Spark by Claudia Kalb

Author:Claudia Kalb [Kalb, Claudia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-04-27T00:00:00+00:00

Julia Child was 36 years old when she and Paul boarded the S.S. America bound for Le Havre harbor on the Normandy coast. France began working its magic immediately: The bicyclists, the children in wooden shoes, the pop of green from cabbage fields. By the time the Childs arrived in the town of Rouen—about 60 miles northwest of Paris, where Paul was starting a new job with the U.S. Information Agency—Julia was smitten.

In this ancient town Julia would, finally, discover her raison d’etre. Neither an intellectual revelation (like Newton’s understanding of gravity) nor a decision of intent (like Sara Blakely’s pursuit of an entrepreneurial idea), it was instead an awakening borne of inquisitiveness, openness, awareness, and luck. Eating food had appealed to Julia since childhood, and unfamiliar tastes in China had roused her palate. Now, in a country where citizens honored their cuisine as fervently as their national flag, Julia’s taste buds were primed for discovery.

Trusting their Guide Michelin as culinary adviser, Julia and Paul chose Rouen’s celebrated La Couronne for lunch. Julia drank in the pungent aromas of buttery shallots and fresh lemon mixed with wine vinegar before feasting on a first course of briny oysters served with rye bread and butter. Then came the main entrée: a Dover sole, known as sole meunière, served whole on an oval platter.

“I closed my eyes and inhaled the rising perfume. Then I lifted a forkful of fish to my mouth, took a bite, and chewed slowly,” Julia recollected. “The flesh of the sole was delicate, with a light but distinct taste of the ocean that blended marvelously with the browned butter. I chewed slowly and swallowed. It was a morsel of perfection.”

A salade verte, fresh crispy baguette, and fromage blanc topped off the meal, which Julia would later describe as an epiphany—the moment when she knew that she was meant to be a cook.

It was a moment she never forgot. “In all the years since that succulent meal,” she wrote, “I have yet to lose the feelings of wonder and excitement that it inspired in me. I can still almost taste it.”

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