I believe it would be your 99th. When I became interested in cooking. the first books I bought or was gifted with were yours, I and II, and I already had Mrs. Rombauer’s The Joy of Cooking.
Later on, I got your master work “The Way To Cook” in color and hard cover. It is in storage. All my cookbooks have been in storage for 2 1/2 years so if I need the recipe for Uncle Hans’ City Scrapple I have to check the book out from our local library.
Normally, I don’t use recipes for much anymore but your French Onion Soup is my standard and it is a standard reference book for anything I’d like to cook for my husband and guests.
While I can’t imagine being in France shortly after the end of WWII occupation, in the book about your life in France, I can almost imagine it. Only you could have gotten through the feelings that the French had for Americans, and turn it to your favor and celebrate it across the pond.
I’ve bought and read most of your books, but try to sit down to lunch some days to the old French Chef shows. In the end Julia Child provided a niche then all-encompassing market of home cooks who wanted to feed their families other than what America was offering, which was canned and frozen foods.
Brava, dear Julia, I quit my job and went to cooking school. Life didn’t go that way so I did other things to make a living and cooked in my spare time and started a blog.
In the end it’s all about food and who inspired this, or that. For me it’s about getting the best ingredients and not messing with them. Julia didn’t have Kosher salt or all the Himalayan and Maldon salts they have these days. She was lucky to have fresh-ground pepper when many of her viewers did not have access to those ingredients, including fresh herbs.
We now have access but still choose fast food places (I cannot call them restaurants) and do not cook from home anymore. Shame on us. My husband says robots should take over even home kitchens and I disagree.
There are so many traditions, family traditions out there and they need to be preserved in a fast-food economy. I’m going to work on this and hope you and your families will help out. Cheers, Dee
Cooking with Dee 