Julia Child and Me

      More Letters From Paradise
         Julia Child and Me

In my tiny one-butt kitchen is a shelf full of cookbooks, the rest are in the bedroom. Squeezed between "The Escoffier Cookbook," translated from the French, as the Bible of Culinary Art, and James Beard's "American Cookery," is Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." It's Julia Child I want to write about.

I never had the good fortune to meet Julia, but I think we share several things in common. First, we both like to cook. And, both she and I have written cookbooks. Her "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," is a classic.  Mine, however, consists a a few pages written as a guide for our sons attending college, who had not a clue about cooking. A very limited publication. I did include two excellent simple recipes at the end, in order to impress girlfriends.

So we both wrote cookbooks. What's next? Why, Paris, of course. Julia graduated from a famous cooking school and lived in Paris.  A city we both loved.  It's been over forty years since I last saw Paris, but I remember it well. A kindly grocer pulling a wine cork out of a bottle so that it could wash down bread, while watching barges pass by on the Seine.

Strolling through Les Halles, the great market often referred to as the "Stomach of Paris." And eating a thick bowl of onion soup with a crust of bread and cheese on top.

But, as I now understand, the Paris Julia and I knew is no more, and the great market has moved outside of Paris.

And, how many of you remember Julia's cooking show on television? It was really great, and she made good use of wine in her recipes and in herself. Another thing we have in common!

There is one other something that we share. Julia lived in the same building where my wife and I now live, in Honolulu. It is a beautiful building, surrounded by a concrete and iron fence, with a shallow artificial lake and tea house. It is called the "Waipuna," which means "sweet water." In the days before the overthrow of the queen, royal nobles used to water their horses here. There is a spring located under the building. When Julia lived here there were a pair of swans, and beautiful koi fish.

 But now the swans are gone, the fish are gone, and so is Julia. I have not been able to discover the apartment where she lived.

        Aloha
        Grant