by her first name alone. But how much do we really know of the inner Julia Child? Through this riveting correspondence between Julia and Avis DeVoto, her pen pal and literary mentor, we hear Julia s deepest thoughts and feelings and witness the blossoming of a unique and lifelong friendship. We see, too, the turbulent creation of one of the most influential cookbooks ever written. Frank, bawdy, funny, exuberant, these astonishing letters show an America on the verge of political, social, and gastronomic transformation and two women deeply engaged in the making of that new world. [Child] comes booming back to life in these dishy missives . . . A delicious read. People (31/2 of 4 stars) Blazingly alive and entirely irresistible. Boston Globe JOAN REARDON is a culinary historian, cookbook author, and biographer. She publishes and edits a quarterly newsletter for Les Dames d Escoffier Chicago and serves on the advisory board of Gastronomica. ” –This text refers to the hardcover edition. Amazon.com Review Amazon Best Books of the Month, December 2010: Though this collection of letters between Julia Child and her savvy friend, cook, and confidante, Avis DeVoto, may be voluminous, its narrative force is immediate. Julia and Avis shared a voracious curiosity about ingredients, gadgets, recipes, and methods that any home cook worth her salt will find wonderful to read. Their testing and tasting in large part fueled Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the now-legendary and game-changing cookbook that Avis, upon reading an early chapter, said “could be a classic and make your fortune and go on selling forever.” Avis was an instant and unwavering champion of the book and shepherded its long journey towards publication stateside, as Julia and her co-authors in France worked doggedly on the manuscript, and there couldn’t have been a better or brighter for advocate for the book’s target audience. As a mid-century American housewife, Avis participated both eagerly and critically in the renaissance age of culinary convenience: she details her experiments with the frozen, freeze-dried, canned, and casseroled with a wonderful sense of humor and taste. These pieces are particularly fascinating to read now, as we resurrect the slow, local approach to home cooking, and her perspective on what was available to American cooks at that time is a seamless counterpart to her commentary on the cookbook itself, which she praises time and again for its classical richness and modern practicality. Julia writes to Avis early on that “people who love to eat are always the best people,” and certainly nothing could be truer of these two formidable and gracious gourmandes. –Anne Bartholomew Product Description With her outsize personality, Julia Child is known around the world by her first name alone. But despite that familiarity, how much do we really know of the inner Julia? Now more than 200 letters exchanged between Julia and Avis DeVoto, her friend and unofficial literary agent memorably introduced in the hit movie Julie & Julia, open the window on Julia’s deepest thoughts and feelings. This riveting correspondence, in print for the first time, chronicles the blossoming of a unique and lifelong friendship between the two women and the turbulent process of Julia’s creation of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, one of the most influential cookbooks ever written. Frank, bawdy, funny, exuberant, and occasionally agonized, these letters show Julia, first as a new bride in Paris, then becoming increasingly worldly and adventuresome as she follows her diplomat husband in his postings to Nice, Germany, and Norway. With commentary by the noted food historian Joan Reardon, and covering topics as diverse as the lack of good wine in the United States, McCarthyism, and sexual mores, these astonishing letters show America on the verge of political, social, and gastronomic transformation. More to Explore (Click on Images to Enlarge) The Young Julia Child: Occasionally insecure, always opinionated, never dull Julia’s letter to Avis after Houghton Mifflin rejected her cookbook An enterprising cook, Avis had a nose for a great book Culinary historian, cookbook author, and biographer Joan Reardon –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. About the Author Culinary historian, cookbook author, and biographer Joan Reardon is the author of M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, and Alice Waters: Celebrating the Pleasures of the Table, M.F.K. Fisher Among the Pots and Pans, Poet of the Appetites: The Lives and Loves of M.F.K. Fisher, and Oysters: a Culinary Celebration. Reardon, who has a PhD in English literature, won an IACP Award for culinary writing, publishes and edits a quarterly newsletter for Les Dames d’Escoffier Chicago, and serves on the advisory board of Gastronomica magazine. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review “An absorbing portrait of an unexpected friendship.”-Entertainment Weekly”The spirit of the indomitable Julia Child lives on in Joan Reardon’s AS ALWAYS, JULIA, a saucy soup-to-nuts compilation of the correspondence between Child and lifelong friend Avis DeVoto. As Julia said, ‘Life itself is the proper binge.’ Let’s live it up!”– Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair, Dec. issue “The women’s frank, tender letters are an absolute delight to read, as much for their mouthwatering discussion of cuisine as for the palpable fondness they portray for one another. In an early note, DeVoto calls Child’s evolving manuscript “as exciting as a novel to read,” and, indeed, so are their conversations.”-Booklist, starred review “This epistolary testament to a close friendship will surely appeal to Child fans.”- Kirkus Reviews “Witty, enlightening and entertaining, these letters serve as a compelling companion volume to Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”- Publishers Weekly –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Booklist *Starred Review* Many Julia Child followers already know the story of her extensive letter writing to “pen pal” Avis DeVoto, which began when DeVoto replied to a fan letter Child had sent to her husband, Bernard. But this volume marks the first appearance of their complete correspondence. Painstakingly compiled by editor Reardon (thanks to new archival access), the letters tell the incredible story of the rocky development of Child’s chef d’oeuvre, Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961). Child and DeVoto’s relationship-on-paper began as a cooking one; living in Paris, Child enlisted DeVoto’s help in determining what ingredients were available to housewives in the States, her target audience. Their talk of solely “cookery-bookery,” cutely named by Child, quickly turned to friendly discussions of much more: family, social circles, and the politically taut McCarthy era. DeVoto, plugged into the American literary world, played an integral role in publishing Mastering. Helping one another through hardship (failed publishing attempts) and tragedy (Bernard’s death), the women’s frank, tender letters are an absolute delight to read, as much for their mouthwatering discussion of cuisine as for the palpable fondness they portray for one another. In an early note, DeVoto calls Child’s evolving manuscript “as exciting as a novel to read,” and, indeed, so are their conversations. –Annie Bostrom –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Publishers Weekly Culinary historian Reardon’s collection of the correspondence between Child and her pen pal, Avis DeVoto (portrayed in the film Julie & Julia by Deborah Rush), bubbles over with intimate insights into their friendship. In 1952, Child was living in Paris when she wrote to Cambridge, Mass., historian Bernard DeVoto after reading his Harper’s article about knives. Her letter was answered by his wife, Avis, who soon became her confidante, sounding board, and enthusiastic fellow cook. The two met finally met in person two years later. As a part of the publishing community, Avis (who died in 1989) was responsible for securing the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, steering the book first to Houghton Mifflin and then to its eventual home at Knopf. Their letters span a wide range of topics, from cookbooks, menus, recipes, and restaurants to Balzac, sex, goose stuffing, gardening, learning languages, the political climate, Sunday afternoon cocktail parties, and proofreading. Witty, enlightening and entertaining, these letters serve as a compelling companion volume to Mastering the Art of French Cooking. (Dec. 1) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Almost three and a half years after arriving in Paris with her husband, Paul, Julia Child read an article in a 1951 issue of Harper’s written by the historian and prolific journalist Bernard DeVoto. In “Crusade Resumed,” he revisited what he considered “the only mission I have ever set myself, that of trying to get for the American housewife a kitchen knife she can cut something with.” DeVoto criticized American-made stainless steel knives for their inability to hold an edge, and he detailed his continuing search for a carbon steel paring knife. As a cook who had already acquired a substantial batterie de cuisine, Julia sent him one, and Avis, who answered most of her husband’s letters, acknowledged the gift. Soon “Dear Mrs. Child” and “Dear Mrs. DeVoto” became “Dear Julia” and “Dear Avis.” As an employee of the State Department’s U.S. Information Service (USIS), which operated as a sort of propaganda agency, Paul set up photo and other art exhibits that would present the United States in a favorable light. Meanwhile, Julia explored the markets and dined in the small restaurants of Paris. Blessed with a hearty appetite, she had never been particularly interested in food until she began working with Paul in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and China, where she enjoyed exotic meals. But in the City of Light, she experienced a culinary epiphany, and she had all the fervor of a religious convert regarding French food, wine, and cooking utensils. Above all, she valued the importance the French placed on mtier (skill). Propelled by her enthusiasm, she began a formal culinary education at Le Cordon Bleu in 1949 and sought out friends who thought about food the way she did. She met Simone “Simca” Beck, a Parisian who was well versed in the cuisines of Normandy, Alsace, and Provence, at a party for embassy personnel. The two clicked immediately and began to discuss food and “how to make a valid professional project out of it.” When Simca and her friend Louisette Bertholle urged Julia to join Le Cercle des Gourmettes, an exclusive women’s club started in the late 1920s, Julia was delighted. The three women often arrived hours before the scheduled Gourmettes’ luncheon to assist the chef of the day in what they considered a private cooking lesson. Cooking in tandem became a heady experience. So in January 1952, when a handful of Julia’s American friends who either lived in Paris or were on holiday asked her to teach them something about French cooking, she persuaded Simca and Louisette to join her in organizing classes in a venture that came to be known as L’cole des Trois Gourmandes. The three women taught twice a week. Julia organized the lesson plans and typed the recipes. The format included two hours of instruction and hands-on cooking, after which everyone sat down to a leisurely meal in the Childs’ dining room, with Paul selecting the wines. Teaching cooking classes together soon led to writing a cookbook together. A few years earlier, after Louisette returned to France from a visit to the United States, she and Simca had submitted about six hundred recipes for a book to be published by the New York publishing house Ives Washburn. The head of the house, Sumner Putnam, had hired a translator/writer named Helmut Ripperger to prepare some of the recipes for a small spiral-bound book called What’s Cooking in France, which was published early in 1952 but not widely promoted. Ripperger was not interested in working on a much larger cookbook, no contract was negotiated, and the project stalled. Simca and Louisette turned to Julia to help them realize their plan to publish their big book. Although reluctant at first, Julia soon recognized the benefits of the project, which presented an opportunity to test and refine recipes and “translate the genuine taste of French cooking into American.” Julia also knew that simply being an American might give her an advantage in dealing with U.S. publishers, and she began to question the wisdom of publishing the book with Ives Washburn. In the fall of 1952, she requested that all of the material already sent to Putnam be returned for translation and editing. Then she, Simca, and Louisette began to outline the tentatively titled “French Cooking for All” and discuss its scope. They told Ives Washburn that they wanted the manuscript published in a sequence of five individual volumes. Meanwhile, Julia sent the first draft of the book to Avis, who immediately saw its potential and communicated her enthusiasm to Julia, along with the advice to extricate the project from Ives Washburn. Avis was an enterprising cook who knew how rare it was to find shallots even in the specialty shops of Cambridge and understood that there were limited places where an American cook could find a variety of herbs. She quickly became Julia’s stateside adviser on ingredients, utensils, and the preferences of American cooks, as well as a valuable sounding board for Julia’s staunch liberalism, ambition, and occasional insecurity. Because Houghton Mifflin was her husband’s publisher, Avis knew the staff at the venerable Boston publishing house, and she contacted her friend Dorothy de Santillana, senior editor there. De Santillana instinctively knew that this technique-focused cookbook was unlike the Americanized French recipes that were being offered in women’s magazines and upscale cookbooks. She was interested. In the following early letters between Julia and Avis, the latest victims of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Communist witch hunt get equal time with experiments on beurre blanc. Avis’s accounts of forays into the West and excitement over Democrat Adlai Stevenson’s 1952 presidential campaign cross paths with Julia’s descriptions of the catch at the Old Port in Marseille, where Paul was posted in 1953. (“What luck for us,” Julia says. “It could have been Abbis Ababababa.”) Family members are introduced, and recipes are discussed at length. Based on de Santillana’s assessment of the manuscript and Avis’s enthusiasm, Houghton Mifflin began discussing a contract in late 1953. It was signed on June 1, 1954. One-third of the $750 advance was forwarded to Julia as the representative of the Trois Gourmandes, with instructions to submit the manuscript of “French Cooking in the American Kitchen” (as it was now called) as soon as possible. Avis signed on as Julia’s unofficial line editor. It was the perfect arrangement all around. 81 Rue de L’Universit, Paris, 7 March 8, 1952 Dear Mr. de Voto: Your able diatribe against the beautiful-beautiful-rust-proof-edge-proof American kitchen knife so went to my heart that I cannot refrain from sending you this nice little French model as a token of my appreciation. For the past three years here, I’ve had the good fortune to be able to spend my life studying French cooking and have amassed a most satisfyingly professional batterie de cuisine, including a gamut of excellent French knives. When we were in the USA last summer I picked up four beautiful-beautiful American stainless steel housewives knives, of different makes, to try them out. But I have been quite unable to sharpen them satisfactorily. I am therefore wondering if the average American housewife really wants a sharp knife in the kitchen, as many of my compatriots accuse me resentfully: “But your knives are so sharp! They’re dangerous!” If you are in need of some good professional knives, I would be very pleased to get some for you, and the prices are modest: This one is about 70 (280 francs) 8-inch blade, about $2.40 7-inch flexible fish filleter, about $1.00 Mailed from here Fourth Class, one or two at a time, there seems to be no duty to pay at your end. We do enjoy you in Harper’s! Most Sincerely, Julia Child (Mrs. Paul Child) 8 Berkeley Street Cambridge 38, Massachusetts April 3, 1952 Dear Mrs. Child: I hope you won’t mind hearing from me instead of from my husband. He is trying to clear the decks before leaving on a five weeks’ trip to the Coast and is swamped with work, though I assure you most appreciative of your delightful letter and the fine little knife. Everything I say you may take as coming straight from him on the subject of cutlery we are in entire agreement. This is the first knife which has come from France we have had one from Spain and one from Germany and a great many from all over the States. I am particularly happy to have it because I have known all along that no French cook would be caught dead with a stainless steel knife. I have an enormous collection of knives all sent since the Harpers’ piece and an earlier one in Fortune last spring but the prizes of my collection remain two ten-inch chef’s knives made by a firm called Pouzet which I have owned for twenty-five years and which I plan to hand down to my children. I was in Paris for a couple of weeks in 1950 but was rather too busy eating to think about hunting for knives, a temptation I am sure you will understand. An aside on eating I am green with envy at your chance to study French cooking. There are two dishes served at Bossu on the Quai Bourbon that I remember in my dreams, and if by any possible chance you know how to make them I would be forever in your debt if you would let me know. One is a mixture of eggs, cream and fresh tarragon, done in a saucepan. I probably can’t get the right kind of cream for it but I live in hopes I have tried it a dozen times with little success. The other is their veal in cream with tarragon. I am fairly successful with this using sometimes a dry white wine or even vermouth but Bossu probably has access to younger veal than I can get here. You are quite right in thinking that stainless steel knives can’t be sharpened properly. If they are cheap, the steel is too soft to take an edge. The very expensive ones will hold an edge for a long time but can only be re-sharpened at the factory I am thinking of the brand called Frozen-Heat, made by Robeson at Perry, New York. These people have sent us two five piece sets retailing at $19.95 and I… –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This book is like a time capsule into the past. I found the earliest letters the most fascinating. Two interesting women not only discussing recipes and cooking techniques, but politics and art. It was upsetting how casually homophobic and even racist these liberal anti McCarthy democrats were. These letters are brutally honest, about marriage, parenting and women’s roles in the world they occupied. The gap between the classes was glaring in this book also, it was painfully apparent these two women hailed from the upper class, discussing how hard it was to get a good cook or maid. Summer homes and months long European vacations despite this or maybe cecause of this,I enjoyed it very much,

⭐It’s always a bit strange reading someones private letters, but the writing, especially Julia’s truly reads like a story. The letters selected for this book are put together in a wonderful way that is easy to follow and the pre-section commentary ties them together nicely. Julia wasn’t perfect, never claimed to be, but you can’t help but feel all the blood, sweat and tears she put into researching and writing her cookbook. Maybe the fact that Julia has been on TV for so long, makes her more relatable, but Ms Devoto didn’t endear me whatsoever. I’ll just leave it at that.

⭐Earlier I reviewed this book based on having read 21% of the content; which remains embedded within this updated review. Now, with the entire book completed, I see more depth in the totality of letters exchanged between Julia Child and Avis DeVoto than was evident in the early letters.This is a “book of many colors”. It is historical. It is political. It is about relationships. It contains elements of hope; frustration; despair; persistence; and,ultimately, triumph over what at times must have seemed like overwhelming odds.I am only 21% of the way through these fascinating letters be Julia Child and Avis DeVoto so this is but a very brief review of this work, however, it is also the only time I have been so engrossed in a book that I find it valuable to write a review as a “work in progress”.As an amatuer cook given to experienting will numerous styles of cuisine, I am not sure what I expected when I ordered this book in Kindle format but I assure those who read this that what I received is far more than what I believed the book would be. I guess I expected, well, a cookbook. To this point in my reading I have come to see this work as something far more important and, for those interested in history and travel, something totally unexpected.If you are familiar with Julia Child through her cookbooks and PBS shows, then you, like I, don’t know Julia as a person outside of her known field of expertise. Born in the mid-1940’s, much of what is discussed in the letters relative to the political climate of the United States, post-World War II resonates with what I, and every other “Baby-Boomer” grew up with in the 50’s and beyond. It provides an interesting perspective of what Julia and Avis (both obviously staunch Liberals) see as dangerous within the U.S.; Julia as an American living abroad with her husband working for the State Department, and Avis living in the U.S. married to a successful, if too liberal, author.Highly recommended for cooks and those who aspire to be cooks; historians and those who think history is boring.The preceding 4 paragraphs are from the original review.Throughout these letters and Reardon’s commentaries, we see a progression as the “pen-pal” friendship blossoms. The letters become more intimate. Attitudes and prejudices surface revealing much about both Julia and Avis. Julia loves France but seems, at times. to dislike the French. Avis mentions friends with a “certain condition”, namely, that they are lesbians – revealing the deep-seated prejudice against gays and lesbians prevalent up until very recently (when viewed in the context of history). The use of the word “gay” in some of the letters is quickly explained to mean the true definition of the word as opposed to the sexual orientation it has come to represent.Nothing in these letters serves to diminish the accomplishments of Julia, Simca, and Avis in the authorship and publication of Julia’s and Simca’s recognized masterpiece; nor, Julia’s success as a star on PBS. These letters show what life was like from the late 40’s through Avis’ death and, in the Epilogue, beyond to further discuss (in commentary) Julia’s continued success as an author and television personality.Deserves more than 5-stars but that’s all that are available.

⭐I feel badly writing that this book “only four stars because I love everything about Julia and own all of her cookbooks. But it is important to understand that the book as a compilation of actual letters better Julia and Avis DeVoto, without whom Julia may have had a different career path. In an era before email, we get a strong appreciation of what it was like to wait for a reply — in this case a week or more for transatlantic communications. Their beautiful life-long friendship evolves over many, many letters and eventually, personal visits.Most importantly, it is so impressive to read the thoughts about the efforts to a) write a french cookbook in the era of American convenience food and b)attract just the write editor and publisher and then c) sell the American public on French cooking. Yes, this was all very, very interesting but I lost steam about half way through with the extent of the details and correspondence about the business of publishing the book. Just a little too much for me, hence dropping one star.

⭐This is a book of letters, correspondence between Julia Child and Avis DeVoto, who became one of Child’s best friends and confidants before they ever met. They first “met” when Child sent a fan letter to author/columnist Bernard DeVoto concerning cooking knives, and Avis replied on behalf of her husband. Thus began a friendship that lasted until death. This book doesn’t go that far, but it does cover the period when “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” was being written. These women wrote about everything: life, death, gossip, politics, and, of course, writing and publishing the book. A very interesting look back at the times and the early career of Child.

⭐This is a wonderful book, dealing with the letters between Julia Child and Avis DeVoto, following a chance reference in Avis’s husband’s column to knives. They build up a real friendship through many long letters, which continued all their lives, although the book centres around the years of writing “Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol 1”. Fortunately for us, the friendship deepened when they actually met! However, the letters contain much, much more than “just” queries about the book, publishers etc. It is a potted history of the politics of the US during the McCarthy era and also of the European scene, where Julia and her husband Paul, were based during this period. They are both widely read women, in touch with movers and shakers and linked in to journalists and politicians on both continents.This is an important book to read if you love Julia Child’s cooking and “Julie and Julia” and are interested in the social context in which “Mastering” was developed and first appeared, with its details about the relationship between the three authors of Vol 1 as well as the politics of publishing. Definitely a book for those who wish to set Julia’s long cooking life in its social and political beginnings.

⭐GIVES INSIGHT INTO HER CREATIVE COOKING AND DRIVE TO SHARE.

⭐Very good

⭐A wonderful insight into Julia and Avis. The letters are so varied and informative and a real joy to read. I would thoroughly recommend this to any fan of Julia Child

⭐Still reading this book, but it is so good that I want to take it slowly and not miss anything. Would highly recommend.

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