Dearie

by Bob Spitz

  It was a thankless job: “These theatrical troups [sic] always seem to be messy, badly organized and emotional … but I notice she handles these dopes with much more authority and ease than formerly.” JC, letter to family, February 26, 1950.

  “prepared for the worst”: JC, My Life, p. 91.

  “I think it is all going to be somewhat”: JC, letter to family, January 7, 1950, SA.

  “damndest to be very, very nice”: “I hope I can dope out some formula to make it less of an ordeal for him.” JC, letter to PC, April 18, 1950, SA.

  “He felt his daughter was supporting”: Cousins interview.

  “that if Paul needed money to launch”: JC, letter to family, October 8, 1949, SA.

  Julia turned him down: “We said no …” Ibid.

  “because he don’t want to waist”: JC, letter to family, January 30, 1950, SA; also “Paul didn’t want to use his precious vacation time on his in-laws, and I can’t say I blamed him.” JC, My Life, p. 91.

  “it was hard to tell whether he’s just”: “He appears to have mellowed quite a bit.” JC, letter to family, April 11, 1950, SA.

  “I suddenly realize[d] he is an old man”: JC, letter to PC, written somewhere “below Macon,” Ibid.

  “wild and bitter scenes”: JC, letter to family, May 19, 1950, SA.

  “niceness and complete naturalness”: JC, letter to PC, April 11, 1950.

  “as though it were inconceivable: “I feel he is being a very good advertisement for our country.” Ibid.

  “standard prejudices”: JC, letter to PC, April 26, 1950, SA.

  Whatever she’d felt about her father: “I never realized until this experience how utterly divorced I have become from this background, and how profoundly, abysmally, stupifyingly bored into a state of semi-apathy—it now renders me.” JC, letter to PC, April 20, 1950, SA.

  “rich, upper-class conservative”: JC, letter to family, May 19, 1950.

  “We have just about nothing in common”: “What surprised and interested me, is how far away I am from their life and interests.” Ibid.

  “experimenting at home”: JC, My Life, p. 89.

  “the enjoyment of producing something”: JC, Foreword, Mastering, Vol. I, p. vii.

  mrs. child and mrs. child: “I think it would be a terribly good thing if Mrs. F. Child came to Paris to take the Cordon Bleu cooking course … so that our restaurant sign can read …” JC, letter to family, August 3, 1949, SA.

  “My immediate plan was to develop”: JC, My Life, p. 90.

  “a great campaign of refurbishment”: PC, letter to family, September 9, 1950, SA.

  “She wanted to brighten up”: Rachel Child interview.

  She made butter-colored slipcovers: PC, letter to family, September 9, 1950.

  “two official lives”: PC, letter to family, February 13, 1950, SA.

  Eleven WHAT SHE’D GOTTEN HERSELF INTO

  a mammoth galantine: “I am in the midst of making a mammoth galantine de volaille, a process which always takes me 3 days.” JC, letter to family, January 10, 1951, SA.

  “qualified to be chef in a maison”: JC, letter to family, April 7, 1951, SA.

  “got on each other’s nerves”: JC, My Life, p. 109.

  “stern”: “having heckled [Brassart] for five months and writing [her] a stern letter.” JC, letter to family, April 7, 1951.

  it would be a ballbuster: “I studied a bit, memorized proportions, expecting a rather complicated exam that might show what I could do.” Ibid.

  “They didn’t make as much money”: Ibid.

  “American friends and even the U.S. ambassador”: JC, letter to Elizabeth Brassart, March 28, 1951, SA.

  “My mind was on Filets”: JC, letter to family, April 7, 1951.

  “a beginning pupil”: Ibid.

  “Julia sautéed the mushrooms”: Shapiro, Julia Child, p. 40.

  “wonder book”: “I bought Julia Larousse Gastronomique for a birthday present.” PC, letter to family, August 12, 1949, SA.

  “I was no longer satisfied”: JC, My Life, p. 119.

  “This seems to me one of the ‘good’ moments”: PC, letter to family, April 11, 1951, SA.

  “The Big War, as of now”: PC, letter to family, March 17, 1951, SA.

  “turning more and more toward the USA”: “Sensible plans are difficult in view of all the variables in both the present and the future.” Ibid.

  “going to be difficult psychologically”: PC, letter to family, April 11, 1951.

  Julia’s view was more sanguine: “She truly represents the Hope that Springs Eternal in the Human Breast.” Ibid.

  “unsettled period”: JC, My Life, p. 117.

  “Russian invasion”: “Paul became preoccupied with … the fact that the U.S. wasn’t doing enough to prepare Western Europe.” Ibid.

  “I prefer her attitude”: PC, letter to family, April 11, 1951.

  “There is no possibility whatsoever”: PC, letter to family, February 12, 1951, SA.

  “for a good year”: “She met him in Paris and they went around together for a good year.” JC, letter to family, April 21, 1951.

  “boyish”: “He was a lovely guy, funny and boyish.” Jean-François Thibault, interview with author, November 20, 2008.

  “roly-poly”: “He was a foot shorter than Dort, a little roly-poly guy.” Patty McWilliams, interview with author, May 4, 2009.

  “large, robust, loud American girl”: Alex Prud’homme, interview with author, January 21, 2010.

  Ivan had studied at New York’s Neighborhood: Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 184.

  had some success modeling: Patty McWilliams interview.

  “overgrown child”: “Louise Vincent, who acted with Ivan, remembered he ‘had much of an overgrown child in him.’ ” Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 184.

  “Ivan was a notorious drinker”: Alex Prud’homme interview.

  He’d grown tired of the stagy theater crowd: “After a bit, we oldsters suggested that it might be a good idea for Dort to find a place of her own.” JC, My Life, p. 108.

  “slight undercurrent”: “When Paul and Julia and Ivan and Dort got together, there was always a slight undercurrent.” Alex Prud’homme interview.

  “somewhat disorganized”: “All in all, it is an extremely French and somewhat disorganized group of women who love to eat and like to get together.” JC typescript, “Le Cercle Des Gourmettes,” June 24, 1963.

  “I salute the men at this table”: PC memoir, “Le Cercle des Gourmettes,” August 21, 1961, SA.

  “And I wish to propose a toast”: JC typescript, “Le Cercle Des Gourmettes,” June 24, 1963.

  “Each gourmette must be able”: Clarissa de Villers, “A Wine Tour of France,” Cosmopolitan, June 1964, p. 47.

  “[I] am ashamed to say”: “I found a moth-eaten copy in my attic recently.” Beck, Food and Friends, p. 160.

  “This is just a dry bunch”: Dorothy Canfield Fisher, letter to Simone Fishbacher, undated, 1951, SA.

  “mad about French food”: Beck, Food and Friends, p. 163.

  “She was always on the go”: Thibault interview.

  she was baptized with a few drops: “I was apparently given a few drops of Bénédictine when I was a newborn baby, about one day old.” Beck, Food and Friends, p. 8.

  “bored and restless”: Ibid., p. 61.

  “a social butterfly”: Ibid., p. 69.

  “practically unheard of”: “Nobody could have guessed I’d make a career of cooking.” Beck quoted in Aline Mosby, “Simone Beck at 86,” New York Times, August 21, 1991.

  “Simone’s husband had a drinking problem”: Thibault interview.

  “had arrived at a totally platonic”: Beck, Food and Friends, p. 76.

  “My life was almost at a standstill”: Beck, Food and Friends, p. 90.

  “a terribly imposing, beautiful woman”: Thibault interview.

  “From then on”: Beck, Food and Friends, p. 93.

  “rivaled that of a fully-operational”: Ra
chel Child interview.

  “talked almost exclusively about food”: Beck, Food and Friends, p. 163.

  “She loved America”: Bern Terry, interview with author, August 27, 2009.

  “it was given no promotion”: Beck, Food and Friends, p. 160.

  “learn, while watching and doing”: “Learning while watching and doing can’t be beat.” PC, letter to family, December 14, 1951.

  “liked the energy between Simca”: JC, interview with author, September 17, 1992.

  “I’d never eaten food with such honest”: Charlotte Turgeon, interview with author, January 29, 2008.

  she roasted a leg of venison: “It was a superb dinner, if I do say so.” JC, letter to family, November 29, 1951, SA.

  “Good conversation, good people”: PC, letter to family, December 13, 1951, SA.

  “rather grand apartment”: JC, My Life, p. 128.

  “limited to four students”: “Julie and Simka [sic] and Bertolle [sic] are planning to start little cooking-school classes to be limited to four students and to be held in Bertolle’s kitchen.” PC, letter to family, December 12, 1951, SA.

  “money in fist”: PC, letter to family, January 26, 1952, SA.

  “We’ve got to plunge”: Beck, Food and Friends, p. 171.

  whereas Julia and Simca were specific: “Louisette appears to have a romantic approach to cooking, while Simka [sic] and Julie are more ‘scientific’ (for example: they measure quantities where Louisette might decide by ‘instinct’).” PC, letter to family, January 30, 1952, SA.

  “giving a little discussion”: “[A student named] Mary Ward said the other day with the air of a connoisseur, ‘I never drink red wine. I like only white wine.’ Old P[aul] couldn’t take that lying down.” PC, letter to family, February 6, 1952, SA.

  The lunches were so successful: “The Cooking School now takes guests for lunch @ frs 500 a shot. The girls are so proud of their burgeoning skill that they want to pull their friends in to see and taste the wonders.” PC, letter to family, February 5, 1952, SA.

  “full of ideas on cakes and pastries”: “And she’s made some of the most delicious things with powdered almonds, sugar, and egg whites.” JC, letter to family, “mid-March” 1952, SA.

  Chef Pellaprat had unlocked for her: “Pellaprat taught me trucs (little tips) about puff pasrty. ‘Don’t fuss or work it over,’ he’d say. ‘You don’t want to produce galvanized rubber.’ ” Beck, Food and Friends, p. 83.

  There was so much to explain: “Getting recipes into scientific workability is very interesting, and I am certainly finding out how inexact many recipes are and how painfully exact ours must be.” JC, letter to family, April 12, 1952, SA.

  “From that time on I never lost sight”: JC interview.

  Meanwhile, the next session of the cooking school: “L’École des Trois Gourmandes began again this morning, with Julie and Simka [sic] teaching the three dames … plus five other women (and Paul).” PC, letter to family, March 12, 1952, SA.

  “plus a small waiting list”: PC, letter to family, March 15, 1952, SA.

  “gossipy cooking sessions and dazzling food”: Shapiro, Julia Child, p. 45.

  “short, fat, eagle-beaked”: PC, letter to family, undated, 1952, SA.

  Julia reminisced how she “immediately fell for him”: JC, My Life, p. 139.

  “a spirited and charming old man”: “Julia and Simka [sic] went to call on Curnonsky.” PC, letter to family, November 7, 1952, SA.

  “a dogmatic meatball”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, February 12, 1953, SA.

  “a wonderful book”: Ibid.

  It was chatty and social and much more readable: Christopher Kimball, interview with author, January 5, 2010.

  “old Mrs. Joy”: “I met her last summer through Louisette.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, February 12, 1953.

  “big jumble of recipes”: JC, My Life, p. 144.

  “delicious little meals”; “poor Louisette”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, January 30, 1953, SA.

  “I’d be delighted to”: “I answered, almost before the question was out of their mouths.” JC, My Life, p. 144.

  Twelve A MEMORABLE FEAST

  “infuriatingly vague”: Shapiro, Julia Child, p. 49.

  “not very professional”: JC, letter to Avis de Voto, December 30, 1952, SA.

  the various chapters she’d been given: Sumner Putnam, letter to JC, January 20, 1952.

  “In fact,” she said: JC, My Life, p. 144.

  “fully explained for the novice”: JC, letter to Sumner Putnam, November 30, 1952.

  “the ‘whys,’ the pitfalls, the remedies”: Ibid.

  “I wasn’t aware of any book”: JC. My Life, p. 144.

  “It needs an immense amount of work”: PC, letter to family, August 26, 1952, SA.

  “future was anyone’s guess”: JC, letter to family, May 10, 1952, SA.

  “a matter of slots and bodies”: “The process in government seems to be largely impersonal and based on the necessities of the structure rather than on the necessities of personnel.” PC, letter to family, September 6, 1952, SA.

  “Meself,” she wrote to Freddie: JC, letter to family, May 10, 1952.

  “How much do you really use it?”: Ibid.

  “My heavens, I am beginning to feel”: JC, letter to family, April 4, 1953, SA.

  “I’ll bet I would have been a communist”: JC, letter to family, April 21, 1951, SA.

  In December, Representative Fred Busbey: PC, letter to family, December 12, 1951, SA.

  “The more I thought about it”: JC, My Life, p. 144.

  Carême, Larouse Gastronomique: PC, letter to family, October 21, 1952, SA.

  “operational proof”: “All recipes are checked and counter-checked on the stove and in the stewpot, so are Old Wives tales.” PC, letter to family, October 9, 1952.

  “arcane … exciting discovery”: Ibid.

  “a long, slow cooking in butter”: JC, Mastering, Vol. I, p. 43.

  “To her,” as a noted food writer indicated: Shapiro, Julia Child, p. 63.

  “sat up till two a.m. working”: PC, letter to family, September 12, 1952, SA.

  “equally hardworking and professional”: “She and Simca are doing it together, and they’ve got a work schedule which J. felt must be maintained.” Ibid.

  “a perfectionist”: “Simca was somewhat pedantic.” Hélène Baltrusaitus in Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 191.

  “a rhinoceros’s thickness of skin”: “He exudes self-centered satisfaction at every pore.” PC, letter to family, March 27, 1952, SA.

  “into horses and gambling”: “Paul was very much a French version of the manly man.” Bern Terry, interview with author, August 27, 2009.

  Paul had pegged her as being “shy,” “sweet”: PC, letter to family, March 27, 1952, SA.

  dizzily “romantic”: PC, letter to family, January 30, 1952, SA.

  “a charming little nincompoop”: Shapiro, Julia Child, p. 44.

  “a pile of wrinkled and stained”: JC, My Life, p. 146.

  “a wonder sauce used on fish”: PC, letter to family, October 21, 1952, SA.

  “After a year of frustration”: “You may want to throw out [Ripperger’s] efforts entirely.” Sumner Putnam, letter to JC, November 20, 1952, SA.

  “in about ten days”: “This … will give you a clear idea of the new form.” JC, letter to Sumner Putnam, November 30, 1952, SA.

  “build off the Bugnard/Cordon Bleu”: “I wrote Sumner Putnam, explaining that the new version of French Home Cooking would not be just another collection of recipes.” JC, My Life, p. 150.

  Sheeline admitted he “had no experience”: “An eye trained in the law is better than an untrained one in cases such as this.” Paul Sheeline, letter to JC, November 5, 1952, SA.

  She also outlined the situation in a letter: “History of our Relations with Ives Washburn,” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, December 30, 1952, SA.

  It contained a litany: Bernard DeVoto, “Why Professors Are
Suspicious of Business,” Fortune, April 1951, pp. 114–15.

  “let off a blast of cuss-words”: PC, letter to family, April 15, 1952, SA.

  “angry watchdog”: Wallace Stegner, The Uneasy Chair, Doubleday, 1971, p. 9.

  “They look wonderful, but they won’t”: Bernard DeVoto, “The Easy Chair: Crusade Resumed,” Harper’s, November 1951, p. 97.

  The article “smacked Julie”: “It said with clarity and drama just what she’d been saying to me for some time past.” PC, letter to family, December 31, 1952, SA

  “She pours out words”: PC, letter to family, January 16, 1953, SA.

  “Before marriage I was wildly interested”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, October 28, 1953, SA.

  “She had a very particular view”: Mark DeVoto, interview with author, September 4, 2009.

  “a take-charge gal”: Judith Jones, interview with author, March 18, 2009.

  “And please,” Julia implored: “I shall be deeply appreciative of any comments you can make.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, December 15, 1952, SA.

  “There isn’t any cookbook like it”: Avis DeVoto, letter to JC, December 25, 1952, SA.

  “seem to be sewed up morally”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, December 15, 1952.

  “no intention of wasting it”: JC, letter to Paul Sheeling, undated.

  “absolutely charmed”: JC, My Life, p. 149.

  “was not convinced”: Ibid., p. 150.

  “tickled pink”: “Dorothy has read every word of the ms.” Avis DeVoto, letter to JC, January 13, 1953, SA.

  “HOORAY,” Julia scrawled: “And the HM news of our cookbook.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, January 28, 1953, SA.

  “It might have been Reykjavik”: PC, letter to family, January 14, 1953, SA.

  “knew Paris could not last”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, January 19, 1953.

  “sad to see her go”: Beck, Food and Friends, p. 189.

  “You wouldn’t know how the country”: PC, letter to family, November 22, 1952, SA.

  “This was hard to take”: JC, My Life, p. 155.

  “persona traitoria”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, December 15, 1952, SA.

  “about either politics or Charlie Chaplin”: Phila McWilliams, letter to JC, December 9, 1952, private collection.