In her own words, here is the captivating story of Julia Child's years in France, where she fell in love with French food and found "her true calling."

From the moment the ship docked in Le Havre in the fall of 1948 and Julia watched the well-muscled stevedores unloading the cargo to the first perfectly soigné meal that she and her husband, Paul, savored in Rouen en route to Paris, where he was to work for the USIS, Julia had an awakening that changed her life. Soon this tall, outspoken gal from Pasadena, California, who didn't speak a word of French and knew nothing about the country, was steeped in the language, chatting with purveyors in the local markets, and enrolled in the Cordon Bleu.

After managing to get her degree despite the machinations of the disagreeable directrice of the school, Julia started teaching cooking classes herself, then teamed up with two fellow gourmettes, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, to help them with a book they were trying to write on French cooking for Americans. Throwing herself heart and soul into making it a unique and thorough teaching book, only to suffer several rounds of painful rejection, is part of the behind-the-scenes drama that Julia reveals with her inimitable gusto and disarming honesty.

Filled with the beautiful black-and-white photographs that Paul loved to take when he was not battling bureaucrats, as well as family snapshots, this memoir is laced with wonderful stories about the French character, particularly in the world of food, and the way of life that Julia embraced so wholeheartedly. Above all, she reveals the kind of spirit and determination, the sheer love of cooking, and the drive to share that with her fellow Americans that made her the extraordinary success she became.

Le voici. Et bon appétit!

Amazingly energetic, creative, and ultimately inimitable (despite many attempts), Julia Child (d.2004) brought French cooking to American kitchens. For this book she worked with her husband's grandnephew Alex Prud'homme to record her experiences between 1948 and 1954 in Paris and Marseille (and a few later adventures), which she terms the best years of her life. Like her life, her book is full of fun and zest. Fans will savor, or devour, this account.
Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Amazingly energetic, creative, and ultimately inimitable (despite many attempts), Julia Child (d.2004) brought French cooking to American kitchens. For this book she worked with her husband's grandnephew Alex Prud'homme to record her experiences between 1948 and 1954 in Paris and Marseille (and a few later adventures), which she terms the best years of her life. Like her life, her book is full of fun and zest. Fans will savor, or devour, this account. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

"[Julia's] ripe, fruity tone and sensibility seem to fill the book." Portland Oregonian

"In the same way Child's this-way-and-that television delivery never lost its viewers' attention, her elegant but unfussy prose pulls the reader into her stories." Chicago Sun-Times

"Some of the most interesting aspects of the memoir revolve around the way the three original authors of Mastering butted heads throughout the decade or more that the book took to write." Washington Post

"I was nevertheless won over by the charm of this story, as anyone who ever watched The French Chef on PBS was won over by its hostess." Baltimore Sun

Julia Child was born in Pasadena, California. She was graduated from Smith College and worked for the OSS during World War II in Ceylon and China, where she met Paul Child. After they married they lived in Paris, where she studied at the Cordon Bleu and taught cooking with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, with whom she wrote the first volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961). In 1963, Boston's WGBH launched The French Chef television series, which made her a national celebrity, earning her the Peabody Award in 1965 and an Emmy in 1966. Several public television shows and numerous cookbooks followed. She died in 2004.

Alex Prud'homme, Paul Child's grandnephew, is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, and other publications. He is the author of The Cell Game and the coauthor (with Michael Cherkasky) of Forewarned. He lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York.