Lobster Killer, Lobster Killer

This woman was an advertising genius. Don't know who she is? You might know her by her famous tagline,

"I'm Julia Child. Bon Appetit!"

Last night I finally watched the Oscar nominated Julie & Julia, and let me tell you, I sincerely wanted to get into the kitchen and whip up some goodness! Of course Julia made it look easy, which I'm quite sure it's not, but I still wanted to try. I also want to read her autobiography, My Life in France.

For those of you who don't know, in 2002 a woman named Julie Powell began cooking her way through Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which has an astounding 524 recipes. Julie chronicled her way through cooking all 524 recipes in 365 days through a blog, called the Julie/Julia Project. In the movie, Julie really felt as if she could relate to Julia, because they both were government employees, both did something they loved (cooking) and both had adoring husbands. The one thing they did not share was the love of Julie's blog.

According to different sources, including her editor, Julia Child felt that Julie Powell's blog was a stunt. In an interview with Julie Powell, Julie admitted that after the project was over, she wrote Julia a letter. She got a letter back-- a formal letter, as she calls it -- that said that Julia was aware of the blog and wasn't terribly interested in being a part of it.

I can almost understand why. Julia Child marketed and branded herself as the helper to servantless American cooks. She was the one that did the hard work == she wanted a French cookbook in English, and finding none, went to cooking school. And not just any cooking school, mind you, but Le Cordon Bleu. The cookbook was finally published in 1961, years after painstakingly translating recipes, testing the recipes and typing the recipes.

After the book was finished, Julia marketed the book and herself through various forms of media, namely magazine columns and television appearances. She was straightforward, fun and likable. And best of all, she taught people how to cook.

Nora Ephron created the screen adaptation of Julie & Julia by combining Julie's Julie & Julie and Julia's My Life in France. Confused yet? Nora did a great job of marketing both women, as well as the overall production. Apparently, after the movie was released, Mastering the Art of French Cooking became a bestseller again. I believe it. I certainly want to find out more about Julia Child now. Have you seen the movie? Thoughts?

By the way, the title of the post comes from a line in the movie. Again, totally worth checking out.