"All our dreams can come true,
if we have the courage to pursue them."
-Walt Disney
Sometimes I wish I was more like Julia Child. Self-confident yet unassured. Bright, bubbly, energetic and effervescent. It took her a long time to find out what she wanted, but when she found it, she went after it. As she once said, “I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate.”
When she moved to Paris in 1948 with her husband, Paul, who was 10 years her senior, had traveled the world farther than she had and was quite the gourmand, Julia knew almost nothing of French cooking. But she enrolled at the Cordon Bleu, started a cooking school and, twenty years later, published Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She starred in her own TV show, The French Chef, and was even parodied on Saturday Night Live. She lived until the age of 92, never once slowing down. When asked how she lived so long, she said "Red meat and gin.”
While I don't feel the way Julia does about French food in particular, I do feel the same way she does about food and cooking. At least, I like to think I do. "You never forget a beautiful thing that you have made. Even after you eat it, it stays with you -- always." "Noncooks think it's silly to invest two hours' work in two minutes' enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet." "Some people like to paint pictures, or do gardening, or build a boat in the basement. Other people get a tremendous pleasure out of the kitchen, because cooking is just as creative and imaginative an activity as drawing, or wood carving, or music."
There are few things more enjoyable than taking that first bite off a colorful and delectable plate and exercising your taste buds, deciding whether the food is sweet or savory, bitter or sour, crunchy or smooth. The delight of eating is only rivaled by the joy of cooking (there is no question as to why Irma Rombauer named her seminal book that.)
Julia Child's life was given meaning by learning how to cook. I'm not looking for anything so profound. I just want to experience new things. I have lived my entire life as a picky eater. When I find something I like, I really go for it. But there needs to be more. As Julia Child said, "Life itself is the proper binge."
if we have the courage to pursue them."
-Walt Disney
Sometimes I wish I was more like Julia Child. Self-confident yet unassured. Bright, bubbly, energetic and effervescent. It took her a long time to find out what she wanted, but when she found it, she went after it. As she once said, “I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate.”
When she moved to Paris in 1948 with her husband, Paul, who was 10 years her senior, had traveled the world farther than she had and was quite the gourmand, Julia knew almost nothing of French cooking. But she enrolled at the Cordon Bleu, started a cooking school and, twenty years later, published Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She starred in her own TV show, The French Chef, and was even parodied on Saturday Night Live. She lived until the age of 92, never once slowing down. When asked how she lived so long, she said "Red meat and gin.”
While I don't feel the way Julia does about French food in particular, I do feel the same way she does about food and cooking. At least, I like to think I do. "You never forget a beautiful thing that you have made. Even after you eat it, it stays with you -- always." "Noncooks think it's silly to invest two hours' work in two minutes' enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet." "Some people like to paint pictures, or do gardening, or build a boat in the basement. Other people get a tremendous pleasure out of the kitchen, because cooking is just as creative and imaginative an activity as drawing, or wood carving, or music."
There are few things more enjoyable than taking that first bite off a colorful and delectable plate and exercising your taste buds, deciding whether the food is sweet or savory, bitter or sour, crunchy or smooth. The delight of eating is only rivaled by the joy of cooking (there is no question as to why Irma Rombauer named her seminal book that.)
Julia Child's life was given meaning by learning how to cook. I'm not looking for anything so profound. I just want to experience new things. I have lived my entire life as a picky eater. When I find something I like, I really go for it. But there needs to be more. As Julia Child said, "Life itself is the proper binge."
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