Appetite For Life_ The Biography Of Julia Child Part 11

Their living pattern changed considerably now that Paul was Cultural Attache. His work hours often included evenings and weekends (with only four on the USIA staff, everyone played a second role as entertainer and greeter of planes). He had always planned exhibits and run a photography library, but here he was in charge of all the cultural events: directing the Fulbright program and the library, mounting all exhibits, working with the director of the Inst.i.tute of American Studies at the University of Oslo, meeting the planes of arriving celebrities, and entertaining the likes of Pearl Buck, Buckminster Fuller, and every Was.h.i.+ngton junketeer who had anything remotely to do with the arts and education. He entertained Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic (the King came to this performance) and hosted Thanksgiving dinner for all the American Fulbright scholars in the emba.s.sy cafeteria.

Paul's boss, the head of the USIA, was Marshall Swan, who with his wife, Connie, befriended the Childs. Swan had a Ph.D. and spoke Italian and Dutch, for he previously served as Public Affairs Officer (Paul's job) in Milan and The Hague. His outlets, much to Paul's delight, were writing, music, and literature. Together, he and Paul traveled to many cities for lectures, film showings, and conferences on behalf of the United States. As everywhere Paul served, he worked for the promotion of his country and consequently as a counterforce to Russian propaganda. A "running contest with the Russians" for friends, Paul called his work.

Julia sympathized with Paul's work demands, but, as Paul pointed out to Charlie, "Julia just can't understand can't understand b.a.s.t.a.r.dry, neurosis, hard luck, illness, suffering, sleeplessness, the quiver of fear, the sense of inadequacy, the frustration of having to do something fast and perfectly which you never did before, etc., etc." Julia clearly took the vicissitudes of life differently than Paul did. b.a.s.t.a.r.dry, neurosis, hard luck, illness, suffering, sleeplessness, the quiver of fear, the sense of inadequacy, the frustration of having to do something fast and perfectly which you never did before, etc., etc." Julia clearly took the vicissitudes of life differently than Paul did.

After a letter from their Houghton Mifflin editor in September, which praised the ma.n.u.script, Julia received a letter from Paul Brooks, an executive at Houghton Mifflin, 2 Park Street, Boston, dated November 6, 1959. He commended the book as "a work of culinary science as much as of culinary art," but declared it too expensive for them to publish: "In a letter of March, 1958, you yourself spoke of the revised project as a 'short simple book directed to the housewife chauffeur.' The present book could never be called this," he explains. The cost of publis.h.i.+ng such a large book was not a risk they would take; he suggested Doubleday, which had a large a.s.sortment of book clubs, and added that if they did not succeed in placing it with another publisher, HM would take a look at a possible "smaller, simpler version."

Julia and Paul, as well as Simca and Jean, were devastated. A letter from Avis five days later affirmed the economic basis of the publisher's decision: "the decision was based on a very cut and dried equation: probable costs against possible sales." She was sending the ma.n.u.script immediately to Bill Koshland at Knopf, where she once worked, because Koshland had already seen parts of the ma.n.u.script and tried some of the recipes with enthusiasm. Therefore, she added, "a.s.suming authority I realize I have not got," she took decisive action: "I am sending this down to Bill. Do not despair. We have only begun to fight."

When Julia called Avis to ask if she should return the Houghton Mifflin advance they were given, Avis told her to keep the money. At this point, Avis already knew of William Koshland's interest: in a June 19, 1959, letter to Avis he asked her when he was going to have a look at the "big book." She knew that he would not just read, but cook from the book.

Paul cynically concluded their book was ten years too late because the cooks of America were already "conditioned to speed and as little work as possible, combined w/a belief in magic (the 'secret' of French cooking lies in a mysterious white powder that chefs shake on at the last minute. It has GLYCODIN-32 in it! Only 89 cents!)." Charlie picked up on Avis's suggestion that Julia would do better with a publisher with more imagination. "I still think Joolie a natural for TV, with or without scribble-pub, but this [is] only one man's opinion." In a letter informing all her family, Julia calmly and sanguinely told them Knopf is looking at the ma.n.u.script: If nothing comes of this, I shall drop the whole thing until we get back to the States, and just continue on with my self training ... I have loads to learn in patisserie, and many hundreds of types of regular cooking recipes which I have never gone into. I just feel sorry for poor old Simca who has been in this for years, with nothing yet to show for it. She just picked the wrong collaborator, and it is too bad. [And to Freddie:] I don't seem to be very much upset. I got it done, and now I have for myself a whole batch of fool-proof recipes.

Julia expressed the same practical att.i.tude twenty-seven years later when asked if she regretted creating such a huge book when only a portion of it was published: "Oh, no, I have been drawing on those recipes ever since."

Nonetheless, she was, quite naturally, lost without the book, and disappointed that eight years of work would not be published. In the meantime, she kept on with cooking cla.s.ses "to keep my hand in" and continued cooking for dinner parties in her home, for, as Paul declared, "one of the magical aspects of this household is its potentialities for gustatory pleasure." One such meal Paul declared "one of the Great Eatments of the century-an eatment that we would not be ashamed to share w/Curnonsky, Prince des gastronomes, were he still alive": rognons de veau rognons de veau (veal kidneys) sauteed whole in b.u.t.ter, sliced into a sauce of reduced wine, b.u.t.ter, and mustard; sauteed potatoes and snow peas; served with red burgundy Grands-Echezeaux '53 (given to them by Alice Lee Myers at the dock in New York City in May). They ended the meal on a regional note with creamy Danish blue cheese and (veal kidneys) sauteed whole in b.u.t.ter, sliced into a sauce of reduced wine, b.u.t.ter, and mustard; sauteed potatoes and snow peas; served with red burgundy Grands-Echezeaux '53 (given to them by Alice Lee Myers at the dock in New York City in May). They ended the meal on a regional note with creamy Danish blue cheese and knekkebrod knekkebrod. "Both food and wine were glorious, and it left us in the kind of esthetic transport that you can get from a wonderful symphony or a tremendous sunset."

"You have to know how to eat in Norway," Julia wrote, and in a letter to a complaining emba.s.sy employee a decade later, she suggested eating sea trout and legs of lamb (and contacting her friends the Egges and the Heyerdahls). She remembered "the big dinner parties we would have with a big leg of lamb or a big poached sea trout, just delicious, with b.u.t.ter and potatoes. I loved Norway."

WINTER TRAVEL AND VRSYK VRSYK.

After months of beautiful hot weather and little moisture, the rain arrived at the beginning of November and snow the beginning of December. The sea turned pewter and the sky "woolen," but the Weegians were conditioned to respond, their inner nature in rhythm with the power of the elements. With the deep white snow, they donned rubber boots and brightly colored rubber raincoats-not just yellow sou'westers, but bright red and green and blue hooded jackets. The days grew shorter, ending at 3:30 in the afternoon.

Skiing was both a necessity and a religion in Oslo. Julia and Paul bought skis so they could maneuver in areas not plowed. Because Paul worried about broken bones and Julia about her weak knees, they did not do much downhill skiing. "We are being careful and middle-aged," she a.s.sured her father. But in fact, just as she always overbid her hand in card games, so she took on any challenging hill. "I've broken toes half a dozen times," she told Avis years later. "The first time I was rushed to the emergency section of the Oslo hospital, but they said toes heal by themselves."

"Julia and I skied just outside the door some mornings," said her neighbor Debby Howe. "We did a little cross-country skiing or went to a nearby hill. It was nice to have a friend then. We could say anything to each other and not have diplomatic worries. Neither of us was a tremendous skier, but Julia had skied in California. We had lunch at Julia's or a restaurant together-those times were precious. We would fix a simple lunch of quiche or omelet, salad, bread, and wine." On any sunny winter Sunday a fifth of the population navigated the mountain trails within the city. Every electric train carried skis along the outside bars. Julia loved the outdoors: "I am at heart a Viking."

Jan and Froydis Dietrichson became the second Norwegian couple to befriend them. According to them, the Childs "were very popular among the natives ... and made friends here that Julia will keep till the end of her days." Paul studied the Norwegian language with Froydis. She and her husband, a lexicographer and linguist at the university, were "intensely intelligent," Paul concluded. He learned soon after arriving in Oslo that the dialect he studied in Was.h.i.+ngton, DC, was a Danish-based tongue and not one of the two main dialects. This discovery, together with his perfectionism and lack of daily opportunity to speak with shopkeepers, brought on considerable frustration.

According to one of Paul's colleagues, he "took everything so seriously, dear soul that he was." Once when someone sent a (now forgotten) complaint to the emba.s.sy, Paul wrote a long personal letter of three pages, handwritten, when a simple letter of two paragraphs would have served him better. "He overdid it," admits Fisher Howe. "We had a long go-around about how much I could mess with his prose." His perfectionism, along with his evening and weekend work, explains why Paul did not have time to put paint to canvas or touch his violin while in Norway.

While Paul focused on the artistic, cultural, and educational issues for the emba.s.sy, others, particularly Fisher Howe, concerned themselves with the economic issues, which usually dealt with navigation (Norway had the second-largest maritime fleet in the world). Behind all their work were two overriding issues: NATO and the Berlin shuttle, the rescue mission between West Berlin and West Germany. The Norwegians were staunch supporters of NATO, and the following year were caught in the glare of international attention when American Gary Powers's spy plane was shot down by the Russians as it was headed toward northern Norway.

For many of the events Paul planned or attended, Julia accompanied him: travels to interview Fulbright applicants in Trondheim, the former capital and still the gateway between northern and southern Norway; a conference for librarians in Bergen, a port reminding them of Ma.r.s.eilles; a conference for Scandinavian Teachers of English in Leangkollen, forty-five minutes away. When their niece Erica visited they took her to Lillehammer, later the site of the 1994 Winter Olympics. They also visited the Egges' cabin near the Swedish border and the Telemark region with the Dietrichsons. All Norwegians rushed, lemming-like, each weekend to their mountain huts. During an Easter week at a mountain hotel, Julia considerably improved her downhill skiing. According to Froydis Dietrichson, Paul never really learned to enjoy skiing in this country in which only about 5 percent of the land is flat enough to cultivate.

Paul and Julia returned to familiar ground for the Christmas and New Year's holiday. Erica and Hector joined them at Mari and Peter Bicknell's home for Christmas in Cambridge, England. Then after four days at the Pont Royal in Paris, Julia and Paul drove to Ma.r.s.eilles and on to Gra.s.se to visit with Simca and Jean in their stone home they called Bramafam, on a Provencal hillside in the land where perfume had been made for centuries. On January 4, 1960, they drove to Rome, to see Lyne and Ellen Few (she had been stricken with polio in Dusseldorf). Lyne Few would always remember that Paul, with his "generous nature" and "athletic physique," gave Ellen her first pedestrian view of Rome, pus.h.i.+ng her wheelchair all day over cobblestones, in and out of churches, up flights of stairs, and through museums. The Childs then flew to Copenhagen and took the ferry train home.

The almost dayless winter season brought on vrsyk vrsyk, or winter sickness, a kind of short-tempered depression bred by gray skies and short days. Julia and Paul had yet to acclimate to the winter sickness the Norwegians understood all too well. Paul was too busy to create a Valentine artwork for 1960, so they sent one of his verses. And Julia waited to hear if Knopf was interested in publis.h.i.+ng the cookbook. "I've started a cooking school here in Oslo with 5 Norwegians, 1 Hungarian/English, 1 English, and 1 American ... and will be putting you on the mailing list for recipes," she wrote her sister Dorothy. She gave three cla.s.ses at three different homes this spring, with lessons on fish, veal, poultry, eggs in aspic, and omelets. Many of her students were drawn from a reading group, according to Margie Schodt, whose husband was an economic officer at the emba.s.sy. Schodt believed Julia was "an impressive figure" who performed a patriotic service with her cla.s.ses, yet was modest about her cooking.

Among her cooking students was Mosse Heyerdahl, an attractive blond woman, who with her husband, Jens, a tall, slender lawyer in horn-rimmed gla.s.ses, befriended the Childs. The Heyerdahls were Francophiles who liked theatergoing. Julia golfed with Jens, taught Mosse techniques of French cooking, and visited their summer cottage on the Oslofjord. They took Julia and Paul to Norwegian theaters, translating "a bit," and afterward for a light meal and discussion of the play. Jens remembers that when they attended Stig Hegerman's Skyggen av Mart (The Shadow of Mart) Skyggen av Mart (The Shadow of Mart), Julia and Paul "insisted on going behind the stage to greet the actors, all very famous. This was not customary here, but they were received with enthusiasm. The great actor Toralf Maurstad even mentioned this event in his book about his life as an actor. He was flattered that the Cultural Attache of the American Emba.s.sy came to pay him compliments."

SPRINGTIME WITH KNOPF.

Spring and the annual Const.i.tution Day celebration marked both the first anniversary of their arrival in Norway and the launching of Julia's career as author. While the Norwegians celebrated the end of Danish rule on May 17, 1960, Julia and Simca celebrated the end of almost a decade of work on their cooking masterpiece. The season of vrsyk vrsyk had pa.s.sed, and with spring came a letter from Mrs. Judith Jones of Knopf saying she was "convinced that this book is revolutionary and we intend to prove it and to make it a cla.s.sic." Senior editor William (Bill) Koshland and Jones were cooking their way through the book, Mrs. Jones explained in the May 6, 1960, letter. Koshland's first letter on June 30 credited "Avis's missionary work with me over the years." had pa.s.sed, and with spring came a letter from Mrs. Judith Jones of Knopf saying she was "convinced that this book is revolutionary and we intend to prove it and to make it a cla.s.sic." Senior editor William (Bill) Koshland and Jones were cooking their way through the book, Mrs. Jones explained in the May 6, 1960, letter. Koshland's first letter on June 30 credited "Avis's missionary work with me over the years."

Avis gave the ma.n.u.script to Koshland, a vice president of Knopf, who enjoyed cooking, and not to Alfred Knopf himself, because, as she said later, he and his wife, Blanche, would not have known what to do with themselves in the kitchen. She also knew that Blanche was enthusiastic about Knopf's Cla.s.sic French Cuisine Cla.s.sic French Cuisine by Joseph Donon and would consider this new book compet.i.tive. Koshland said, "I immediately gave it to Judith, who was sold on it." by Joseph Donon and would consider this new book compet.i.tive. Koshland said, "I immediately gave it to Judith, who was sold on it."

Because she was a young editor, Jones enlisted a reader's report from senior editor Angus Cameron to accompany her report for the editorial committee meeting. Cameron had worked on Rombauer's The Joy of Cooking The Joy of Cooking and was both an excellent cook and an experienced editor. Jones's reader's report called the book "first-rate and unique" in its teaching of techniques: "I swear that I learned something from this ma.n.u.script every few pages." Cameron's reader's report called it "an astonis.h.i.+ng achievement" and "the first really useable cookbook of fine French cookery I have seen." At the committee meeting (Jones was too low in rank to attend), Cameron argued that the book was a and was both an excellent cook and an experienced editor. Jones's reader's report called the book "first-rate and unique" in its teaching of techniques: "I swear that I learned something from this ma.n.u.script every few pages." Cameron's reader's report called it "an astonis.h.i.+ng achievement" and "the first really useable cookbook of fine French cookery I have seen." At the committee meeting (Jones was too low in rank to attend), Cameron argued that the book was a working working French cookbook which would make books that were merely compilations of recipes more functional. The Knopfs apparently disagreed. Blanche, so the story goes, walked out. Alfred said, "Oh well, let Jones have a chance, why not?" French cookbook which would make books that were merely compilations of recipes more functional. The Knopfs apparently disagreed. Blanche, so the story goes, walked out. Alfred said, "Oh well, let Jones have a chance, why not?"

The terms of the contract, dated June 24, were that the ma.n.u.script be submitted in full by August 15 with publication slated for the fall of 1961. The advance of $1,500 seemed like a fortune compared with the $750 from Houghton Mifflin, but in reality it did not begin to cover the expenses that the authors incurred over these many years. The money was an advance against royalties of 17 percent on the first 10,000 copies, 20 percent to 20,000 copies, and 23 percent thereafter (computed, typically, after booksellers' discounts, thus equivalent to 1990s percentages). Julia asked that their lawyer (nephew Paul Sheeline) be sent the contract first for approval.

Knopf (as had Houghton Mifflin) demanded that their contract be with Julia Child only (she would have a separate contract with her partners). They also would use different line drawings (subject to her approval). John Moore sent all his drawings and Paul's photographs to Knopf without any request for reimburs.e.m.e.nt.

Mrs. Jones was a respected young editor of Knopf's cookbooks and also an accomplished cook who had spent three years in France with her husband, Evan, a distinguished food writer and historian. She loved French food. "I spent about two months" on the cookbook, she says, "and felt, 'This was the book I had been waiting for all my life.' I had only one old French cookbook, and I was always frustrated because they didn't tell you enough. There were so many secrets to French cooking and the only way I learned was by watching someone." This enthusiasm and thoroughness come through in their months of correspondence. She praised the organization and clarity of the ma.n.u.script, and Julia in turn praised her editor's professional eye.

Julia devoted the summer of 1960 to book details and typing lengthy correspondence to keep her co-authors apprised of every detail. She went through the ma.n.u.script several times, sending in her last line edits on August 31. The problems that emerged were twofold. The size of portions, which Jones and Cameron thought too small for American appet.i.tes ("2 pounds of meat won't do for 68 people"), was resolved by Julia's decision to use a half pound of meat per serving.

The second issue involved Jones's request for old favorites such as ca.s.soulet and more hearty peasant dishes, especially more meat dishes (the latter a request from a "male editor," probably Cameron). Julia sent a long list of dishes already included that were earthy peasant dishes. In all, Julia mailed four new recipes to Jones at the end of July: carbonnade a la flamande carbonnade a la flamande (beef and onions braised in beer), ca.s.soulet (French baked beans with sausage and goose), (beef and onions braised in beer), ca.s.soulet (French baked beans with sausage and goose), piece de boeuf piece de boeuf, and paupiettes de boeuf paupiettes de boeuf (braised stuffed beef rolls). (braised stuffed beef rolls).

Julia got embroiled with Simca in a quarrel about the inclusion of goose in the ca.s.soulet: every time Julia typed up the recipe, Simca changed her mind ("I remember Julia saying to me, 'That old goat!'-she was just so tired of the book," declared Avis). To Jones, Julia wrote, "Ah, so French she is!" Simca declared that the white bean dish was not ca.s.soulet without goose, with Julia maintaining that Americans had trouble finding goose. Julia prevailed with the recipe, but the "blah-blah" (their reference to the text) spoke of the "infinite dispute" about the ingredients of the dish, the authenticity of goose for anyone preparing it in the Toulouse manner, and included preserved goose in a variation of the dish (this resolution is typical of the book).

Increasing the number of French bourgeois dishes would still not have pleased implacable critics like Karen Hess, who told me in 1995, "Julia and her collaborators were cooking haute cuisine haute cuisine like the chefs, not like the French woman at home ... who cooks in pots that can be stirred occasionally during the day. Julia's fussy cooking is what chefs with time and staff do. like the chefs, not like the French woman at home ... who cooks in pots that can be stirred occasionally during the day. Julia's fussy cooking is what chefs with time and staff do. Mastering Mastering is restaurant cooking, not home cooking." Hess "missed the point," says Jones, who maintained that the book included peasant, is restaurant cooking, not home cooking." Hess "missed the point," says Jones, who maintained that the book included peasant, bourgeoise bourgeoise, and haute cuisine haute cuisine, "practically everything French cuisine had to offer." Indeed, the volume offered domestic dishes such as pot-au-feu pot-au-feu and several beef stews and several beef stews (daube) (daube) along with along with haute cuisine haute cuisine dishes such as dishes such as pate de canard en croute pate de canard en croute and others using such expensive ingredients as lobster. Hovering between these two extremes-extremes that chef Jacques Pepin compares to a Thoroughbred horse and a plow horse-is and others using such expensive ingredients as lobster. Hovering between these two extremes-extremes that chef Jacques Pepin compares to a Thoroughbred horse and a plow horse-is cuisine bourgeoise cuisine bourgeoise, prepared in homes with hired cooks and in bistros. Julia and Simca's book, both Pepin and esteemed culinary historian Barbara Wheaton agree, is in "the tradition of cuisine bourgeoise cuisine bourgeoise with touches of with touches of haute cuisine." haute cuisine."

Aside from the four additional recipes, Jones only "tinkered" with the details, she says. Some of the details included cutting down on the number of techniques for making an omelet, changing the phrase "main" recipes (with variations) to "master" recipes, and not using the "paper collar stuff" for souffles that Dione Lucas used because "it is not done in France" and "why complicate things?" Julia wrote to Jones. They also agreed that the simple line drawings should be limited to kitchen equipment, to techniques in the making of omelets, souffles, and pastry puffs, to cutting procedures for artichokes, beef, mushrooms, and to the making of several desserts.

Years before, Julia and Simca had worked out the format for the book, the two-column approach with the ingredients on the left and the directions on the right. They insisted on keeping this format, having a running guide at the top corner of each page, and using French accents-to which Jones heartily agreed. Judith more clearly matched the beginning of a new set of directions (in the right-hand column) with the beginning of the ingredients that went into the dish (to the left). Julia suggested that lines be drawn. The result made the directions even clearer.

The style and clarity of this first volume, now considered a genuine masterpiece in culinary history, were already present when Knopf bought the ma.n.u.script. The few additional recipes and the usual stylistic adjustments (for example, taking out some dashes) were made, but there were so few apparent changes that the full ma.n.u.script was never returned to Julia in Norway before the copy editors saw it. Adjustments were made by letter. Julia approved of the ill.u.s.trations by Sidonie Coryn, Warren Chappell designed the book, Paul wrote the dedication ("To La Belle France whose peasants, fishermen, housewives, and princes-not to mention her chefs-through generations of inventive and loving concentration have created one of the world's great arts"), and Julia wrote a half page of acknowledgments thanking their teachers (Bugnard and Thillmont) and Avis DeVoto, among others.

Paul made plans for his early resignation from the government (they were determined to be settled in their Cambridge home in time for the publication of the book in October 1961) and settled on the details of their vacation in Paris and Gra.s.se for the end of September 1960. Meanwhile, among their final visitors that summer was Richard Bissell, Paul's longtime friend and the self-a.s.sured chief of covert action under Allen Dulles of the CIA. They talked about the coming presidential elections but nothing about Bissell's recent briefing of Vice President Nixon on the psychological warfare against Cuba's Castro. (Not until the following April, three months after Kennedy's inauguration, would they learn that d.i.c.k had masterminded the abortive invasion of the Bay of Pigs in Cuba.) When Julia's father and Phila visited in September, Julia had to avoid any political talk, though she was fascinated to see tapes of the Nixon-Kennedy debates.

The book demanded her immediate attention, particularly the difficult decision concerning the choice of a t.i.tle. Family, friends, and the staff of Knopf were volleying with names for the book, mostly bad, such as "A Map for the Territory of French Food." In a list Julia sent to Jones in mid-July were two t.i.tles closest to the final choice: "The Art of French Cooking" and "The Master French Cookbook." By mid-October, Jones was tinkering with "The Mastery of French Cooking" and a thirty-one-word subt.i.tle. Julia returned a list of twenty-six, including "Mastery of French Cooking" and her preference, "La Bonne Cuisine Francaise," which Knopf immediately rejected. By mid-November, Judith submitted the t.i.tle the Knopf staff had chosen-Mastering the Art of French Cooking-and on November 23, 1960, Julia said oui! oui!

When a new book ent.i.tled French Provincial Cooking French Provincial Cooking, by English culinary writer Elizabeth David, appeared at the end of 1960, Julia was initially worried about their compet.i.tion ("this is our most serious compet.i.tion so far, I think"). But they all clearly saw the difference between the volumes. Julia noted that David's book was not as easy to follow; nor was it cla.s.sic French, though she admired David's knowledge and "masterful" writing, which was conversational and anecdotal. Judith Jones said the recipes were too casual for Americans. She summed up the pitch Knopf would make for the book when she wrote to Julia on May 10 that Mastering Mastering was the "best and only was the "best and only working working French cookbook to date which will do for French cooking here in America what Rombauer's French cookbook to date which will do for French cooking here in America what Rombauer's The Joy of Cooking The Joy of Cooking did for standard [American] cooking." did for standard [American] cooking."

A STORM OF SNOW AND GALLEYS STORM OF SNOW AND GALLEYS.

Paul sent in his resignation from the government on December 19, 1960, then a four-page letter to someone named "John" on December 23, 1960, mentioning the fact that in twelve years of service he received only one promotion. He wrote Charlie, "I do a great many things well, but the coercive structure of foreign service need and regulations makes no place for them." His official resignation took effect on May 19, 1961, with his annuity of about $3,000 beginning one month after his sixty-second birthday, January 15, 1964, at which time he would have served sixteen years, one month, and a few days. They prepared for what promised to be a strangely snowless Norwegian Christmas. Paul wrote "A Christmas Prayer," beginning "O, where art thou Snow?" and ending: Get going thou fluffy b.a.s.t.a.r.d, and pile up thine self on twigs and things. Art we in Florida or Norway, for G.o.d sakes? Amen.

The "prayer" worked and they celebrated a white Norwegian Christmas holiday with the Howes and Robert Duemling, the young man with whom Paul had walked to work in Was.h.i.+ngton, who was visiting from Rome. For Duemling's gift of winegla.s.ses, Paul wrote more verse of grat.i.tude, the last in a number of light verses this month, suggesting the relief and pleasure his decision to resign had brought. Duemling believed that if one of the Childs were to become famous, it would be Paul, with his array of talents and mental agility ("Paul was fascinating"). As he did for the birthday parties of Erica and Rachel in the 1940s, Paul made a spiderweb of string, filling the living room and directing the Howe children to their presents. After a feast of goose (which disappointed the children), they had dessert and coffee at the Howes' house.

When Frances Willis left as U.S. amba.s.sador to Norway, Clifton and Leonie Wharton, their dear friends from Ma.r.s.eilles, arrived. Julia and Paul almost regretted their decision to leave early, but they were in an excellent position to prepare the emba.s.sy staff and the Norwegians for the arrival of the first Negro amba.s.sador to rise through the U.S. Foreign Service. Even before Wharton presented his credentials to the King, Paul and Julia gave a party to introduce them to their Norwegian friends.

From the time of JFK's inauguration in January 1961 until May 18 when the galleys were returned to Knopf, Julia was overwhelmed every day with checking details, compiling lists, composing letters, and responding to the copy editing of their ma.n.u.script. Every logical and organizational skill she learned in the OSS was put to excellent use. "You are such an extraordinarily efficient worker," Mrs. Jones informed her.

For more than four months she did all the work required of the authors. About the only input that came from her co-authors was a request from Louisette to have her name changed (she had recently divorced), but it was too late. Also she wanted Cooking Cooking changed to changed to Cuisine Cuisine in the t.i.tle, but Julia dismissed this as overused in recent t.i.tles and not simple enough. Simca requested a few changes in the introductory comments on wine (they dropped the reference to Grand Marnier because Simca's grandfather developed the formula for Benedictine-they changed it to in the t.i.tle, but Julia dismissed this as overused in recent t.i.tles and not simple enough. Simca requested a few changes in the introductory comments on wine (they dropped the reference to Grand Marnier because Simca's grandfather developed the formula for Benedictine-they changed it to souffle a la liqueur) souffle a la liqueur). "Ah, the French! I don't envy Kennedy having to try and persuade De Gaulle about anything!" Julia wrote to Judith Jones.

Simca lined up a series of articles to include their recipes in Cuisine et Vins de France Cuisine et Vins de France, and Julia gave an interview and photographs for two ill.u.s.trated articles in a Norwegian women's magazine. Judith Jones was delighted: "If we can wrestle up the same kind of publicity that you have been getting for yourself in Oslo, when you are here in New York we should really get this book off the ground." In a letter to Jones, Julia had revealed her understanding of the importance of promotion for the success of the book and her own career as teacher and journalist: "But [I] will not, under any circ.u.mstances, be a 'figure,' merely an authority, I hope. It is a tough racket to crack among the NY magazines, but I want to do it."

Week after week the snow fell, melted, and fell again. The mails from Oslo to New York City carried letter after letter and package after package with ill.u.s.trations and galleys. Avis DeVoto's friend Benjamin Fairbank cooked the recipes and found several flaws in them, and a second copy editor found inconsistencies in the subdividing of the book, each with a different typography. These problems were all resolved to make this a book with clear directions and uncrowded pages. Julia was determined to complete the galleys in time to pack before the arrival of her family, which planned a last-minute holiday visit.

The Algerian crisis, and Julia and Paul's recognition that the book was their first priority, led them to cancel the family visit and a final trip to Paris. They would go straight to New York City and devote their time to reading the final proofs, which incorporated the galley corrections. Julia was also determined to do the index herself. She had nine days after sending in the final galleys to pack and to attend farewell parties. The Howes said, "There were lots of farewell parties for them. People were in total tears when Julia and Paul left Oslo." Bjorn Egge, who would soon go with the UN peacekeeping force to Zaire, expressed the sentiments of the Norwegians: "Julia and Paul [were] excellent representatives of their country in Norway.... We are also proud to underline the fact that Julia and Paul, after their return to the States, became the best amba.s.sadors of Norwegian culture we could ever dream of."

Chapter 16.

LAUNCHING THE B BOOK.

(1961 1962) "Cook-books are fairy-tales for grown-ups."

The Times (London) (London)

FOR HER FORTY-NINTH birthday and at the brink of a new career and a new home, Paul Child wrote his wife a birthday sonnet: birthday and at the brink of a new career and a new home, Paul Child wrote his wife a birthday sonnet: O Julia, Julia, Cook and nifty wench, Whose unsurpa.s.sed quenelles and hot souffles, Whose English, Norse and German, and whose French, Are all beyond my piteous powers to praise- Whose sweetly-rounded bottom and whose legs, Whose gracious face, whose nature temperate, Are only equaled by her scrambled eggs: Accept from me, your ever-loving mate, This acclamation shaped in fourteen lines Whose inner truth belies its outer sight; For never were there foods, nor were there wines, Whose flavor equals yours for sheer delight.

O luscious dis.h.!.+ O gustatory pleasure!

You satisfy my taste-buds beyond measure.

Staying in New York City and Lumberville after landing on June 5, 1961, Julia and Paul read proofs, then rushed to Lopaus Point for rejuvenation of body and soul, salt air, and the ministrations of many lobsters and fresh blueberries. They also corrected proofs for the index they had prepared before returning to Cambridge with George and Betty Kubler to show them their Irving Street house, recently vacated by the tenant. The day following Julia's birthday, the furniture stored in Was.h.i.+ngton, DC, arrived at Irving Street. Architect Bob Kennedy (Edith's eldest son) conferred with them on plans for renovating the kitchen and adding an elaborate entrance tower to the third-floor apartment, which they would rent out. While they were awaiting the s.h.i.+pment from Oslo, they joined Avis in Vermont, where she was working for the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference outside Middlebury. Paul's photographs of the poets and writers were called, by the a.s.sistant director of Bread Loaf, "some of the best" ever taken "on the mountain." Julia had little time to help Avis in the office because she was correcting the last page proofs. There was talk of Julia and Paul returning the following year.

LAUNCHING THE BOOK.

Julia was sitting at her desk in Cambridge at the end of September, the furniture and boxes from Was.h.i.+ngton and Oslo unpacked but the noise of construction in the kitchen disrupting the peace and quiet. She held in her lap her first creation, Mastering the Art of French Cooking Mastering the Art of French Cooking, after a ten-year gestation, fraught with hard work and future hopes. "It weighs a ton!" she said of the three-pound, 734-page book. After months of physical labor on the book and the move from Oslo, her joy was tempered by personal crisis. She consulted with several doctors, who informed her that she needed a hysterectomy. There was no time now. She would wait until January, after the promotion of the book. After making the decision, she wrote the letters to arrange a tour for the last months of the year. In her letters to family and friends asking for help in setting up private demonstration cla.s.ses, Julia emphasized, "I do not care at all for the public end of this ... but I love to teach."

Simca arrived in New York City for the launching of the book. They won the two biggest prizes just days before: a rave review in the New York Times New York Times and a coming spot on the and a coming spot on the Today Today show with John Chancellor. Craig Claiborne, the food editor of the show with John Chancellor. Craig Claiborne, the food editor of the Times Times, had called their recipes "glorious" in the first review, on October 18: [T]he most comprehensive, laudable and monumental work on [French cuisine] was published this week ... and it will probably remain as the definitive work for nonprofessionals.... This [book] is ... for those who take fundamental delight in the pleasures of cuisine.... It is written in the simplest terms possible and without compromise or condescension. The recipes are glorious....

Claiborne, one of the premier food critics in America, singled out their ca.s.soulet recipe, noting that it covered nearly six pages, "but there is probably not a wasted syllable." His only criticism was their use of a garlic press and the absence of recipes for puff pastry and croissants.

In the middle years of her life and in the tradition of late bloomers, Julia McWilliams Child embarked on her public career. Her eight years in Europe, where she studied cooking techniques, her organizational skills developed in the OSS Registry and writing advertising copy for Sloane's, even her drama productions for the Junior League-every life experience was used to bring her to this moment.

Carrying omelet pan, whips, bowls, and three dozen eggs, Julia and Simca appeared at NBC at dawn to practice on a hot plate. With their usual thoroughness, they worked out a routine together the night before at the home of Rachel and Anthony Prud'homme, cracking dozens of eggs. Julia, out of the country for years and without a television, was unaware of the Today Today show's audience of four million. Until show time they practiced on this miserably inadequate hot plate, which was finally hot enough for the successful omelet demonstration. "We liked [John] Chancellor, who was so nice," Julia said thirty-five years later. show's audience of four million. Until show time they practiced on this miserably inadequate hot plate, which was finally hot enough for the successful omelet demonstration. "We liked [John] Chancellor, who was so nice," Julia said thirty-five years later.

The next day they gave a cooking demonstration at Bloomingdale's, and Julia reported to her sister, "The old book seems, for some happy reason, to have caught on here in New York, and our publishers are beginning to think they have a modest best seller on their hands.... They have ordered a second printing of 10,000 copies, and are planning a third of the same amount." They visited Dione Lucas, the most visible figure on the 1950s food scene, at her combination of restaurant and cooking school called the Egg Basket, where they got some pointers on doing public cooking demonstrations. They also visited James Beard ("the living being performing in his lair," as Julia described his cooking school on Tenth Street). He responded to their book by saying, "I only wish that I had written it myself." According to his first biographer, "he made it his role to see that the fledgling American food establishment did what was necessary to put Mastering the Art of French Cooking Mastering the Art of French Cooking on the map." on the map."

Lunch sponsored by Vogue Vogue at the Cosmopolitan Club was an elegant affair ("I'm no Voguey type, heaven knows," she told Dort) arranged by their longtime friend Helen Kirkpatrick (now Milbank). The following day, after appearing on Martha Dean's radio program, they met food editor Jose (p.r.o.nounced Josie) Wilson to discuss articles they would write for at the Cosmopolitan Club was an elegant affair ("I'm no Voguey type, heaven knows," she told Dort) arranged by their longtime friend Helen Kirkpatrick (now Milbank). The following day, after appearing on Martha Dean's radio program, they met food editor Jose (p.r.o.nounced Josie) Wilson to discuss articles they would write for House & Garden House & Garden magazine ("All the fancy types like J. Beard and D. Lucas write for them," she told her sister). magazine ("All the fancy types like J. Beard and D. Lucas write for them," she told her sister).

After the launch in New York City, Julia, Paul, and Simca traveled by train to Detroit, where Simca had done cooking demonstrations years before. By the time they got to Detroit, Knopf had published a second edition with twenty corrections (Knopf had mistakenly said in the note about the authors that Beck and Bertholle also graduated from the Cordon Bleu). From Chicago, they went to San Francisco, where Julia visited her sister and the Katharine Branson School and dined with the French consul (a cousin of Simca's husband, Jean Fischbacher). They were traveling with pots, pans, whips, knives, and bowls, for Julia drummed up several private demonstration cla.s.ses. In Los Angeles she met Beard's collaborator, Helen Evans Brown of Pasadena, and she and Simca gave benefit demonstrations for charity. In Was.h.i.+ngton, DC, on the way home, Rosie Manell had a big dinner party for them.

It was a trip planned by Julia, not Knopf, whose publicity director, Harding LeMay, wrote to Julia's sister, Dorothy Cousins, that his "wife" tells him the contents of the book "are every bit as extraordinary as the format." Julia paid for her own tour, taking advantage of her network of friends and family to contact the press and set up demonstration cla.s.ses. Avis also helped by sending books to the leading social figures in Georgetown (wives of McGeorge Bundy, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., George Ball, and Kenneth Galbraith, the latter in New Delhi). On this first book tour, Julia began to establish a network of food contacts.

In Chicago, they made the cake that would remain the favorite with readers for decades: Reine de Saba, the Queen of Sheba chocolate and almond cake. It was based on a more complicated and slightly different cake of the same name by Madame Saint-Ange. Julia and Simca carried their eight-inch pan, a blender to whip the egg whites separately, and pulverized almonds to blend with the b.u.t.ter, sugar, and melted chocolate. They a.s.sembled the following ingredients: Reine de Saba 4 ounces or squares semi-sweet chocolate melted with 2 Tb rum or coffee lb or 1 stick softened b.u.t.ter cup granulated sugar 3 egg yolks 3 egg whites (1 Tb granulated sugar at end of whipping process) pinch of salt cup pulverized almonds tsp almond extract cup cake flour While the audience watched, Julia and Simca creamed together the b.u.t.ter and sugar first. Then, as they blended in the egg yolks, they explained that the batter would become very stiff. Next they stirred in the melted chocolate and coffee, then the salt, almonds, extract, and half the stiffly whipped egg whites. Finally, they alternately folded in the remaining egg whites and the sifted flour before turning the mixture into a b.u.t.tered and floured cake pan. While the cake baked 25 minutes at 350 degrees, they answered questions about the recipe and their book. Because the cake needed more time to cool before frosting, they served it warm without a b.u.t.ter chocolate frosting or almond decoration. The audience fell in love with the warm cake with its creamy center, and with Julia.

The last stop was culinary fireworks in New York City, where they had dinner at the Four Seasons with James Beard, chef Albert Stockli, and Joseph Baum, president of Restaurant a.s.sociates. "I adore both women, and Paul came to life [for me]," Beard informed Helen Evans Brown, after he listed the menu: cheddar cheese soup, barbecued loin of pork, and coffee cup souffles. In what Judith Jones calls "an extraordinarily generous gesture"-for neither she nor the Knopf staff then knew the food world-Beard planned a party at Dione Lucas's restaurant, including its guest list.

Dione Lucas's party for Child and Beck followed on December 15 at the Egg Basket, which was closed for the occasion. Julia and Simca soon realized they would have to do most of the food preparations for the thirty people, and, true to form, they pulled it off at the last minute. (Julia had sent out the invitations from Pasadena.) Lucas, who once owned the London Cordon Bleu with Patience Grey, made sole with white wine sauce, Julia and Simca a braised shoulder of lamb, with Lucas preparing the final courses (salade verte (salade verte and and bavaroise aux fraises) bavaroise aux fraises). The thirty people included those most important to the success of the book (though Claiborne and the Knopfs were absent): Judith and Evan Jones, James Beard, Bill Koshland, Avis DeVoto, and several of the press, including editor Poppy Cannon, the queen of molded Jell-O, frozen food, and canned soup (The Can Opener Cookbook) (The Can Opener Cookbook) of of House Beautiful House Beautiful and CBS's and CBS's Home Home show fame. Avis declared it the "snazziest dinner" she had attended, but Beard p.r.o.nounced Lucas's Bavarian cream "the worst." Simca flew home to Paris the next day, and Julia returned to Cambridge to face surgery and bed rest after the holidays. show fame. Avis declared it the "snazziest dinner" she had attended, but Beard p.r.o.nounced Lucas's Bavarian cream "the worst." Simca flew home to Paris the next day, and Julia returned to Cambridge to face surgery and bed rest after the holidays.

Julia made certain that "my husband, Paul, our manager" was included in every event. Not only were they partners, he was indispensable in the planning of trips, managing the heavy bags of equipment and the mechanics of the presentations. Some people found him "off-putting" and cool until "you earned your way with him." According to Bill Koshland: "Paul was one of those people who knew his own worth, and he certainly knew what he regarded as Julia's worth, and I think he saw it his mission in life to see that everything worked for her."

"Paul was such a perfectionist," Jones told a journalist. "Julia struck me as more a big Smith College girl." Judith was a pet.i.te five-foot-five-inch New Englander with reserved old-school manners, and an intuitive businesswoman. She immediately formed a bond with Julia based upon their love of French cuisine and a mutual determination to make Mastering the Art Mastering the Art the major success that would launch both their careers. Indeed, with the success of the major success that would launch both their careers. Indeed, with the success of Mastering Mastering, she would become a powerful editor of cookery books, as well as fiction. In her opinion, "Julia has a highly a.n.a.lytical mind," and the book would not have happened without her. "It was completely Julia's contribution to a.n.a.lyze, to teach, to translate, to hold you by the hand because she had been that ignorant cook. [Simca] had not."

Judith introduced Julia to Alfred and Blanche Knopf, the "Jupiter and Juno" of the publis.h.i.+ng world, according to one of their authors. But according to Avis, "it was years years before Alfred would admit that he had a great book on his hands. And Blanche was quoted as saying, 'Oh, I don't give a d.a.m.n about Julia Child.' Blanche was a very ill-tempered lady." before Alfred would admit that he had a great book on his hands. And Blanche was quoted as saying, 'Oh, I don't give a d.a.m.n about Julia Child.' Blanche was a very ill-tempered lady."

The reviews of the book over the first few months were not numerous, but the reviewers that mattered took a strong and enthusiastic stand. In December, the House & Garden House & Garden editor Jose Wilson declared she "flipped when she saw the first copies": it was a "commonsense approach to French cuisine that dispenses with ... the heady prose of so many recent books intent on building up a sn.o.b mystique of gourmet cooking. Wow!!" That same month the editor Jose Wilson declared she "flipped when she saw the first copies": it was a "commonsense approach to French cuisine that dispenses with ... the heady prose of so many recent books intent on building up a sn.o.b mystique of gourmet cooking. Wow!!" That same month the Foreign Service Journal Foreign Service Journal, read by their OSS and USIA friends all over the world, ran a photograph of Julia and Paul and said the book was "sure to become a cla.s.sic." The following March, Naomi Barry in the International Herald Tribune International Herald Tribune called it "one of the most satisfactory cookbooks ... in years." And a year after publication, in called it "one of the most satisfactory cookbooks ... in years." And a year after publication, in The Sat.u.r.day Evening Post The Sat.u.r.day Evening Post, Claiborne, who privately told friends she was not born with a wooden spoon in her mouth, declared it "the most lucid volume on French cuisine since Gutenberg invented movable type.... This work is brilliant." According to Avis DeVoto, "the only person who was less than enthusiastic was Charlie Morton, then on The Atlantic Monthly," The Atlantic Monthly," but Avis worked on him until he came around privately. but Avis worked on him until he came around privately.

By contrast, Sheila Hibben in The New Yorker The New Yorker criticized them for underestimating the American cook by allowing canned bouillon and canned salmon and for "lack[ing] a certain intuitive connection" with their food. Some reviewers more gently criticized the detail, but others praised that very attention to detail. Raymond Sokolov later wrote, "Child, Beck, and Bertholle [possess the same] cert.i.tude about the fundamentally immutable structure and principles of French cooking [as] ... Auguste Escoffier, had." Evan Jones declared, "No previous U.S. culinary manual had been so detailed and yet so encouraging to those hesitant to try complicated procedures." criticized them for underestimating the American cook by allowing canned bouillon and canned salmon and for "lack[ing] a certain intuitive connection" with their food. Some reviewers more gently criticized the detail, but others praised that very attention to detail. Raymond Sokolov later wrote, "Child, Beck, and Bertholle [possess the same] cert.i.tude about the fundamentally immutable structure and principles of French cooking [as] ... Auguste Escoffier, had." Evan Jones declared, "No previous U.S. culinary manual had been so detailed and yet so encouraging to those hesitant to try complicated procedures."

Few critics, except for the Hesses in 1977, criticized the adaptations to American tastes, such as their firmer souffle. The French souffle is "fast and runny," said Andre Soltner of Lutece in 1996. "Julia adapted it to the American taste, yet even Escoffier said 'a real chef has to adapt to his time.'" Culinary historian Barbara Wheaton adds: "But of course they were adapting the techniques to her American generation." Using the language of 1996, Camille Paglia told a reporter, "What Julia Child did is deconstruct this French, cla.s.sical, rule-based cooking tradition and make it accessible ... as a source of pleasure."

Mastering the Art of French Cooking set a standard in three ways. The physical beauty and quality of the published book is superb. With large margins and print, it lies flat when opened. Thirty years later people stood in lines to have their food-stained copies autographed, only a few with the pages loosened from the cover. The presentation of the recipes set a standard for clarity and precision that changed cookbook writing and editing, heretofore chatty and sometimes sketchy in explanation. According to Beard's latest biographer, soon after the publication of the book Beard did what he called "a Julia Child job" on all the recipes of his cooking school, retyping them clearly and precisely. The pedagogical style of Beck and Child became widely imitated. According to cookbook editor Narcisse Chamberlain (daughter of Narcissa and Samuel), who at that time was editing her first book by Michael Field, set a standard in three ways. The physical beauty and quality of the published book is superb. With large margins and print, it lies flat when opened. Thirty years later people stood in lines to have their food-stained copies autographed, only a few with the pages loosened from the cover. The presentation of the recipes set a standard for clarity and precision that changed cookbook writing and editing, heretofore chatty and sometimes sketchy in explanation. According to Beard's latest biographer, soon after the publication of the book Beard did what he called "a Julia Child job" on all the recipes of his cooking school, retyping them clearly and precisely. The pedagogical style of Beck and Child became widely imitated. According to cookbook editor Narcisse Chamberlain (daughter of Narcissa and Samuel), who at that time was editing her first book by Michael Field, "Mastering "Mastering put good authors on notice that cookbooks had to be honest. As an editor I greatly admire that volume." Paula Wolfert, respected for her excellent books on Mediterranean cuisine, said in 1997, "Just as it's been said that all Russian literature has been taken from Gogol's overcoat, so all American food writing has been derived from Julia's ap.r.o.n." put good authors on notice that cookbooks had to be honest. As an editor I greatly admire that volume." Paula Wolfert, respected for her excellent books on Mediterranean cuisine, said in 1997, "Just as it's been said that all Russian literature has been taken from Gogol's overcoat, so all American food writing has been derived from Julia's ap.r.o.n."

Most important, Mastering Mastering became a landmark in food history. M. F. K. Fisher praised the volume, though on one occasion said its explanations were "so complicated." Food people as diverse as Gregory Usher, who until his death in 1994 headed the Ritz Escoffier Cooking School in Paris, Barbara Wheaton, and Mimi Sheraton, author and longtime ruling restaurant critic (after Claiborne retired) of the became a landmark in food history. M. F. K. Fisher praised the volume, though on one occasion said its explanations were "so complicated." Food people as diverse as Gregory Usher, who until his death in 1994 headed the Ritz Escoffier Cooking School in Paris, Barbara Wheaton, and Mimi Sheraton, author and longtime ruling restaurant critic (after Claiborne retired) of the New York Times New York Times, say that this volume is among their favorite books and the best of Julia Child's work. Wheaton is on her second copy. Sheraton's book falls open to food-stained pages of boeuf a la catalane boeuf a la catalane (page 321), (page 321), pouding alsacien pouding alsacien (page 626), and (page 626), and peches cardinal peches cardinal (page 630). (page 630).

Several other important food books were published the same year as Mastering Mastering, including Crown's English translation of Larousse Gastronomique Larousse Gastronomique, edited by Julia's Smith pal, Charlotte Snyder Turgeon. Craig Claiborne's The New York Times Cook Book The New York Times Cook Book appeared the same year he generously reviewed Julia and Simca's efforts. Unlike the effusive responses of Beard and Claiborne, Field's first words to his editor were: "Oh my, is this going to ruin the sales of my book?" appeared the same year he generously reviewed Julia and Simca's efforts. Unlike the effusive responses of Beard and Claiborne, Field's first words to his editor were: "Oh my, is this going to ruin the sales of my book?"

TELEVISION PILOT.

On January 3, Paul drove Julia to Beth Israel Hospital for her operation, and laboratory tests determined that her tumor was benign. During her convalescence in Cambridge, Julia began testing recipes from Lady Bird Johnson, Jacqueline Kennedy, Mrs. Stewart Alsop, and others for Jose Wilson's series on Was.h.i.+ngton hostesses, which would run all year in House & Garden House & Garden. At the end of February, Julia had an offer to be interviewed on educational television in Boston and, because there was little promotion for the book in the Boston area, she accepted. The opportunity began when they invited Beatrice Braude for dinner, a friend fired in 1953 from the USIA Paris office who had also been caught up in the McCarthy witch hunt. Bibi came to Boston to work as a writer and researcher for Henry Morgenthau, who was producing Eleanor Roosevelt's Prospects of Mankind Prospects of Mankind for WGBH. She urged Julia to publicize her book by appearing on Professor Albert Duhamel's interview program ent.i.tled for WGBH. She urged Julia to publicize her book by appearing on Professor Albert Duhamel's interview program ent.i.tled I've Been Reading I've Been Reading. Though Duhamel had never interviewed the author of a book so "trivial," or practical, before, he yielded.

When Julia called the station to talk to Duhamel, Russell (Russ) Morash, a young producer in his twenties, answered the telephone. "I heard this strange voice which sounded like a smoker's pack-a-day-combined-with-asthma voice who asked if the station had a hot plate. I said I doubt it." He thought she was "very eccentric."

Julia and Paul appeared with copper bowl, whip, ap.r.o.n, and a dozen eggs for her interview. "It was my idea to bring on the whisk and bowl and hot plate. Educational television was just talking heads, and I did not know what we could talk about for that long, so I brought the eggs," said Julia. The interview and demonstration were not taped, as usual, because of the expense of tape ($220 to $300) and the difficulty of storing it. The response to the February interview was positive, and she received many requests for cla.s.ses, briefly entertaining the idea of opening a cooking school in Boston. The station had other plans. Though several people have suggested that the station telephones "rang off the hook" and the station received "hundreds" of letters, they received twenty-seven letters, which they considered overwhelming support, says Morash. "A remarkable response," adds WGBH's president, Henry Becton, in 1996, "given that station management occasionally wondered if 27 viewers were tuned in to the modest program." Julia later told a Smith College interviewer, "Most of the letters didn't mention the book. They said, 'Get that woman back. We want to see some more cooking.' That gave them the idea." The station manager, Bob Larson, and program director, David Davis, decided that young Morash would put together three pilot programs of Mrs. Child cooking.

Amid their preparations, Julia was suddenly called back to Pasadena (she had spent a week there in March). Her father died on May 16 at eighty-two years of age. The public funeral included his business a.s.sociates and members of the California Club, as well as friends such as Andy Devine, the actor. The three children discovered after the funeral that their father had kept the urns with ashes of their mother and grandparents in his study. A chapter of Julia's life, a chapter she walked away from years before, was finally closed. If there were any regrets, she would never acknowledge them. "Eh bien," she wrote Dort, "it is hard to believe that old Eagle Beak is no longer around. Thank heaven his last 15 years were so happy, and that the actual death was so quick." (Dorothy and Phila Cousins would remember in later years Julia's eyes tearing up when they spoke of Pop.) Now she needed a new will, converting her a.s.sets to a Living Trust, and she and Dorothy turned over the monthly management of the family estate to brother John.

It took nearly three months to find the sponsors, but by June WGBH was ready to tape the pilots with a minimum budget of only a few hundred dollars. Not enough money to pay for rehearsals, but enough to buy tape. Educational television was largely a volunteer effort, with Boston University students running the cameras. Paul's retirement and her $15,000-a-year family estate income allowed her to do her teaching on educational television, then as always a nonprofit venture.

"Russ, Ruthie, and I worked on the name," Julia says of their program. They considered and rejected "The Gourmet Kitchen," "French Cuisine at Home," "Cuisine Magic," "The Gourmet Arts," "The Chef at Home," "Cuisine Mastery," "Kitchen a la Francaise," and "Table d'Hote." "We called it The French Chef The French Chef because it had to be brief enough to fit into the newspaper's television guide." Ruth Lockwood, who was working on the Eleanor Roosevelt program, remembers acting as a.s.sociate producer, and planning the three programs while sitting around the Norwegian-built table with Julia and Paul. Everything was written out ahead of time. Ruth, who had both a graduate degree in communications (with a concentration in television) and experience at the Fannie Farmer Cooking School in Boston, drew the layouts. because it had to be brief enough to fit into the newspaper's television guide." Ruth Lockwood, who was working on the Eleanor Roosevelt program, remembers acting as a.s.sociate producer, and planning the three programs while sitting around the Norwegian-built table with Julia and Paul. Everything was written out ahead of time. Ruth, who had both a graduate degree in communications (with a concentration in television) and experience at the Fannie Farmer Cooking School in Boston, drew the layouts.

Because the station burned down in 1961 (the first copy of Mastering Mastering that Bibi gave to Ruth Lockwood burned with it), they filmed in the auditorium of the Boston Gas Company just off Park Square. Morash worked out of a huge Trailways bus ("with seven million miles on it") and long cables running from the generator into the building and across the terrazzo floor. Morash remembers that someone built a simple set and borrowed the appliances from architect Ben Thompson's firm, Design Research; Julia recalled that "Ruth dug around somewhere and came up with the anonymous but sprightly musical theme song." Lockwood remembers taking a red-checked tablecloth from her mother and cutting it up to make the curtains for the set and helping Julia with her makeup. that Bibi gave to Ruth Lockwood burned with it), they filmed in the auditorium of the Boston Gas Company just off Park Square. Morash worked out of a huge Trailways bus ("with seven million miles on it") and long cables running from the generator into the building and across the terrazzo floor. Morash remembers that someone built a simple set and borrowed the appliances from architect Ben Thompson's firm, Design Research; Julia recalled that "Ruth dug around somewhere and came up with the anonymous but sprightly musical theme song." Lockwood remembers taking a red-checked tablecloth from her mother and cutting it up to make the curtains for the set and helping Julia with her makeup.

Julia and Paul arrived with all their pots and pans and eggs, piling them inside the lobby of the Boston Gas Company. While Paul parked the car, she waited for him and for a dolly to move the heavy equipment. "Hey, get that stuff out of this lobby!" said the uniformed elevator operator, as office staff and executives in business suits rushed by with disapprov