Julia Child by Erin Hagar

Author:Erin Hagar [Hagar, Erin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781938093357
Publisher: Duo Press

CHAPTER NINE

Cook, Write, Move, Repeat

Julia had just started revising the chapter about fish before she and Paul left Paris. Lucky for her, their new apartment in Marseille was right next door to a fish market. She spent hours learning about the different kinds of fish and researching their American equivalents, even writing letters to the U.S. Department of Fisheries to get more information. If it was possible, Julia worked even harder on the book in Marseille. “She’s determined to be author, foreign-service wife, cook, bottle washer, market buyer and sophisticated hostess,” Paul wrote, amazed by her energy.

That energy would carry Julia through three moves in five years—to Germany, the United States, and Norway. After each move, she’d have to settle into her new kitchen, find the right ingredients, and continue the detailed process of testing and rewriting. She wrote page after typewritten page—drafts of the recipes themselves, letters to friends and family in the United States who were testing her recipes and providing feedback, and countless letters to Simca. (Louisette was not very involved in the book at this point.)

Julia’s years with the OSS came in handy. She made sure to label her recipes “TOP SECRET” and insisted her testers not breathe a word about them to anyone. She didn’t want them stolen and published by someone else!

Before their relocation to Germany, Paul and Julia took some vacation time back in the States. Julia finally met her pen pal, Avis, and their friendship grew even stronger. “I never had anybody in my house who was so completely effortless and easy, and whom I am so eager to see again,” Avis wrote after Julia and Paul visited her in Cambridge. The feeling was mutual.

During Julia’s two years in Pittlesdorf, Germany, she continued to cook and revise her recipes. Though she didn’t like the military housing provided to Americans working there, the local grocery did carry American ingredients, which made it easier for Julia to test her recipes. The cookbook was growing every day, and Julia figured she and Simca had at least another year and a half, maybe two, before it would be finished. She used her time to focus on the meat and poultry chapters. She also practiced cooking on an electric stove—something she hated but needed to understand.

Paul was reassigned to a post in the States in 1956, and he and Julia moved back to their house in Washington, D.C. They gave it a total makeover, including their kitchen. The six-burner gas stove they bought was such a hit, Julia swore she’d take it with her to her grave. They entertained often, reconnecting with old friends.

But there was a trend Julia noticed back in her home country that troubled her. Many Americans weren’t really cooking, she noticed, at least not in the way Julia would have them cook. Commercials and advertisements showed housewives who were so busy with their children that they had no time, or no desire, to make delicious meals from scratch. According to television and magazines,

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