Appetite for Life

by Noel Riley Fitch

  Her friend M. F. K. Fisher said of herself that age meant she could “get away with more. Say more of what I want to say and less of what people want to hear.” Julia also got past what Fisher called the “protective covering of the middle years” and became more incautious and obstinate. All her traits became exaggerated, said Anne Willan. A former school friend said she had “grown more caustic than she used to be,” taking on some of Paul’s attitudes. “She could be magisterial and imperious,” said yet another. She had the stubbornness of Greta Garbo, the independence of Katharine Hepburn.

  In January 1997 in Santa Barbara, she put the Seaview condominium up for sale and moved her furniture into storage and bought a private dwelling in a retirement village that she and Paul had chosen years before. She would not burden loved ones with any future infirmities (she thought); she was alone (she felt). She would keep the Cambridge house and office a few years longer before giving it to Smith College. She continued to teach and sell books, but perhaps her greatest triumphs came through television. Betty Fussell called her “a major woman television comic second only to Carol Burnett and Lucille Ball.” Yet her true impact on television was changing the country’s views on the importance of good food and good dining—while giving them a good show.

  The passion for cooking that had gripped Julia in 1949 in Paris was finally legitimized in her own country. By 1997, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the food service industry was the “fourth fastest-growing” in the country, a figure echoed by the National Restaurant Association’s estimates that by 2005 there will be “1.5 million new restaurant jobs” available. The nearly 300 chef schools could expect “an average of six to seven job possibilities for every chef and baker they graduate.”

  The television audience Julia began gathering in 1963 had burgeoned by 1997. One third of the programs of PBS, which now reached 98 percent of all homes, were cooking shows. When they were joined by TVFN, which claimed 17 million cable subscribers, and the cooking programs on the Discovery Channel and the Learning Channel, one executive was prompted to claim, “Food is the live entertainment of the future.”

  M. F. K. Fisher and A. J. Liebling (Between Meals) may have first made it acceptable to love food and talk about it, but Julia spread that gospel to the middle class. She is most proud of bringing men into the American kitchen. Yet Christopher Lydon, in one of the best profiles of Julia in 1996, believes her impact was greatest on women: “Queen Julia has done more than [Betty] Friedan, Gloria Steinern and Co. to show American women a model of power in public and expressive self-discovery at home.”

  Her career, and the example of John McWilliams and Paul Child, had turned a happy-go-lucky, aimless tennis player into a world-class educator and inspiration, what some called a workaholic (she herself would reject the word). “She fears death,” says one of her family members. “I think that she fears if she stops she will die.” At least she dreads professional death, for she loves what she does; if she stops she might be forgotten and not be able to continue.

  HER LAST SUPPER

  The meal would begin with foie gras, oysters, and “a little caviar.” For thirty-five years she was repeatedly asked for the menu of her last meal. For one who loved a simple, well-cooked piece of meat and a ripe pear for dessert, she always named the most extravagant and rarest foods for her last repast:

  First, caviar with Russian vodka (Duburovna) and oysters with Pouilly-Fuissé. And some foie gras, of course. Second, she wanted to eat pan-roasted duck—the duck never varied—accompanied by little onions and chanterelle mushrooms, her main dish. Sometimes she mentioned pommes Anna, “that lovely cake of sliced potatoes baked in butter to a crisp brown crust.” Sometimes she wanted fresh asparagus with the duck. She would drink a 1962 Romanée-Conti, which she had had only once, for it cost $700 a bottle. When she was in a frugal mood, she chose a delicate red Bordeaux, a St.-Emilion or Château Palmer. Sometimes, Château Lafite-Rothschild. Third, good French bread with Roquefort and Brie would be eaten with a great Burgundy, such as Grands-Echézeaux.

  Finally, dessert was a movable feast on which she changed her mind over the years. It varied from pungent sorbet with walnut cake to a simple ripe pear and green tea. She was never strong on desserts, but as she got older she decided she could eat a gooey chocolate dessert or a charlotte Malakoff. When she dreamed big, her dessert was the crème brûlée from Le Cirque with Château d’Yquem 1975 or 1976 at $450 a bottle.

  “And I would die happy.”

  When she was asked for her “favorite comfort food,” she responded firmly, “Red meat and gin!” A pioneer of pleasure in a puritan country. A sturdy “pre-war feminist,” as Camille Paglia, the author of Sexual Personae, describes women like Julia Child, Amelia Earhart, and Katharine Hepburn. Paglia, once called a “motormouth gender contrarian,” calls Julia Child “a major American woman” who has been neglected by the academic feminist establishment (“the anorexia- and bulimia-obsessed victimology of academic studies!”) because Julia is the “opposite of today’s victim psychology”: “This country was a waste-land of Philistinism in terms of food until (‘food-affirming’) Julia Child came on the scene…. [S]he is one of those figures in history who totally transformed American culture.”

  In her old age, Julia joined that noble species, the Grand Old Gal—a common apotheosis for brilliant women. She may stand with her head tipped a little down and sideward, as Eleanor Roosevelt did when her back became stooped, but she is still the queen. Despite bum knees weakening her gait, and the occasional need to lean against the stove (or on the table), she worked at a barely diminished pace. After all, as she loved to point out, “Escoffier lived to be ninety-three and my old chef Max Bugnard lived to be ninety-six.”

  Her appetite for life will never be sated. “Retired people are boring,” she claims. “In this line of work, you never have to retire. You keep right on until you’re through.”

  TELEVISION SERIES

  TITLE NUMBER YEAR(S) FILMED

  1. The French Chef

  (black and white)

  119 1963–66

  2. The French Chef

  (color)

  90 1970–73

  3. Julia Child &

  Company

  13 1978

  4. Julia Child & More

  Company

  13 1979

  5. Dinner at Julia’s

  13 1983

  6. Cooking with Master

  Chefs

  16 1993

  7. In Julia’s Kitchen

  with Master Chefs

  26 1994

  8. Baking with Julia

  39 1996

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  AND SOURCES

  JULIA CHILD’S friendly generosity and cheerful responsiveness to my many queries have not only made my five years of research a personal pleasure, they have immeasurably enriched this biography. Never has she asked to read or approve my work, a calculated wisdom that reveals trust and respect for the biographical process, bemused resignation based on decades of being misquoted, self-confidence, and an honest openness to life and to others. I could not have written her biography without the total access to her collected and uncollected papers she accorded me. She opened every file and datebook, offered the names of those (very few) who might give me negative opinions (“good quotes,” she promised), and prepared meals for me when I visited. She has left me with the burden of responsibility for interpretations and (mis)judgments.

  One’s friends, they say, are a reflection of one’s self, and in the case of Julia Child the cast is joyful, multitudinous, and multinational. They reflect her generosity and support and made my work a delight. Her sister, Dorothy Cousins, offered me family letters, photographs, her mother’s diary, and a vast clipping file of Julia’s career; her brother, John McWilliams, gave me photographs and a copy of their grandfather’s memoirs; her nieces, nephews, and cousins shared letters and hours of their memories and insights.

  Special thanks to culinary histo
rians Phil and Mary Hyman, who, during one of their delicious dinners in Paris, first suggested to me they had the perfect subject for my next biography. They were most convincing that I should emphasize the French-American connection. Bert Sonnenfeld gave a hearty second to the Hyman’s motion and has offered support, expertise, and, as always, the final read-through. I am particularly grateful to Stephanie Hersh, assistant to Julia Child, for her delightful wit and professional assistance; Kristine Dahl, my agent at International Creative Management, for her belief in the importance of this biography; and Elizabeth Lerner, my editor at Doubleday, for her perceptive editing and encouragement.

  For research assistance, I wish to thank Michael Hargraves of the Getty Museum, who offered his M. F. K. Fisher archive, his www expertise, and unfailing research skills; Betty Rosbottom, whose energy is matched only by her mentor’s, for insightful recipe and cookbook analysis; Kathleen O’Neill for hours of computerized genealogy assistance; Roberta Klugman, executive director of the American Institute of Wine and Food (AIWF), for answering all my questions; Peter Petraitis for rare books; Karen Walker for additional Paris research; and George Gruenwald, Barbara Hull, and Gwyn Erwin for research assistance. My gratitude to the family and friends of Julia Child who read portions of this manuscript that pertained to their experience.

  Several people offered both hospitality and research sources, for which I remain in their debt: E. S. (Peggy) Yntema (Cambridge), Elisabeth Hill and Martha Starr (Washington, DC), Jeanine and Roland Plottel (NYC), Ronald and Betty Rosbottom (Amherst, MA), Anne Willan & Mark Cherniavsky (Burgundy, France); France Thibault (Châteauneuf de Grasse, France, where I spent two visits in Simca’s room).

  FOR SHARING their memories and meals, for giving me access to letters and photographs, insights and support, I wish to thank the following: Marshall Ackerman, Kathie Alex, Rebecca Alssid, R. W. Apple, Jr., David Haward Bain, Hélène Baltrusaitis, Elisabeth Brassart, Nancy Verde Barr, Michael and Ariane Batterberry, Mary Zook Beales, Emily M. (Wendy) Beck, Henry Becton, Jr., Mary Cootes Belin, Karen Berk, Fern Berman, Ailene (Martin) and Jean Berrard, Louisette Bertholle (Madame la Comtesse de Nalèche), Peter and Mari Bicknell, Margrit Biever (Mondavi), James Bishop, Tom and Frances Bissell, Corinne M. Black, Paul Bohannan, Jane Bollinger, Alison Boteler, Francis Myer Brennan, Joan Brewster, Benjamin H. Brown, Philip S. Brown, Barbara Ord Bryant, Marian Burros, Mary Ford Cairns, Lou and Mary Cannon, Thomas P. Carhartt, Page Carter, Narcisse Chamberlain, Brien and Rudolph Chelminski, Jonathan Child, Rachel Child, Robert Clark, Pat Brown Clopper, André J. Cointreau, Eleanor Roberts Colt, Joseph R. Coolidge, Constance Thayer Cory, Dorothy Cousins, Philadelphia Cousins and Bob Moran, Samuel Cousins, Howard B. Crotinger, Martha Culbertson, Carol and B. J. Cutler, Marion Cunningham, Susy Davidson, Peter Davison, Elton Davies, Sylvie and Jacques Delécluse, Martha G. Dennis, Carl DeSantis, Mark DeVoto, Froydis and Jan W. Dietrichson, Mary Tonetti Dorra, Harriet Doerr, John P. Downing, Geoffrey Drummond, Robert W. Duemling, Madame F. du Couëdic, William Echikson, Bjorn and Eline Egge, Colin Eisler, E. Lee Fairley, George Faison, Barbara Pool Fenzl, Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson, John Ferrone, Lyne S. Few, Carol Field, Lisbeth Fisher, Janet Fletcher, Ted and Linda Fondulas, Terry Ford, Pierre Franey, Ken Frank, Jane Friedman, Jean Friendly, James Fullerton, Betty Fussell, Catherine Atwater Galbraith, John Kenneth Galbraith, Katy and Freeman Gates, Catherine Gewertz, Charles Gibson, K. Dun Gifford, Janice Goldklang, Richard Graff, Agnes Green, Dorie Greenspan, Paul Grimes, George Gruenwald, Barbara Haber, Charles Hall, Orian Hall Hallor, Dorothy Cann Hamilton, Viola Tuckerman Hansen, Nancy Kirby Harris, Anne Hastings, Robert P. Hastings, Nancy Gregg Hatch, Harriet P. Healy, Patrick Healy, Louis J. Hector, Nancy White Hector, Susan Heller, Jack Hemingway, Pamela Henstell, Harriet Thacher Herrick, Stephanie Hersh, Karen Hess, Jens P. and Mosse Heyerdahl, Fritz Hier, Jim Hill, Alice C. Hiscock, Anita Hinckley Hovey, Fisher and Debby Howe, Sue Barton Huffman, Robert A. Huttenback, Philip and Mary Hyman, David O. Ives, J. Roland Jacobs, Susan Jacobson, Nancy Harmon Jenkins, Pamela Sheldon Johns, Anne Winton Johnston, Jeffrey Jones, Judith Jones, Barbara Kafka, Elizabeth Parker Kase, Lynne Rossetto Kasper, Edmond Kennedy, Graham Kerr, Mannie and Willette Klausner, Roberta Klugman, Susan Donnell Konkel, William A. Koshland, Harriet Kostic, Elizabeth and George A. Kubler, Christopher Kump, Peter Kump, Alexandre Lazaroff, Paul Levy, Lorance W. Lisle, Ruth Lockwood, James Londe, Jan Longone, James M. McDonald, Elizabeth McIntosh, John McJennett, J. Alexander McWilliams, Jr., David McWilliams, Josephine and John McWilliams III, Patricia G. McWilliams, Saba McWilliams, Maggie Mah, Rosemary Manell, Carolyn Margolis, Byron S. Martin, Dudley Martin, Edward A. Martin, I. Guy Martin, Michael McCarty, Marc Meneau, Sally Bicknell Miall, Barry Michlin, Juliana Middleton, Helen Kirkpatrick Milbank, Amy Bess Miller, Jane C. Owen Molard, Robert Mondavi, John L. Moore, Russell and Marian Morash, Sara Moulton, Richard S. Mowrer, Carrita Nelson, Kyle Nelson, Lizabeth Nicol, Eleanor (Ollie) Noall, Clara Rideout Noyses, Richard Olney, Deborah Olson, Carolyn O’Neil, Dana Gans Parker, Suzanne Patterson, Jacques Pépin, Kathleen Perry, Corinne M. Poole, Jean MacKenzie deSola Pool, Herbert and Patricia R. Pratt, Erica Child Prud’homme, Wolfgang Puck, Edwin J. Putzell, Steven and Barbara Raichlen, Joan Reardon, Kenneth O. Rhodes, Mary Livingston Ripley, Mary S. Risley, Stuart W. and Rosalind Rockwell, Susan M. Rogers, Betty Rosbottom, Natale Rusconi, Mary Francis Snow Russell, Thibaut de Saint Phalle, Henny and Berge Santo, Marian C. Schlesinger, Margie Schodt, Laura Shapiro, Paul C. and Sandra Sheeline, Virginia Durand Shelden, Mimi Sheraton, James Sherer, Nancy Silverton, Roxane Ruhl Simmons, Barbara Sims-Bell, Joseph C. Sloane, Catharine Carton Smith, Charmaine Solomon, Carl G. Sontheimer, Darthea Speyer, Zanne Early Stewart, Perry and Moune Stieglitz, David Strada, Steven Sullivan, Eleanor Thiry Summers, Jeffrey Steingarten, Madame France Thibault, Jean-François Thibault, Grant P. and Sharon Thompson, Lionel Tiger, Elizabeth Cathcart Tisdal, George Trescher, Clay Triplette, William A. Truslow, Charlotte Snyder Turgeon, Gregory Usher, Margaret Clark VanderVeer, Louise Vincent, Freifrau Dorothea von Stetten, Janou Walcutt, Susan Walter, Mary Case Warner, Marjory Ellen Lacy Warren, Alice Waters, Nach Waxman, Jan Weimer, Patricia Wells, Andrea B. Werbel, Donald M. Weston, Jr., Mary Weston, Barbara Ketcham Wheaton, Aileen Johnson Whitaker, Jasper White, Frances Proctor Wilkinson, Anne Willan and Mark Cherniavsky, Charles E. Williams, Faith Heller Willinger, Craig Alan Wilson, Clark Wolf, Paula Wolfert, Jim Wood, Gay Bradley Wright, Douwe Yntema, E. S. (Peggy) Yntema. And thanks to more than 150 others who answered my New York Times query, including numerous journalists who had interviewed Julia Child, and others who answered brief telephone queries.

  THE JOHN MCWILLIAMS family records were burned in a fire in 1901. What remains are the personal Recollections of grandfather John McWilliams, who dictated them to his secretary during the later years of his life, a genealogy of the Weston family (1065–1951), and the letters and photographs which are part of the private collection of the McWilliams and Child families (Julia McWilliams Child, Dorothy McWilliams Cousins, John and Josephine McWilliams III, Phila Cousins, Rachel Child, Erica Prud’homme, Jonathan Child, Saba McWilliams, J. Alexander McWilliams, Jr., and Dana Gans Parker).

  In addition to the family papers above, I am deeply indebted to the following persons (or their heirs) who shared with me their private and unpublished personal diaries and memoirs: Eleanor Thiry Summers, Joseph R. Coolidge, Elizabeth Parker Kase, Julia McWilliams Child, Paul Cushing Child, Jeanne Taylor, and Avis DeVoto. For direct access to additional letters of Julia Child, I thank Barbara Pool Fenzl, Harriet Healy, Jens & Mosse Heyerdahl, Peter Kump, John L. Moore, Richard Mowrer, Kyle Nelson, Corinne Poole, Basil and Eleanor Summers, Anne Willan and Mark Cherniavsky, and others.

  Many organizations provided access to special collections of documents, materials, and facilities. I wish to acknowledge the individuals who were especially helpful to me. In particular, I am indebted to the warm encouragement and sometimes special intervention of Barbara Haber, Curator of Printed Books, and Barbara Wheaton, honora
ry curator, of the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe, where the papers of Julia Child, Simone Beck, Avis DeVoto, and M. F. K. Fisher are housed. The following libraries and institutions offered vital resources for the research for this book:

  American Heritage Center. James Beard Collection, University of Wyoming. Laramie, WY. JB/JC Correspondence, 1953–73.

  Avon Old Farms School Elizabeth A. Coburn, Baxter Library, and Gordon Clark Ramsey, University of Hartford, Historian of Old Farms Schools.

  Beard House. New York. Diane Harris, Mitchell Davis, and Clay Triplette.

  Beinecke Rare Book and MSS Library. Yale University Library. Richard and Alice Lee Myers Papers and Robert Penn Warren and Eleanor Clark Papers.

  Boston University. Rebecca Alssid, Director of Special Programs, Metropolitan College.

  Branson School. Harriet Kostic, Alumni Director. Ross, CA.

  British Library. Reading Room, London.

  Central Intelligence Agency. Washington, DC. John H. Wright, Information and Privacy Coordinator.

  Doheny Library. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA. Dace Taube, Regional History Center, Department of Special Collections.