Julie and Julia

So, after a busy holiday season, I finally got around to watching Julie and Julia, the movie.

Knowing the premise of the movie helped, and of course, having cooked for Julia herself, 17 years ago in NYC, it made watching the movie nostalgic and special.

The movie was fine, Meryl Streep as Julia was fine and the food was awesome. But, for me, the inspiration of Julia's life was the special ingredient I need to inspire me to go forward with my plans for television success!!!

Whether on a national or local level, I believe..like Julia, that I am a teacher and that I have something to say. Cooking should be fun, anyone can do it if they put their minds to it and that simple is always best. That is the message I want to get across to viewers and hopefully, 2010 will afford me that opportunity.

When I met Julia Child, I had only been cooking professionally for 3 years. I was with B.Flay, in the kitchen of the Rainbow Room in NYC and it was Julia's 80th birthday celebration.

She came into the kitchen, larger than life, as genuine as she was tall. She really did talk like we remember her and she was more than gracious to every Chef, Line Cook (that be me) Waiter and Dishwasher that were in the kitchen that day. She took my hand and said "Well, seems to me that you are one of the only women in the kitchen... well good for you"!! She said it with a hearty laugh and a twinkle in her eye. To this day, 17 years later, I can still hear her words and see that big smile, with my hand firmly grasped in hers. I will never forget that moment.

Later in the evening, after all of the festivities were over, B. Flay told me to go and get my cookbook, my Mom had mailed me a copy a year earlier that she "pinched fro the Bala Cynwyd Library.. I hemmed and hawed that she was too tired, the night was over, etc.. He gave me that stare and said " GO GET IT"! So, I did!!
When I approached her, she was a lovely and as gracious as she was hours earlier in the kitchen. She remembered me, but not my name and I eagerly reminded her as she signed her name.
I have tears in my eyes as I write this, it was a magical moment for me.

A year or so later, I was again at the Rainbow Room, this time with B. Flay's then wife, Deborah Ponzak, cooking for The Dames Escoffier tribute to ...none other than Julia Child!!!
No kitchen appearance this time, and I did not see her but from the balcony above the famous dance floor, but I was in the same room!! Something I had chopped, diced, peeled or poached went to her table and that was enough for me!!!

When she died in August of 2004, I was working in my kitchen and the news came over the television that she had died. I stood and wept, at my cutting board, as if she was a relative or an old friend. Where else would I be when hearing about Julia, seems she would have wanted it that way. That moment when time stood still..when I met Julia, I was in a kitchen and when she left, I was doing the thing she loved most.

She was an old friend, not just to me, but to millions of people who opened her books and tried to truss a chicken, make an aspic or add more butter!!! I will never forget her and will continue to embrace my life, my food and my future with the same gusto in which Julia embraced hers.

I am inspired again, to try for my future, as she did hers that day when she stepped into Le Cordon Bleu!

A l'avenir!!!