My Life in France: By julia Child and alex prud’homme
Historical Investigation By: Melanie Russo
My Primary source My Primary source is a photograph taken by Paul child. In this photo Julia is demonstrating how to debone a duck. This Picture was taken because she was working on her cook book and they need picture for the book. They sent these pictures to an artist to make sketches for the book. I choose this picture because I liked the story behind it. Because Julia child was very very tall so Paul had to stand on a ladder to table. Paul was a very good photographer and artist. But the publishers had them get a professional artist to make the sketches. (Unable to download photo from Kindle)
Secondary source This is an article on Julia Child and Paul Child. It is significant because Julia talks about her job in the US government and this article by world book clearly outlines what she did. It is sometimes unclear of what she did in the government. Because the united states government uses lots of abbreviations and they can get very confusing.
Review If you are interested in cooking this is a great book about and amazing woman. Julia Child worked for the United States government during world war two she was stationed in present day Sri Lanka. Where Mrs Child met her husband Paul Child. They were married Julia left the government but Paul did not. Has been stationed in Paris. Mrs Child attended the Cordon Bleu where she learned to cook. She falls in love with cooking. She met Louise Bartholle and Simone Beck. Together the write Mastering the Art of French Cooking a French cook book for American chefs.
Why you should this 8th grade students should read this book because it is very interesting. It gives shows the life of Julia and Paul post world war II France. It also is very interesting to learn about Julia’s time learning to cook and about the sshe faced righting a cook book.
Historical Fiction Short story
Parisian adventure Julia Child walks out of her little apartment on the street lovingly nick named rue de loo. She is headed to the market to gather the ingredients to surprise her husband Paul Child with a gourmet meal, even though she had never cooked anything so ambitious. Julia said to herself, “self I think I will make something really simple from The Joy of Cooking.” She choose a simple sounding quiche roasted tomatoes, herb and goat cheese. Armed with nothing but a limited amount of French, a phrase book, and a pocket of cash, she continued a long Rue De loo in the fresh spring air. Julia walked about seven block until she got to a little store with a line out the door and gigantic rounds of cheese in the window. Every kind of cheese imaginable was in the window and more. Gorgonzola, Camembert, cheese made from sheep’s milk, Cheddar, and of course a huge wheel of Parmesan reggiano the undisputed king of cheeses. Since the line was long and consisting of only Parisian locals Julia knew it must be fantastic. She stood in line behind a lovely French couple who spoke to here in rapid French about the cheeses and how best to use them. They were so kind to her even though she didn’t know what they were saying. The man had a bushy beard and eyebrows to match. The women had fiery red hair and smelled of fresh baked cookies. Then man told her how to make an easy French dish with goat cheese” première fois que vous prenez un morceau de pain frais français gentil. Vous l'enduire d'huile d'olive. Ensuite, le fromage de chèvre au jambon et continuer encore et encore dans le four il va. Il est magnifique.” He spoke all in French it was hard to understand what he said. But this is what he said, beard wobbling, “First you take a
piece of nice fresh French bread. You coat it in olive oil. Then ham and goat cheese goes on and in the oven it goes. It is... magnificent.” Julia said “ohh thank you are lovely. I will have to try that. I love French cooking,” In broken French of course. The woman added her two cents about cheese, “with this camembert,” she pointed to a round of camembert ”your apples will taste even better than they do now.” It was the couples turn at the counter; Julia thanked them for the advice as they left. Her anxiety about living and shopping in France soon abated. After she realized how nice the people were. She continued with her plan to make a quiche deciding that she would make the French man’s idea another time. When it was her turn at the counter she met the father, Jacque, and the daughter, Isabella, a charming pair, and the owners of the shop. She ordered some goat cheese. Then Mrs. Child noticed all the other cheeses she simply could not live without. All in all she ordered about a kilo of different all kinds of cheese. The next things on her list were roasted tomatoes. This was a little trickier than the cheese. Julia was going to just go to a regular store, but as she came upon a grocery store, but as Julia looked around and it hit her: she was in Paris, France the food capital of the world. So she moved on. Since it was a Wednesday, a day for markets in France she walked until she came upon a lively market full of little old ladies selling and buying colourful, bright fruits and vegetables along with meat and cheese, shirts, and shoes. It was fascinating to Julia to watch the people moving around buying a chicken from a food stall then buying shoes from next. It was so
exciting she hardly knew where to start. Thinking she would just roast her own tomatoes she found an old couple and bought 3 tomatoes and some fresh eggs. On the way back she stopped into a bakery. As it happens there were a few empty pie crusts which was just what Mrs Child needed because she couldn’t make crust just yet. She also bought some gorgeous French bread, crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy just as a fresh loaf of French bread should be. When she got back from Rue De Loo she started on her quiche. She thought it would be easy to throw everything in some scrambled egg into a pre made pie crust, but she was wrong. Julia cut the tomatoes then put them in the oven. Then she went into the parlour to write a letter to her sister Dorothy about her first week in France. She got a little carried away and the next thing she knew her tomatoes were ruined, burned to a crisp, not roasted what so ever. Her poor tomatoes looked like charcoal, all black and flaky. Who knew tomatoes could burn so badly? Then she realized she forgot the ham it was too late to go out and get. With a disappointed harrumph she angrily made boring old scrambled eggs. When Paul came home she served the eggs all fancy with the bread she bought. They were dreadful, tough a rubbery. Since Julia’s motto was never apologize, she didn’t say anything as she took another bite of the horrid egg until Paul said, “I’m sorry honey, but these are awful.” Julia replied with a smile, “I know, but I never apologize for my cooking because then the other person will say oh no they’re great, even though you can barely eat them without gaging.” Paul smiled as he said, “I love you but I can’t eat these. Let’s go out and eat.”
Julia said, “This shouldn’t even be fed to mini.” Mini was their cat. Paul and Julia went to a restaurant on the corner of the street where they had a lovely roasted duck and a fine merlot. Paul was quite the wine lover. It was a fantastic adventure even though the meal Julia made was inedible. Mrs Child learned that even when your goal was not reached the journey to get there should be as amazing as you can make it.
Citations Child, Julia, and Alex Prud'homme. My Life in France. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Print( the book ) "Child, Julia." World Book Student. World Book, 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2012
"By Julia Child, Alex Prud'Homme: My Life in France [Paperback]." By Julia Child, Alex Prud'Homme: My Life in France: Amazon.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. <http://www.amazon.com/By-JuliaChild-Alex-PrudHomme/dp/B007WEP76Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8>. Picture on cover