Appetite For Life_ The Biography Of Julia Child Part 8

Simone Beck was nicknamed "Simca" (the name of a French car, and the name she preferred) by her husband, Jean Fischbacher. She was a Norman who liked Americans, and Julia especially. Her father was an Anglophile. Julia described her as "a tall blonde with a remarkably vivid pink-and-white complexion; she was good-looking and das.h.i.+ng in a most attractive and debonair way, full of vigor, humor, and warmth." Simca, in turn, admired the joy that Julia brought to every location, calling it "la Juliafication de la vie." In a videotape made by Peter k.u.mp in 1990, Simca says: Julia told me she got her Cordon Bleu certificate because she could skin an eel. She was always a very funny person. A very, very good actor. She is a very clever person ... [with] a fantastic palate. She was the first person to really excite me. She impressed me in many ways.

Simca's friend Louisette Bertholle (both were about seven years older than Julia) had had an English governess when a child, traveled extensively in the United States, and wrote, with Simca, a little French cookbook for Americans. Each had a household cook in residence, unlike their American friend. They both saw in this tall and food-obsessed American a potential partner in their plan to write a larger book. Perhaps they were convinced by a meal Julia served at her apartment.

Julia asked Bugnard to help her prepare a lunch for her favorite Gourmettes, Simca and Louisette, and their husbands, on Friday, April 13. On the twelfth he helped her pound the crab and on Friday morning he a.s.sisted again. In her datebook she mentions only the crab, but says their lunch was "great fun." On April 27 they dined chez Bertholle, as they would frequently during the coming months.

In her heavy schedule of lunches and dinners this fall and winter, Julia records only one detailed menu in her datebook and letters. This one she prepared before a 1951 Thanksgiving week in Bruges, Belgium, and the leftovers fed the Bicknells when they arrived for a visit: Terrine de Canard (boned duck, meat farce, truffle, etc., duck and veal strips, all wrapped in duck skin after marinating in cognac) baked, cooked, then sliced and decorated with jelly; Roast leg of venison (marinated for 3 days in red wine, cognac and spices) served with puree de celeri rave, and prunes stewed in white wine and meat stock. It was a superb dinner, if I do say so.

She entertained nephew Paul Sheeline, Alice Lee Myers, Robert Penn Warren, the Fischbachers, chefs Bugnard and Mangelotte, the Teddy Whites, and Narcissa Chamberlain; picnicked with the Manells and Baltrusaitises; and socialized with Judge and Mrs. Learned Hand and, in a lunch for emba.s.sy wives, with Evangeline Bruce and Mrs. Dean Acheson.

The collaboration with Simca and Louisette was building. Julia soon learned that Simca's specialty was desserts and pastries. In early December the three women lunched with Mangelotte at the Artistes one week and the next he joined them for pate feuilletee pate feuilletee at Julia's apartment. By December 17 they met at the Bertholles' apartment to discuss the idea of a cooking school and Louisette's plans to renovate her kitchen, which they would use for cla.s.ses. at Julia's apartment. By December 17 they met at the Bertholles' apartment to discuss the idea of a cooking school and Louisette's plans to renovate her kitchen, which they would use for cla.s.ses.

After Julia and Paul's Cambridge Christmas and a big dinner to celebrate Paul's fiftieth birthday-a dinner for which Bugnard cooked (freeing Julia to be with the guests)-the three women got down to business over a dinner for them and their husbands at the George Sand restaurant. L'Ecole des Trois Gourmandes they would call their cooking school, and each would credit the other for pus.h.i.+ng through the idea: Louisette said it was Julia's idea, Julia said it was Simca who hurried it along, when she herself claimed she was not ready to teach.

On Wednesday, January 23, 1952, they gave their first cooking cla.s.s for three women in Julia's kitchen. They had not planned to begin so soon (Louisette's kitchen was not ready), but Mrs. Martha Gibson, a wealthy widow from Pasadena, insisted upon having a cla.s.s and recruited two friends, a Mrs. Mary Ward (also a widow) and Miss Gertrude Allison, who owned an inn in Arlington, Virginia, and was studying at the Cordon Bleu with Bugnard (she was not happy with the Cordon Bleu, or with Dione Lucas in New York City, whom she found not very scientific). For the next five days, Julia, Simca, and Louisette met nearly every day to plan the physical arrangements and do food preparations. This time Julia typed up seven detailed pages, including menu, steps in preparation, and detailed ingredients and techniques for poached fish, beef knuckle, salad, and banana tart (the menu for January 29). Their cla.s.s commenced at 10 A.M A.M. with lunch at 1 P.M P.M. every Tuesday and Wednesday from January 29 through May 7, 1952.

Julia hardly noticed the muddy water boiling around tree trunks along the quai. The workload and enthusiasm of the gourmandes rose in February, along with the floodwaters of the Seine. They were gourmandes in the sense of being connoisseurs of good things (not in the recent sense of being heavy eaters). Julia described the purpose and dynamic of the school to Fredericka, her first sister-in-cooking: L'Ecole ... is to be mostly technique, as we feel that once one has one's tools one can adapt them to [other cuisines].... I have just been lucky having so much time with two professional chefs [Bugnard and Mangelotte], which has taught me good methods of cutting things up, handling the knife, cleaning and carving and saucery. And my colleagues, with a lifetime in France, and having spent three years over writing a cookbook ... it's a good combo. I can also bring the practical side of being an American, and cooking with no servants anywhere ... The atmosphere is ... homey and fun and informal, and pa.s.sionate pleasure from both pupils and professors.

Jeanne la Folle, her housekeeper, got into the spirit by coming in at one o'clock to wash everything up. Dehillerin gave them a 10 percent discount on purchases by their students. And, she added, "my shopping quarter is fascinated with our project. My darling chicken man on the rue Cler is giving us a special price and is most anxious to give a demonstration to us and our pupils on how to pick out a fine chicken; the butcher ditto."

Initially, each cla.s.s cost the student 600 francs ($2.00). The school was not affected by the 23.5 percent rise in the cost of living in France during the previous year. Food was up 21 percent and heat and light up 42 percent. But the students were Americans who could afford the expense. Paul, who gave an occasional lecture on wine (the Americans were used to drinking only white wine), worked out the finances so that there was a profit for the school. In April, he designed the logo for Trois Gourmandes, which Julia would use for more than forty years.

A new cla.s.s began on March 12, after Julia put a notice in the emba.s.sy newsletter. The five women-Paul called it a "floating population"-included Anita Littell, whose husband, Bob, headed the European office of Reader's Digest Reader's Digest, and Jennifer (Mrs. Samuel) Goldwyn of Beverly Hills. Short-term student-guests for cla.s.ses and/or lunch included friends of Julia such as Gay Bradley Wright (who with her husband, Jack, was spending a month in Paris) and Harriet Healy (who ran a Florida cooking school and store, for which she was buying goods in Europe's flea markets). Occasionally Julia invited guests for the cla.s.s lunch (Bugnard and Rosie Manell) and gave individual lessons. After one such lesson, Julia wrote to Freddie: "I have just given my first solo lesson today, to a French woman in pate feuilletee pate feuilletee. ... I learned a great deal, and would have gladly paid my pupil ... it's such fun. Really, the more I cook, the more I like to cook. To think that it has taken me 40 yrs. to find my true creative hobby and pa.s.sion (cat and husb. excepted)."

Scholars of French cuisine, such as John and Karen Hess, have criticized Julia for becoming an "instant chef." Indeed, none of the three was a "chef," meaning an administrator with years of training in all areas of cooking. In terms of training, it may have been presumptuous for them to begin a school. Yet they viewed themselves as "home cooks." Both Simca and Louisette had taken some women's morning cla.s.ses at the Cordon Bleu (Simca with Henri-Paul Pellaprat), and when Simca thought about completing her diploma five years later, Julia called it "useless" for someone with her knowledge, a.s.suring her that she did not intend to make any use of her diploma.

Julia's cla.s.s time was indeed brief but intense, and she was still studying with Bugnard and using him as her tutor for the school. "We won't feel good about it until we've given at least 100 lessons," she told Freddie, "and have thoroughly tested everything out. Getting recipes into scientific workability is very interesting." Metrics could not be automatically translated into teaspoons and ounces, as she learned in making bechamel sauce. Paul described it as the "practical use of General Semantics" or "subjecting theories to operational proof," and admired his wife for not trusting any recipe, no matter what the source, without testing it. She had found her home with the French, who see themselves as a people who appreciate method and logic, symbolized in Rene Descartes, their emblem of rational thought.

The working relations.h.i.+p of Julia, Simca, and Louisette was best expressed by Paul: "Louisette appears to have a Romantic approach to cooking, while Simka [sic] and Julie are more 'scientific' [they measure quant.i.ties].... Simka and Julie are both hard workers and good organizers." In private letters they shared the belief that Louisette did not know enough about cooking. Helene believed that "Simca was somewhat pedantic and a perfectionist and Julia was not." But they both practiced "operational proof" in testing-for example, the different results from making pie crust with French and American flour (American flour needed one-third more fat) and with b.u.t.ter, Crisco, and margarine. They also, Paul noted during a trip to the Normandy home of Simca's mother in March, were "relentless sightseers." Temperamentally, they were driven women with boundless energy. Neither, unlike Louisette, was inhibited by domestic responsibility, which in part triggered a compulsive urge to create. Each called the other une force de la nature une force de la nature. Julia also called Simca la Super-Francaise la Super-Francaise.

Louisette, it seems clear now from the beginning, did not have the drive for professional success that her partners did. She had children-indeed, two of her daughters (from her first marriage) got married that year-and homes in Pa.s.sy and Chinon. But it was she who had the initial idea to teach Americans how to cook French food, and it was she who had the best social contacts. The three couples enjoyed each other's company, though Paul believed the "fat and charming" Paul Bertholle was a "preening egocentric." Jean Fischbacher, on the other hand, had "sensitivity wedded to physical vigor and generosity." He was a forty-six-year-old Protestant, a chemical engineer (parfumeur) (parfumeur), "vigorous and intelligent," who had spent five years in German prison camps.

When Brentano's windows began filling with maps of Paris and displaying banned books such as Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer Tropic of Cancer and D. H. Lawrence's and D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover Lady Chatterley's Lover, they knew it was spring and tourist season. Though Paul declared they "dove for the bomb-shelters," in fact they did not; Paul's USIS window exhibits increased to fourteen in one month and Julia hosted lunches and dinner almost daily. A rising tide of visitors came from Pasadena and Pittsfield, from Smith College, from the OSS days (Rosie and Thibaut de Saint Phalle, Jack and Hedi Moore, Joseph Sloane). Smith cla.s.smate Kitty Smith remembers Julia driving them to Chartres and stopping at a poultry shop to choose a chicken to be killed for lunch on their return trip. After their eighth trip to Versailles in six weeks, Paul revolted.

The best arrival of spring was baby Phila, Dorothy's baby, named after their stepmother, Philadelphia McWilliams. Phila would become, in many ways, the daughter that her Aunt Julia never had: tall, freckled, and Celtic. Ivan, who had his Navy pension, began working with the government, then started a job with Garfinckel's Department Store in Was.h.i.+ngton, DC.

Knowing that his four years in Paris would be over this fall, and with it the government funding for his position, Julia and Paul traveled extensively when the Gourmandes' cla.s.ses were not meeting. Except for a train trip to Lucerne (where a few of Paul's photographs were on exhibit) and Venice (Paul's "beloved city"), they drove the Chevy, which they called the Black Tulip or La Tulipe Noire. Julia knew, as Balzac did, that one dines best in the provinces. They made friends with chefs, innkeepers, and vintners (helping the son of one go to dental school in Iowa) as they traveled west to the Atlantic, east to Alsace, and south to the Loire. When they visited Julia's Smith chum Mary Belin in her Chateau Andelot in the Jura, Paul designed a wine label for her cellar.

Another session of the cooking cla.s.ses was announced in the Emba.s.sy News Emba.s.sy News on June 20, emphasizing the informality and the "cook-hostess" angle [that is, no hired cook]. The fee was now 2,000 francs, including lunch, "which is prepared and served by" the five students and three teachers. According to Louisette, Ann Buchwald was in their cla.s.s. They taught "basic recipes, cuisine bourgeoise or haute cuisine." By contrast, women in the United States were learning to cook chicken pot pies, corned beef hash, confetti Jell-O, carrot-raisin slaw, and macaroni and cheese. on June 20, emphasizing the informality and the "cook-hostess" angle [that is, no hired cook]. The fee was now 2,000 francs, including lunch, "which is prepared and served by" the five students and three teachers. According to Louisette, Ann Buchwald was in their cla.s.s. They taught "basic recipes, cuisine bourgeoise or haute cuisine." By contrast, women in the United States were learning to cook chicken pot pies, corned beef hash, confetti Jell-O, carrot-raisin slaw, and macaroni and cheese.

Paul had mixed feelings about his own job: "I love living in Paris w/ Julia. My job makes it possible. I believe it is useful work." Other times Kafka-like frustrations at the emba.s.sy reminded him of Menotti's The Consul The Consul, an opera that gripped him. Yet the work gave him an opportunity to meet leaders in the art and political world: Man Ray, Cartier-Bresson, Jackson Pollock, Nadia Boulanger, and Edward Steichen (head of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City). With Darthea Speyer, who was in charge of exhibits, Paul helped plan numerous photography and art exhibits. But he was no workaholic; he was always a balanced person. People like Abe Manell worked weekends, but Paul always went home by seven and had time to paint, photograph, and write carefully crafted letters to Charlie, Daddy Myers, or George Kubler. He finished a couple of paintings this year (one for the Bicknells and one for the Littells) and bought a Foujita painting of a girl in a French kitchen for Julia's kitchen.

For nearly five years now, Julia had been tasting the artistic life of postwar Paris, a period which saw a new generation of Americans, many of them black, come to Paris. Though New York City was to take Paris's place as the center of art, the residual fame of the great School of Paris was still luring young artists to the Seine. Julia and Paul always seemed to be going to one emba.s.sy or French vernissage or another: Raymond Duncan came to the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit in his dirty toga and sandals. At a New York City ballet performance in Paris, they chatted with Janet Flanner and Glenway Westcott. After Steichen judged the American photo exhibit and acquired five of Paul's photographs for MOMA, Julia and Paul drove him to Luxembourg, where he had been born seventy-two years before. Among their friends who painted seriously were Rosie Manell and Jane Foster (newly discovered), with whom Paul exchanged paintings.

"We have finally tracked down Jane Foster (Mrs. George Zlatovsky)," Julia wrote on their next Valentine's card to Ellie and Basil Summers and other OSS colleagues. They found her through an advertis.e.m.e.nt for an exhibition of her paintings. "She is still just as much fun as ever, and doing wonderfully good paintings. They've been here three years, but everyone thought she was lost." Jane had worked for the USIS in Austria, was now married to a Russian, and (according to Betty McIntosh) was reporting the names of all CIA people, as well as Paul's name, to the communists. Eventually Jane Foster would disrupt their lives.

Julia was forty years old on August 15, the calmest Parisian day of the year, when everyone who had not already left the city was doing so. They tried a dozen restaurants, which were all closed, and settled on the Ritz Hotel with the Manells. Afterward they sat on the balcony of the Manells' Ile St.-Louis apartment, and, while Paul sketched yet another scene of Paris rooftops, Julia went to the movies with Abe. The next day Julia and Paul alone ate at Laperouse: sole in a cream sauce with truffles and a half bottle of Chablis, followed by roast duck and Chambertin '26. As the famous American diner Julian Street (Where Paris Dines (Where Paris Dines was Paul's first guide to Parisian restaurants) said about the place: "I had there one of the finest dinners I have ever eaten." Laperouse, not Le Grand Vefour (where Paul had recently gotten ptomaine poisoning), was now their luxury restaurant of choice. For the best bistros this year, they chose the Restaurant des Artistes, La Grille, Au Grand Comptoir, Chez Anna (the old lady had seven cats), Chez Marius, and La Truite. was Paul's first guide to Parisian restaurants) said about the place: "I had there one of the finest dinners I have ever eaten." Laperouse, not Le Grand Vefour (where Paul had recently gotten ptomaine poisoning), was now their luxury restaurant of choice. For the best bistros this year, they chose the Restaurant des Artistes, La Grille, Au Grand Comptoir, Chez Anna (the old lady had seven cats), Chez Marius, and La Truite.

Julia was reading the Herald Tribune Herald Tribune carefully one day because their autumn was filled with worries about the elections (they preferred Adlai Stevenson to Dwight Eisenhower), McCarthyism, and Nixon's Red-baiting. Suddenly she burst out laughing when she read the front-page story of the Nixon Fund, which listed the businessmen who had contributed to his secret slush fund. There it was: "John McWilliams, Pasadena Rancher." carefully one day because their autumn was filled with worries about the elections (they preferred Adlai Stevenson to Dwight Eisenhower), McCarthyism, and Nixon's Red-baiting. Suddenly she burst out laughing when she read the front-page story of the Nixon Fund, which listed the businessmen who had contributed to his secret slush fund. There it was: "John McWilliams, Pasadena Rancher."

Soon her stepmother and brother wrote to ask that Julia not write anything more in defense of Charlie Chaplin and against Nixon. Her father canceled his subscription to The New Yorker The New Yorker when they ran a profile of Mrs. Roosevelt. Julia was just as uneasy with her father's politics as she was with the anti-Semitism of some of their upper-cla.s.s friends. The Childs' enlightened liberalism extended to lesbians (such as Cora DuBois), but Paul shared his generation's scorn of male h.o.m.os.e.xuals ("fairies," he called them). Paul seemed to be comfortable with what Joseph Alsop called the "Wasp Ascendancy" in U.S. foreign policy following the war, for some of his dynamic friends (d.i.c.k Bissell and Charles Bohlen) were helping to run the world. Amba.s.sador Bruce, who came to France to head the Marshall Plan and then serve as amba.s.sador, left Paris (for Was.h.i.+ngton, then Bonn and London), and was replaced by, in Paul words, "careful and colorless Jimmie Dunn." when they ran a profile of Mrs. Roosevelt. Julia was just as uneasy with her father's politics as she was with the anti-Semitism of some of their upper-cla.s.s friends. The Childs' enlightened liberalism extended to lesbians (such as Cora DuBois), but Paul shared his generation's scorn of male h.o.m.os.e.xuals ("fairies," he called them). Paul seemed to be comfortable with what Joseph Alsop called the "Wasp Ascendancy" in U.S. foreign policy following the war, for some of his dynamic friends (d.i.c.k Bissell and Charles Bohlen) were helping to run the world. Amba.s.sador Bruce, who came to France to head the Marshall Plan and then serve as amba.s.sador, left Paris (for Was.h.i.+ngton, then Bonn and London), and was replaced by, in Paul words, "careful and colorless Jimmie Dunn."

When the end of Paul's USIS a.s.signment came, he was appointed to the regular foreign service in order to keep him on the job. There was much talk about him being a.s.signed as Public Affairs Officer in Ma.r.s.eilles or Bordeaux ("both Julia and I are good at public relations") or Exhibit Director in Vienna. They preferred to stay in France.

A COOKBOOK FOR AMERICANS COOKBOOK FOR AMERICANS.

Though she was studying with two chefs (the Cordon Bleu distributed no recipes), Julia was very aware (as well as skeptical) of cookbooks. On July 4, Louisette introduced Julia to Irma Rombauer, the author of Julia's first cookbook as a bride: The Joy of Cooking The Joy of Cooking. Rombauer was in France for a ten-day visit on her way to Germany, dining at the Bertholle home, and very interested in Les Trois Gourmandes. Her book-the latest editions revised with her daughter-she told them, was written for the middle cla.s.s and avoided anything too fancy. "We all have copies of Mrs. Joy," Julia wrote a friend the next year. "Somehow, old Mrs. Joy's personality s.h.i.+nes through her recipes.... She is terribly nice, but pretty old, now, about 70 or so; and just a good simple midwestern housewife. She said she'd been in some way weaseled out of something like royalties for 50,000 copies of her book, and was furious." Julia claimed also to have a copy of Fannie Farmer's cookbook, though she did not use it, and a 1909 edition of Mrs. Beeton (as a collector's item). Such were the offerings in the United States.

Julia was much more interested in French cookbooks, and owned the encyclopedic Larousse Gastronomique Larousse Gastronomique, the Chamberlains' Bouquet de France Bouquet de France (she found a number of "unprofessional" mistakes), and (she found a number of "unprofessional" mistakes), and Le Livre de Cuisine Le Livre de Cuisine, by "Madame Saint-Ange"-"sort of The Joy of Cooking The Joy of Cooking for France," Julia said about what she called "one of my bibles then." Marie Ebrard (her husband's first name was Saint-Ange) had, according to her granddaughter, rewritten the recipes in her (and her husband's) for France," Julia said about what she called "one of my bibles then." Marie Ebrard (her husband's first name was Saint-Ange) had, according to her granddaughter, rewritten the recipes in her (and her husband's) Le Pot-au-Feu: Journal de Cuisine Pratique et d'Economie Domestique Le Pot-au-Feu: Journal de Cuisine Pratique et d'Economie Domestique, founded in 1893 as a monthly.

But Julia's greatest reverence was for Georges-Auguste Escoffier (18461935), the world-famous chef who cooked for royalty and high society during the Belle Epoque. Escoffier invented a.s.sembly-line cooking, stock reductions for sauces, and food endors.e.m.e.nts ("foodiebiz"), as well as further codifying conduct and recipes (Guide Culinaire (Guide Culinaire, 1903, and Ma Cuisine Ma Cuisine, 1934). Fifty years later she would call him her greatest hero, the man under whom her chef Max Bugnard studied. She now added two great French chefs-Careme and Escoffier-to Balzac and Beethoven as her supreme heroes. Her choices reveal her traditional approach: her moment in French culinary history fell at the end of the cla.s.sical approach (Thillmont and Bugnard were both in their seventies).

The current G.o.d of the food world in Paris was Curnonsky. For the Great Gastronomic Banquet celebrating Curnonsky's eightieth birthday, all eighteen French gastronomic societies were invited, including Julia's Gourmettes and Paul's Le Club Gastronomique Prosper Montagne. Nearly four hundred people who, in Paul's words, "whirl around the French food-flame" attended, many bedecked in decorations, and each with nine gla.s.ses in front of his plate. During one of the final speeches, about quarter to one in the morning, Paul and Julia drifted out.

Ten days later, Julia and Simca called on Curnonsky at 14, Place Henri Bergson. He greeted them in his pajamas and bathrobe at four in the afternoon. He was a spirited and charming old man, Julia discovered. As a gesture of admiration and friendliness, Julia gave him a carton of Chesterfields. He had written an introduction to the forty-eight-page, spiral-bound book that Simca and Louisette self-published (Editions Fischbacher) in April. It was written in French and translated into English. What's Cuisine in France What's Cuisine in France, consisting of fifty recipes for Americans, sold about 2,000 copies. Louisette took it and a larger ma.n.u.script to New York, and Sumner Putnam of Ives Washburn bought it for $75.

The same booklet in its blue, white, and red cover, was published in New York City by Ives Washburn. But this sixty-three-page edition was ent.i.tled What's Cooking in France What's Cooking in France and had three authors' names: Louisette Remion Bertholle, Simone Beck, and Helmut Ripperger, identified as the author of many books on cookery. Ripperger, the "food adviser," chose the recipes and wrote the bridge pa.s.sages from the recipes by Simca and Louisette, who were identified as "Parisian hostesses and expert amateur cooks." The book was dedicated to Dorothy Canfield Fisher, who "loves France," and stated that the three authors were "preparing a larger volume." Even at $1.25 the booklet did not do well. and had three authors' names: Louisette Remion Bertholle, Simone Beck, and Helmut Ripperger, identified as the author of many books on cookery. Ripperger, the "food adviser," chose the recipes and wrote the bridge pa.s.sages from the recipes by Simca and Louisette, who were identified as "Parisian hostesses and expert amateur cooks." The book was dedicated to Dorothy Canfield Fisher, who "loves France," and stated that the three authors were "preparing a larger volume." Even at $1.25 the booklet did not do well.

When Ripperger gave up on editing their volume in the summer of 1952, Simca and Louisette had already prepared six hundred typed pages of recipes ent.i.tled French Cooking for All French Cooking for All. "I am the one who had the idea ... after one of my trips to America," says Louisette Bertholle. Putnam informed them that they would have to get an American collaborator and adapt their French recipes to the American method. Naturally, Julia would become their coauthor. "Julia is exceptional," Bertholle said in 1992. "You will never find another Julia for maybe half a century." Putnam agreed with their proposal and wanted to deal directly with Julia, but sent no contract.

Meanwhile, Julia, who thought the recipes were "not very professional," began testing, organizing and typing the sauce recipes for French Cooking French Cooking. To a confidant she said it was "just a big collection of recipes" and "not one of the recipes will stand as they were written." It was her job to rewrite the original technical instructions and get everything into readable English. Because none of the recipes stood up, she confided to her friend Avis DeVoto, they were going to write an entirely different book: a book for American home cooks that would present cuisine bourgeoise using the techniques of haute cuisine-that is, the techniques their chef teachers had taught them. "Julie is girding up her loins and spitting on her Underwood," Paul reported.

La Julification des gens, Paul called her "special system of hypnotizing people so they open up like flowers in the sun." She went to Chez la Mere Michel, which specialized in beurre blanc nantais beurre blanc nantais, in order to learn how the woman herself made the beurre blanc beurre blanc. Indeed, Julia talked her way into the kitchen and watched them make the foaming white b.u.t.ter sauce. Disappointed that Larousse Gastronomique Larousse Gastronomique, Flammarion, Curnonsky, and others were vague on the subject, she went to the source and then perfected the method in order to write it up for their book.

Julia typed for weeks and experimented with sauces, during the winter cold and fog. They now called the book French Home Cooking French Home Cooking (a t.i.tle chosen by Putnam). When the publisher wrote on November 20 to say they were returning the Simca-Louisette ma.n.u.script by emba.s.sy pouch, Julia wrote a joint letter informing them the book was entirely changed and the sauce chapter was being sent. (a t.i.tle chosen by Putnam). When the publisher wrote on November 20 to say they were returning the Simca-Louisette ma.n.u.script by emba.s.sy pouch, Julia wrote a joint letter informing them the book was entirely changed and the sauce chapter was being sent.

Before their annual Christmas in Cambridge with the Bicknells, Julia finished the chapter on sauces "as a sample of style and method," then sent it to Paul Sheeline, Paul's French-born nephew, and their lawyer, who gave it to Putnam. She also sent copies of her sauce chapter to Avis DeVoto (her Boston "pen pal"), Freddie, Katy Gates and Susy Hastings (the latter two old Pasadena pals), and others "for critical and helpful comments." She kept out three "top secret" recipes and warned these friends to keep the recipes and format secret, for "the cooking business is as bad as Georgetown real-estate or La Haute Couture ... it's cutthroat."

Immediately Julia began on soups, which she thought would make a better first chapter (sauces being too Frenchy). Her approach was to prepare one soup each day, beginning with soupe aux choux soupe aux choux (cabbage), and spread out for comparison Montagne's (cabbage), and spread out for comparison Montagne's Larousse Larousse, Ali-Bab's Gastronomie Pratique Gastronomie Pratique, Curnonsky, and several regional cookbooks (probably the monthly La France a Table) La France a Table). She made two traditional recipes and one experimental, preparing the latter in a pressure cooker. ("Stinking, nasty b.l.o.o.d.y pressure cooker, I hate them! I can spot and taste a pressure cooker dish anywhere," she said.) Though Louisette was discouraged by Putnam's failure to respond to the sauces chapter, Julia and Simca were not. They were hoping that Julia's "pen pal" would interest Houghton Mifflin, with whom she had connections, to take the book. At the end of December 1952, Mrs. DeVoto responded enthusiastically to their professional recipes and asked their permission to show the ma.n.u.script to her husband's publisher.

Avis DeVoto was an invaluable link in the career of Julia Child as well as a precious friend. They had corresponded since Julia sent a French knife to Bernard DeVoto. Julia read DeVoto's "Easy Chair" column in Harper's Harper's in which he a.s.serted (at his wife's behest) that stainless-steel knives were no good because, though they did not rust, they could not be sharpened. Julia heartily agreed, sent a fan letter with a French carbon-steel paring knife, and the correspondence about food began. Avis, a very good cook, received and tested Julia's recipes for months. in which he a.s.serted (at his wife's behest) that stainless-steel knives were no good because, though they did not rust, they could not be sharpened. Julia heartily agreed, sent a fan letter with a French carbon-steel paring knife, and the correspondence about food began. Avis, a very good cook, received and tested Julia's recipes for months.

Julia's long letters to Avis reveal their growing friends.h.i.+p as "heart-to-heart" correspondents. In addition to sending photographs of themselves and their husbands, Julia included on February 23 a written description of herself: Julia, 6 ft. plus, weight 150 to 160. Bosom not as copious as she would wish, but has noticed the Botcelli [sic] bosoms are not big either. Legs OK, according to husband. Freckles.

By the end of January, encouraged by Avis's confidence and connections, they broke with Putnam, who rejected the book as too unconventional. Julia received a contract and $200 advance from Houghton Mifflin in February. She was to draw up a separate contract between herself and the other two women. Avis a.s.sured her, "I am in a state of stupefaction.... it is going to be a cla.s.sic."

The transfer to Ma.r.s.eilles came suddenly that month. Julia and Paul left Paris with reluctance, he recorded. "Our hearts have been infected and will always skip a beat at the mention of our city." Julia said, "How lucky we have been to live here this long, and I shall never get over it."

Chapter 12.

Ma.r.s.eILLES:.

FIs.h.i.+NG FOR R REDS.

(1953 1954) "What a meaty, down-to-earth, vicious, highly sensual old city this is."

PAUL CHILD, May 30, 1970

THOUGH Ma.r.s.eILLES, France's first seaport, has always suffered from a lack of respect in the rest of France, Julia found it exciting, wonderful, and noisy (three words she would repeat in her many letters). The level of noise, pungent fish smells, and seedy streets excited her. She told Katy Gates she liked the "meridional" temperament and the warmth of the people, "always talking, gesticulating, eating, laughing." The climate, roof tiles, and eucalyptus trees reminded them of California, the sound of the seagulls evoked Lopaus Point, Maine.

OLD PORT HOME.

Paul was appointed Cultural Affairs Officer for the southern coast of France, located in the American Consulate at 5, Place de Rome. Moving to Ma.r.s.eilles meant being pulled from the orbit of her Paris partners and her new career. But Julia and Paul understood the system and were good troupers, even eager for new frontiers. They had previously visited this southern port city on the Mediterranean for a week of reconnoitering in mid-February 1953-it was their first glimpse of suns.h.i.+ne in many months and they loved it. As usual, they made a study of their new base and read history books about the twenty-five centuries of Ma.r.s.eilles.

When Julia did not have to accompany Paul on his diplomatic survey of the region (they visited mayors, newspapermen, and academicians from Perpignan to Nice), she roamed Ma.r.s.eilles looking for the markets and for a neighborhood home. They would choose the rectangular Old Port (Vieux Port), where the fishermen first unloaded their catch. Here in the fertile south were abundant markets, especially the one behind Noailles in the Place du Marche des Capucins, where the first ripe fruit and vegetables appeared each season. Women of various shades of olive skin joked loudly among themselves and called out the price of their eel-hence the term criee aux poissons criee aux poissons.

Before settling in, they returned to Paris for Paul to take photographs of Julia, Simca, and Louisette preparing food in their kitchen before it was dismantled. Paul and Julia went "weeping through the old streets" of Paris, she confided to Avis DeVoto, distressed at leaving and dismayed by "oriental tummy trouble" just when they planned to glut themselves with Parisian food and then "descend slowly to the south from one great restaurant to another, arriving bilious but filled with glory. What a thing, to have this trouble for someone in my profession!"

Julia had felt bilious since a farewell dinner party for twelve that Louisette and Simca gave her in Paris. Unbeknownst to Julia or Paul, who was urged to bring his camera, Curnonsky surprised her when she arrived. With cries of pleasure, they fell into each other's arms like old pals. Indeed Julia had been visiting him, Paul noted, "like a public affairs officer keeping in touch with a prefet." prefet." Paul added a description of this "Prince Elu des Gastronomes": "short, fat, eagle-beaked, triple-chinned, pale-blue-eyed, witty, egocentric, spoiled and knowledgeable." Curnonsky posed for pictures with the three Gourmandes, and the night before Julia left town, she paid a visit to give him the photographs. Privately she confided to Avis that at their party he acted like "a dogmatic meatball who considers himself a gourmet but is just a big bag of wind." Paul added a description of this "Prince Elu des Gastronomes": "short, fat, eagle-beaked, triple-chinned, pale-blue-eyed, witty, egocentric, spoiled and knowledgeable." Curnonsky posed for pictures with the three Gourmandes, and the night before Julia left town, she paid a visit to give him the photographs. Privately she confided to Avis that at their party he acted like "a dogmatic meatball who considers himself a gourmet but is just a big bag of wind."

In Ma.r.s.eilles, Julia threw herself into the constructing and testing of recipes, official entertaining, and shopping the markets, where she struggled to adjust her ear to the local dialects and accent (which added a g g to many words: to many words: ving blong ving blong for white wine). Paul, meanwhile, was trying to adjust to an unhappy consulate, led by Consul General Hayward G. Hill, known as "Hill the Pill." The staff was demoralized by what they saw as a fastidious "mother's boy," a stickler for protocol, afraid of germs, and always dressed, as if he were in Paris, in a gray suit and homburg hat. Paul described him as careful, mediocre, and twitchy, "nervous as a virgin in a wh.o.r.ehouse." Furthermore, Julia added in a letter to a friend, he seems "uninterested in eating." for white wine). Paul, meanwhile, was trying to adjust to an unhappy consulate, led by Consul General Hayward G. Hill, known as "Hill the Pill." The staff was demoralized by what they saw as a fastidious "mother's boy," a stickler for protocol, afraid of germs, and always dressed, as if he were in Paris, in a gray suit and homburg hat. Paul described him as careful, mediocre, and twitchy, "nervous as a virgin in a wh.o.r.ehouse." Furthermore, Julia added in a letter to a friend, he seems "uninterested in eating."

From the windows and balcony of Apartment A at 28, Quai de Rive Neuve, the street that ran along the south side of the old port, Julia looked out on the vertical masts of the fis.h.i.+ng boats and the seagulls circling against the blue sky. They were subletting from a Swedish consul home on leave for six months. Her view was "heavenly" as she typed, she told Simca. Looking seaward, she saw Fort St.-Nicolas to the left and Fort St.-Jean to the right, their stone breakwaters guarding the wide outer bay. Every vista was intersected by the vertical masts of the colorful boats. When she wrote to her sister Dorothy, who was expecting another baby and was now living in Sausalito near San Francisco, she would think of San Francis...o...b..y as well as their summers in Santa Barbara-both waters so different from this teeming gateway to Africa and the centuries-old quais at her feet.

"Sometimes at night we'd hear hearty shouting, and slapping of wet fish on the pavement at the edge of the water ... where the boats were unloading their tuna under our window," Julia wrote M. F. K. Fisher twenty years later. La Criee aux Poissons, the wholesale fish market, was on their quai, just steps from the front door.

Happily nestled in a new building in the row of tight old houses ringing the port, she could hear the seagulls. Some mornings she and Paul were awakened by arriving fis.h.i.+ng boats beneath their windows. They could also hear the construction behind their building. A decade before, the Germans, under the pretext of public health, forced 40,000 inhabitants from the old quarter and razed the densely populated buildings and narrow streets, leaving only the houses along the quais. Ill-famed, this district was picturesque. Even in 1953, the consulate staff remarked about the danger of the Childs' neighborhood. Though the year before Le Corbusier was making a name for himself in Ma.r.s.eilles with modern buildings known for their audacious and original designs, time would judge them ugly intrusions on the landscape.

The summer of 1953 brought with it the smell of wild lavender. After parsley (the only winter herb), thyme, and bay, Julia was enjoying the season of tarragon, chervil, and chives. In Provence, she learned, they added fennel and basil to their dishes. The French do not use many herbs, she informed one friend, and they never use wooden salad bowls! Such fine distinctions were irrelevant on the Fourth of July when she had to help turn inferior Navy canned food (sardines, salmon, liverwurst) into something edible for five hundred c.o.c.ktail party guests of the consulate. After visitors from three U.S. Navy destroyers one week and an aircraft carrier the next, Julia and Paul relaxed on their balcony with friends on July 14, watching their adopted homeland celebrate its independence day with fireworks and "The Ma.r.s.eillaise."

Of course, Julia and Paul frequently ate out, savoring the best restaurants in Ma.r.s.eilles and along the coast (their disappointment at La Baumaniere in Les Baux was duly reported to Simca). They both loved the smell of fish and garlic in the restaurants along the waterfront, Julia always observing the presentations of the dishes and varieties of ingredients. "I loved the sea scallops in wine sauce baked in a seash.e.l.l." After one such meal she exclaimed, "I would happily die with a bottle of white Burgundy in my mouth."

She soon struck up an important friends.h.i.+p with Monsieur Guido, whose restaurant by that name was located nearby on the rue de la Paix. It had been open eight months, and Julia believed it was the best fish restaurant in the city. Unrated when she discovered it, it received its second Michelin star by 1956 ("excellent cuisine, worth a detour"). Not surprisingly, the Michelin lists Guido's first specialty as bouillabaisse des pecheurs a la rouille bouillabaisse des pecheurs a la rouille. Occasionally during the coming months, Julia would ask him about the ingredients and techniques that he used, and he would recommend wine sources to Paul. His name came up frequently in their letters-even to Charlie, who bought holsters, a belt, and two "six-shooters" for Guido's son, who was crazy about American cowboys. Guido was "a Mangelotte type," Julia told Simca, "absolute perfection and care in everything he does." "Thank G.o.d I can talk French," she wrote to Avis. She did not care about her accent as long as she could "talk and talk and talk."

"IS THERE A RED UNDER YOUR BED?": MCCARTHY WITCH HUNTS.

The major topic of conversation among the U.S. Information Agency personnel was Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. They heard from friends at the emba.s.sy in Paris that Roy Cohn and David s.h.i.+ne, McCarthy's a.s.sistants, came through the capital city to check the library and the correctness of the staff. Theodore White would say that they "moved through Europe examining the books and shelves of the USI[S]." They were apparently dismayed that they could not find the American Legion Weekly American Legion Weekly. When Larry Morris, head of the Paris cultural section of the USIS, came into his office and found two young men with their feet on his desk, he demanded that they remove themselves and give their names. McCarthy's two henchmen immediately complied, but called a staff meeting for Easter Sunday. Afraid for their careers, everyone showed up and waited at length until someone checked Cohn and s.h.i.+ne's hotel at four-thirty and learned that they had slept in after a late night. "Most people were scared to do anything," Julia later explained. News of the hara.s.sment spread through the American diplomatic community. When Cohn and s.h.i.+ne got to Berlin they found White's Thunder Out of China Thunder Out of China in the USIS library, burned it, and reported the purge to the in the USIS library, burned it, and reported the purge to the New York Times New York Times.

Theodore White, located not far away on the Riviera in the fis.h.i.+ng village of Le Lavandou since 1952, was writing books, fearing the blacklist, and hoping to redeem himself. White's brother Robert (removed from his security clearance at MIT) and others from the China theater were threatened. On a number of occasions, Julia and Paul visited with Theodore and Nancy White in Les Mandariniers, their huge old whitewashed villa with its orange tiled roof. They had bouillabaisse and talked of the great Chinese food they had shared in Kunming. Nancy White later said that Julia "devoured every morsel" that her excellent cook Marie produced. Talk always turned to McCarthy and the general distrust they all had of Chiang in China. "Since when was China ours to lose?" asked Julia. "Chiang and [Tai Li] did the trick, helped on by the China lobby and Henry Luce." Political tides ended White's comfortable French life when, on June 17, workers rose in East Berlin and Russian tanks mowed them down. White and anyone who had appeared sympathetic to Mao or the communists were soon out of work. Later, in his book In Search of History In Search of History, White recalled this period, saying there were many as yet unknown Americans in the south of France-he included Julia's name here-who were "all there doing doing things." things."

The growing power of Senator McCarthy was reported in the newspapers and magazines. His denunciations of communist sympathizers and traitors in every branch of government made his name symbolic of an era in American history that would see Julius and Ethel Rosenberg put to death for treason and anti-American demonstrations in Paris. Allen Dulles (formerly of the OSS, then the head of the CIA) stood up to McCarthy, Julia noted, but "[Secretary of State John] Foster Dulles did not stand up to anyone."

Julia held strong opinions about the rise of political intimidation in her homeland and shared White's views of China and the botched American policy there. Their friend d.i.c.k Heppner was now Deputy a.s.sistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs under Eisenhower, but several other OSS friends lost their jobs, including John Carter Vincent and John Stewart Service. (The latter was reinstated after six years of litigation, directed by Heppner when he was still in Donovan's law firm.) Duncan Lee (China-born a.s.sistant General Counsel of the OSS) was accused but not charged. Charles E. (Chip) Bohlen was smeared by McCarthy, who questioned his s.e.xual persuasion. Not surprisingly, Julia and Paul considered the possibility that the paranoia could touch them. Paul remembered signing a pet.i.tion in the 1930s; Julia recalled putting one of her own books on China (written by a woman later identified as communist) in the USIS library. But neither thought seriously about their friends.h.i.+p with former OSS colleague Jane Foster. "She was lots of fun, and every time we went to Paris we would see her," Julia informed her OSS correspondents.

"I'm terribly worried about McCarthyism," Julia confided to Avis DeVoto on February 28: "What can I do as an individual? It is frightening. I am ready to bare my b.r.e.a.s.t.s (small size though they be), stick out my neck, won't turn my back on anybody, will sacrifice cat, cookbook, husband and finally self ... please advise. I'm serious." Avis warned her to be careful because of Paul's job. The DeVotos (in Cambridge, Ma.s.sachusetts) could have told her stories of faculty opening student mail at Harvard for the FBI the year before and Princeton professors taping their lectures to avoid being misquoted by student moles. Bernard DeVoto had stood up to the House Un-American Activities Committee in September 1949.

By March 1954, Julia was so worked up over McCarthyism in America (and Foster Dulles's capitulation) that she was determined to prove she and Paul would not be intimidated. The event triggering this decision was news that an anonymous "Committee for Discrimination in Giving" fingered five faculty members as "communists" at Smith College and wrote to the alumnae. Julia's March 14 letter is a cla.s.sic of reason and fort.i.tude, saying, in part: According to proper democratic methods, charges of this grave nature should first be brought to the attention of the President and the Trustees. You have a.s.sumed a responsibility for which you were not appointed. It is clear that you do not trust your elected officers, and that you do not have confidence in democratic procedures.... In Russia today, as a method for getting rid of opposition, an unsubstantiated implication of treason, such as yours, is often used. But it should never be used in the United States.

With a check doubling her annual contribution to the Alumnae Fund, she adds, "In the blood-heat of pursuing the enemy, many people are forgetting what we are fighting for." Unwisely, she sent a copy to her father (only later understanding that it was directed in part at him), who informed Julia and Paul that they were playing into the hands of the communists.

Paul was hurt and depressed by his father-in-law's letter and took to his bed. He reported to his brother that "since the USIS has been under attack by Sen. McCarthy, the monthly book-buying has been cut from 20,000 to 1,592." That summer Paul was asked to compile a list of every book in order that they be cleared, destroyed, or refiled. Though Paul continued to be worried about the growth of communism in Europe, he believed McCarthy made the situation worse. McCarthy, he added, "is a dirty and astute demagogue, advancing himself, like a surf board rider, on a wave of fear." The French may have a "deep-seated national neurosis" that toppled each new government, but "we have McCarthy."

Julia's professional work provided an outlet for dealing with the tension and connected her both to her homeland, through her interpretation to Simca of American tastes and products, and to her new French home, with its hundreds of varieties of fish and fresh produce. She would explain which beans or fish were not available in the United States or that Americans had an aversion to too much b.u.t.ter, and she could clarify the language for their readers. Occasionally she sent Simca copies from American cookbooks, but she was reading Gourmet Gourmet more skeptically since Narcissa Chamberlain had warned her about its unreliability. Though she left the final judgment of French recipe t.i.tles to Simca and Louisette, who were continuing their school in Louisette's big blue kitchen, she did not hesitate to say that something was not "Frenchy" enough or that the French cooking authorities she consulted said this or that. Julia missed their cooking cla.s.ses and the appearances of Thillmont and Bugnard at the blue kitchen at 171, avenue Victor Hugo. more skeptically since Narcissa Chamberlain had warned her about its unreliability. Though she left the final judgment of French recipe t.i.tles to Simca and Louisette, who were continuing their school in Louisette's big blue kitchen, she did not hesitate to say that something was not "Frenchy" enough or that the French cooking authorities she consulted said this or that. Julia missed their cooking cla.s.ses and the appearances of Thillmont and Bugnard at the blue kitchen at 171, avenue Victor Hugo.

Entertaining combined her professional work and Paul's diplomatic responsibilities. It was immediately evident to the consulate that a meal at the Childs' apartment was both a personal pleasure and a diplomatic advantage in entertaining guests. Three months after their arrival, Julia had the British consul general and the head of the French Chamber of Commerce to dinner.

Whether she served fish in wine sauce or a shoulder of lamb, each dish was an experiment reported to Simca. Officer Roland Jacobs (number two man in the U.S. Consulate), and his wife, Janine, remember a superb boeuf bourguignon boeuf bourguignon and the Childs' "neat sense of humor." Howard B. Crotinger, in the Department of State foreign service, remembers that he and his bride, Annelie, were treated to "delicious" meals. Lee Crotinger was impressed by Julia's height and her command of the French language. Crotinger, who was a Signal Corps photographer during the war, admired Paul's photographs hanging in the foyer. American diplomats, most of whom were not fluent in French, were in awe of the Childs' command of French, their popularity with the French, their sense of humor, and their "courage" in living in this "dangerous neighborhood," where no other foreigners rented. Their avant-garde reputation was confirmed when Julia showed the Crotingers a jar of absinthe, wormwood included, that she was preserving in the back of her dark closet. She found an old recipe for this lethal, now outlawed, drink and shared a taste of her brew with adventurous friends. and the Childs' "neat sense of humor." Howard B. Crotinger, in the Department of State foreign service, remembers that he and his bride, Annelie, were treated to "delicious" meals. Lee Crotinger was impressed by Julia's height and her command of the French language. Crotinger, who was a Signal Corps photographer during the war, admired Paul's photographs hanging in the foyer. American diplomats, most of whom were not fluent in French, were in awe of the Childs' command of French, their popularity with the French, their sense of humor, and their "courage" in living in this "dangerous neighborhood," where no other foreigners rented. Their avant-garde reputation was confirmed when Julia showed the Crotingers a jar of absinthe, wormwood included, that she was preserving in the back of her dark closet. She found an old recipe for this lethal, now outlawed, drink and shared a taste of her brew with adventurous friends.

Despite the demoralizing effects of McCarthyism, Paul maintained the Cultural Center and its library, exhibited the work of American artists, and entertained lecturers and visitors. During this first year in Ma.r.s.eilles, the USIS became the USIA, an independent agency of the government, and Paul was put in charge. He organized fifteen French departments along the Mediterranean between the Italian and Spanish borders and supervised one a.s.sistant and eight staff members. In addition to publicity and visiting celebrities, he oversaw sections on management and administration, an information center, press and radio services, motion pictures (including the Cannes film festival), and exchange of persons. Paul's staff "adored the Childs," Crotinger remembers.

Julia was learning to balance her demanding professional standards with her role as wife to Paul, who wanted her to travel with him when she could. She confided to Simca in early December that if she were able to give as much time as she wanted to her work, "we would soon be having a divorce, I fear. Luckily, however, now that he has his studio, [Paul] is well-occupied during the weekends!"

Their marriage seemed to be happier than ever, perhaps in part because the demands of the book kept Julia's social life less frantic than in Paris. "We just love living together," Paul told Charlie, and when apart missed each other "terrifically [for] we clearly have developed a sort of emotional interdependence." In December he told Charlie, "Julie ... is now and then ... an unconscious therapeutic agent for me." She calmed his nerves. Twice this year Paul commented on their like-mindedness: "Julia and I are such twinnies in our reactions and tastes," and "We are pretty twinnyfied that way, reflecting each other's atmospheres like two mirrors."

Paul was keenly aware of the charm that Julia had both on him ("I hate to think what a sour old reprobate I might have been without that face to look at") and on the French ("I watched with fascination [one] night at Lipp's as she turned a fat, tired, old waiter into a responsive, gay, flirtatious, pleasure-filled man. [She is an] electric-energizer and responder.... I am continuously conscious of my good fortune in living with her."

He specifically credited her sensitivity to "emotional atmospheres." When she was excited, "Julia's eyes begin to glow like emeralds": Her eyes are as sensitive to emotional atmospheres as a coal-mine canary is to fire-damp. If there's the slightest wonder or sentiment or excitement in the air those curious green orbs develop a phosph.o.r.escent sparkle; and that mobile mug takes on a look of pleasurable antic.i.p.ation-and the first thing you know she's imbued the atmosphere with her own aurora-borealis.

MASTERING THE ART.

Julia's horizon was the future publication of their book. She was convinced that they were writing a precedent-setting work: "What a book this will be, if we ever finish it." And she was convinced that they must keep their work secret, especially their experimentation with high technology. The letters were often labeled "Top Secret" or "never seen in print before." Simca must never show the blender to Bugnard, because he had many American students. She was especially concerned that they be the first to incorporate the use of the Waring blender in cooking cla.s.sic French recipes. "Love that Waring Mixer," she told Avis. Simca went to a demonstration at a kitchen fair in Paris, and Julia wrote to the American companies who manufactured blenders, just as she had written to the Wine Advisory Board of California the previous year.

A second innovation they hoped to pioneer was directions for cooking some dishes ahead of time (a dimension never introduced by their teachers, who were chefs de cuisine) chefs de cuisine). The women would inform their readers where in the recipe they could stop and how they could reheat. These ahead-of-time tips were uniquely Julia's contribution, for she did not have a live-in maid or cook and understood the pressure of being both cook and hostess.

Julia was working on soups and then testing Simca's recipes for sauces. She consulted the authorities (remembering Bugnard's method or Thillmont's method or looking up Escoffier); experimented with the ingredients (b.u.t.ter versus oil), with procedures (mixing at the table, cooking a dish ahead of time, cutting down on the milk in Simca's recipe for sauce a l'ail); sauce a l'ail); fine-tuned the language, what Louisette called the "blah-blah" ("holding pan of boiling b.u.t.ter in left hand, wire whip in right hand, fine-tuned the language, what Louisette called the "blah-blah" ("holding pan of boiling b.u.t.ter in left hand, wire whip in right hand, pour ..."); pour ..."); and tested equipment (the pressure cooker did not prove satisfactory for soups). "What minute checking we must do!" she informed Simca. "We must always remember that we are writing for an audience that knows nothing about French cooking." and tested equipment (the pressure cooker did not prove satisfactory for soups). "What minute checking we must do!" she informed Simca. "We must always remember that we are writing for an audience that knows nothing about French cooking."

Julia's peculiar responsibility was to translate the book into the American language-a challenge because in the United States there was no culinary vocabulary as there was in France. The name of recipes were in French, but the directions had to be in English. Julia would explain to Simca that "stale" meant leftover; "broken eggs" meant something other than to break an egg; "into" meant closed up inside. Yet when it came to recipe decisions, she insisted (October 25, 1953) that the book "is most definitely a joint book" on which "we all three must absolutely agree on all points.... It is rather like Existentialism, I suppose, in that we alone are responsible for how this book turns out." She also suggested, and DeVoto agreed, that the ingredients be printed on the left, the method on the right.

"Julia is woodp.e.c.k.e.ring the Royal Portable right next to me, jiggling the table like a tumbrel on cobbles," Paul complained to his brother. When she was not shopping and laboring over the stove, she was typing single-s.p.a.ced letters of several pages (she was their official typist) and five or six carbon copies of each recipe. "The most difficult part of the cookbook was writing all those letters," she said later. "Then correcting those six copies. It was terrible, just awful." (Yet their transfer to Ma.r.s.eilles, which necessitated voluminous correspondence, provides the culinary historian a unique opportunity to study the development of a cla.s.sic cookbook collaboration.) She used up boxes of onionskin and carbon paper, for she often (but not always) sent copies of letters to Louisette as well. The recipes called for multiple copies because she was having Avis DeVoto in Cambridge, Katy Gates in Pasadena, Freddie (and niece Rachel) in Lumberville-her "guinea pigs"-cook the recipes and report every detail of success and failure. The typewriter and the stove were her daily instruments. But neither were built to her height, perhaps contributing to her stooped back in years to come.

In all things, Julia was a consummate professional. She informed her partners that they must not put their names on any recipe (these were French cla.s.sics). She consulted them on every matter of business ("We are a team!"). She was the go-between with DeVoto (their unpaid agent) and the Houghton Mifflin editor, Mrs. Dorothy de Santillana, who was happily "overcome" (according to Avis) when she first saw their ma.n.u.script. Julia distributed to Simca and Louisette the contracts and composed biographies for their approval. (Houghton Mifflin insisted on dealing only with Julia.) It was Paul's nephew, Paul Sheeline, who would iron out the contract with Houghton Mifflin. Julia arranged with Waring Blender to get a discount and free cookbooks for their blenders. Because she had a small income of her own, she became the cooking trio's banker and paid for expenses that seemed necessary (they were to reimburse her from future royalties), including their members.h.i.+p in the order of Tastevins, a famous old wine-tasting society in Burgundy (they traveled to Dijon for the annual Tastevin dinner in November). She called the bank account the "Child French Cookbook Banking Fund."

She insisted that they be as accomplished as possible, using Gourmet Gourmet, certain self-proclaimed "experts," and some of the French chefs' cookbooks ("La Fumisterie" [fakery]) as contrasts: "In other words, we must be Descartesian, and never accept anything unless it comes from an extremely professional [French] source, and even then, to see how we personally like how it is done," she wrote Simca on November 5, 1953. To be absolutely accurate on ingredients, she persuaded Paul to give her Larousse Agricole Larousse Agricole for her birthday. "If we depart from the French tradition to cater to American tastes, or to our personal tastes," she told Simca, "we must always so indicate." for her birthday. "If we depart from the French tradition to cater to American tastes, or to our personal tastes," she told Simca, "we must always so indicate."

Julia had the cla.s.sic French cookbooks, such as Escoffier, on hand for constant reference. But from a simple regional recipe book such as La Bonne Cuisine du Perigord La Bonne Cuisine du Perigord to the works of Escoffier, recipes were too brief and general for her ("place ca.s.serole on a moderate fire" or "add a soupspoon of shallots"). She quickly noted that they "all copy from one another." She kept up with current reading, noting in her letters that a new review, to the works of Escoffier, recipes were too brief and general for her ("place ca.s.serole on a moderate fire" or "add a soupspoon of shallots"). She quickly noted that they "all copy from one another." She kept up with current reading, noting in her letters that a new review, Gastronomie le Neuvieme Art Gastronomie le Neuvieme Art, quoted "those two boys," Brillat-Savarin and Grimod de La Reyniere, on every other page. She half agreed with Baudelaire that Brillat-Savarin was "a kind of old brioche whose sole use is to furnish windbags with stupid quotations [tell me what you eat and I'll tell you what you are]."

Because they were virtual newcomers to Ma.r.s.eilles, visits from dear friends were important. The Nigel Bicknells, now living in Istanbul, came by with their two children. The Childs visited d.i.c.k and Alice Lee Myers several times in nearby Ca.s.sis, once just a day after Ernest Hemingway had stopped by on his way to Africa. On