Appetite For Life_ The Biography Of Julia Child Part 9

Their first winter in Ma.r.s.eilles, Hill the Pill left the consulate, and morale changed overnight. Clifton Wharton, who was to become the first American Negro career amba.s.sador, was accessible and enthusiastic about his work and interested in other people. Paul thought he was a "wonderful guy." Julia and Paul immediately became friends with Clifford and Leonie Wharton, who frequently dined at their apartment and lived not far away at 335 Promenade de la Corniche. ("Hope Big John doesn't ever meet him!" she confided in Dorothy, referring to their father.) Later, Julia and Simca, who was visiting for the week, prepared boeuf bourguignon boeuf bourguignon for a beautiful birthday party for twelve in honor of Cliff Wharton. for a beautiful birthday party for twelve in honor of Cliff Wharton.

Inspired in part by Henry Miller's The Colossus of Maroussi The Colossus of Maroussi, as well as by the opportunity to travel with Peter and Mari Bicknell, Julia and Paul spent Christmas and New Year's in Greece. They stopped in Venice on the way and Paul took photographs for a painting of ca.n.a.ls he would create.

For another year Julia typed the results of her recipe experiments and the cross-testing of Simca's recipes on pounds of onionskin paper. She finished her egg chapter early in 1954. When Avis DeVoto received a copy of the egg chapter, she was "absolutely overwhelmed" by the amount of work, found that it read "like a novel," and claimed "famous professionals like Dione Lucas would be green with envy."

While Simca tested meat recipes, Julia began testing Simca's chicken recipes and researching the raising and cooking of chickens (consulting, among others, Madame Saint-Ange's method for poulet en cocotte poulet en cocotte-cooking the potatoes before putting them in the hot fat). "There is a fine old girl," Julia said to Simca two years later about her growing appreciation of Madame Saint-Ange. With the research and typing and housekeeping (she missed Jeanne, her Paris femme de menage) femme de menage), Julia had little time for reading the remaining Balzac volumes. Certainly Proust would have to "wait for some long prison term" or illness ("I have never gotten beyond the church steeple and the cup of tea in Swann's Way," Swann's Way," she confessed). When she read a biography of Florence Nightingale, she thought her speed and stamina for work paralleled Simca's. Julia did keep up with she confessed). When she read a biography of Florence Nightingale, she thought her speed and stamina for work paralleled Simca's. Julia did keep up with Gourmet Gourmet, for her research; finding errors there rea.s.sured her of the need for accuracy in their own recipes and testing.

When each chapter was ready to be shown to Dorothy de Santillana, Julia mailed it and awaited the response. Their editor wanted less cross-referencing and more discussion of the use of frozen and canned produce-disheartening news, but they tried to comply. Simca experimented with canned consomme and clams. Julia cautioned against using a lot of truffles and foie gras because "Americans are not used to spending as much money on food as the French are, as food is not as important."

Julia's contribution to what was now being called French Cooking in the American Kitchen French Cooking in the American Kitchen is clearly revealed in the ma.s.sive correspondence with Simca. One sees the endless testing, arguing over techniques, hammering out of language, and thousands of hours of typing that went into this masterpiece. Julia's observations and opinions vacillated between two occasionally contradictory goals: making the recipes practical for the American cook and representing the true and historic recipes and techniques of cla.s.sic French cooking. is clearly revealed in the ma.s.sive correspondence with Simca. One sees the endless testing, arguing over techniques, hammering out of language, and thousands of hours of typing that went into this masterpiece. Julia's observations and opinions vacillated between two occasionally contradictory goals: making the recipes practical for the American cook and representing the true and historic recipes and techniques of cla.s.sic French cooking.

On the practical side, Julia informed Simca that a recipe was "too rich for Americans," that certain food products or utensils were not available in the United States (no conical chinois chinois (sieve); the lack of mortar and pestle necessitated a blender for quenelles). She had Avis send her shallots to compare with the French onion and bottled herbs to test in recipes. When (sieve); the lack of mortar and pestle necessitated a blender for quenelles). She had Avis send her shallots to compare with the French onion and bottled herbs to test in recipes. When Time Time magazine talked about a new tenderizer, she sent for some. She insisted that the readers be able to "adapt the recipe" to their available produce, "or they will find our recipes useless." Occasionally she reminded the three of them not to become too encyclopedic: this is "a cookbook for the average cook." Yet it was she who always asked the detailed questions: why indeed should one hang birds by the head and animals by the feet? Why clean some and not others? They did not want to frighten the reading cooks with lengthy recipes, yet they wanted their recipes to be foolproof. She omitted the magazine talked about a new tenderizer, she sent for some. She insisted that the readers be able to "adapt the recipe" to their available produce, "or they will find our recipes useless." Occasionally she reminded the three of them not to become too encyclopedic: this is "a cookbook for the average cook." Yet it was she who always asked the detailed questions: why indeed should one hang birds by the head and animals by the feet? Why clean some and not others? They did not want to frighten the reading cooks with lengthy recipes, yet they wanted their recipes to be foolproof. She omitted the oeufs files oeufs files (an egg drop consomme), complicated and not pretty, concluding, "Just because Escoffier and the other boys include it, is no reason why we have to!" (an egg drop consomme), complicated and not pretty, concluding, "Just because Escoffier and the other boys include it, is no reason why we have to!"

On the side of idealism and the integrity of French cooking, Julia insisted, "We must be French!" (July 6, 1953). "But that is not French, is it!" she exclaimed the following October. "This must always be Frenchy French, though practical for US." After insisting that they incorporate a candy thermometer "because it is standard equipment in the USA," she adds that the "Thillmont method must also be included." She told Simca, "Thank heaven we both agree on the effort to reach perfection, by the road of 'scientific method.'"

When the Pasadena testers complained about the pedantic tone of her typewritten instructions, Julia insisted on keeping to the "cla.s.sical tradition" of French cooking, suggesting that the United States might be the final preserve. She did admit, "I find it is very difficult to shorten up an explanation, yet give every step that is necessary for its successful making." The effect on Paul of all this experimenting was what he called "Julie's Law," which meant "my critical faculties concerned with food are becoming elevated to the point where other people's meals often seem ba.n.a.l."

One theme in Julia's letters to Simca that is interesting in light of her future fame on television was her insistence that they perfect their knife filleting skills so they could demonstrate their savoir faire. "Always pretend we are cooking in front of an audience," she wrote Simca on May 7, 1954, "that will help us to discipline ourselves. I don't expect we will ever appear on television, but possibly we will give demonstrations if we are successful."

IN SEARCH OF.

THE PERFECT BOUILLABAISSE.

From her first week in Ma.r.s.eilles, Julia was interested in experimenting on the great fish soup called bouillabaisse and with the Provencal sauces based on oil, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and herbs, so unlike Paris's b.u.t.ter, flour, and cream. "To choose bouillabaisse as a theme," said Raymond Oliver in his great history of gastronomy, in which he gives it an entire chapter, "is to select the most vibrant and pa.s.sionate ... dish which in itself represents a whole region and its deepest motivations and symbols."

Specifically, Julia was interested in bouillabaisse a la Ma.r.s.eillaise bouillabaisse a la Ma.r.s.eillaise, made with mullet, gurnard, sea eel, rasca.s.se, and bream, all laced with olive oil and garlic-heavy rouille. She began research (which she delighted in doing) to find similar American fish ("California Rock Cod or Rockfish looks just like Rasca.s.se," she insisted confidentially to Simca). She sent her bisque recipes to her niece Rachel Child, who was cooking in Maine, and Rachel sent them back with comments. At the fish market Julia frequently inquired about "la vraie bouillabaisse," "la vraie bouillabaisse," receiving dogmatic but conflicting advice as to the true ingredients: one said absolutely no tomatoes, one said saffron, another no saffron. Julia, who had read every French food history and cla.s.sic recipe book, became "irked" at their dogmatism and occasional ignorance. "b.a.l.l.s," she replied in private. But she confided in Avis: "I don't say anything, as, being a foreigner, I don't know anything anyway." receiving dogmatic but conflicting advice as to the true ingredients: one said absolutely no tomatoes, one said saffron, another no saffron. Julia, who had read every French food history and cla.s.sic recipe book, became "irked" at their dogmatism and occasional ignorance. "b.a.l.l.s," she replied in private. But she confided in Avis: "I don't say anything, as, being a foreigner, I don't know anything anyway."

She began her own "bouillaing" in July 1953 by making bouillabaisse borgno bouillabaisse borgno (with saffron flowers, fennel, bay, and thyme) for lunch and decided not to strain it because she liked to see the vegetables (onion, leek, potatoes) floating; another time she put it through the food mill to thicken it; tried it with and without potatoes; insisted that though it was a main dish, it should be placed in their book with the soups; in September 1953 she cut lobsters and crabs into pieces before cooking them so they would take up less room and make final serving easier. Each variation was reported to Simca and, occasionally, Louisette. (with saffron flowers, fennel, bay, and thyme) for lunch and decided not to strain it because she liked to see the vegetables (onion, leek, potatoes) floating; another time she put it through the food mill to thicken it; tried it with and without potatoes; insisted that though it was a main dish, it should be placed in their book with the soups; in September 1953 she cut lobsters and crabs into pieces before cooking them so they would take up less room and make final serving easier. Each variation was reported to Simca and, occasionally, Louisette.

Julia's relationship to Louisette was always cordial and loyal, but Louisette did not share the intense professional commitment Julia had with Simca ("We have both worked like dogs"). Louisette contributed the extra touches (adding fresh peas or strips of fresh tomato pulp to a soup), novelties in "l'esprit americain." "l'esprit americain." "You and I," Julia informed Simca, "are more straight chef-type cooks, I think." Louisette's letters are always loving, concerned about Paul's happiness. The correspondence among the three women reveals that Louisette's contribution was comparatively negligible and that they did not believe she knew as much about cooking as they. Julia suggested to Simca that they write a contract among the three of them because "you and I do not want to be allied always to L, I don't think." "You and I," Julia informed Simca, "are more straight chef-type cooks, I think." Louisette's letters are always loving, concerned about Paul's happiness. The correspondence among the three women reveals that Louisette's contribution was comparatively negligible and that they did not believe she knew as much about cooking as they. Julia suggested to Simca that they write a contract among the three of them because "you and I do not want to be allied always to L, I don't think."

Paul confided to Charlie that "for the sake of good working relations everyone must maintain the fiction that there are three authors, sharing equally in the work, the knowledge and the drudgery." By the next year, Julia wrote to Simca, "I have a strong feeling that this book we are doing is not at all the kind of book that is her [Louisette's] meat. I think she is temperamentally suited to a gay little book, like What's Cooking What's Cooking, with chic little recipes and tours de main tours de main, and a bit of poesy, and romanticism. The kind of recipes in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and the smart magazines." However, she believed that Louisette would be "wonderful, the cute, darling little Frenchwoman" who looks like "everyone's dream of the perfect Frenchwoman" and sees her on the American cooking circuit, "even going on television." When Simca agreed with her about "our dear Louisette," Julia shrewdly pointed out that "she has all those women's club connections," which "will be very useful" to their book. The women's clubs do indeed "represent the ma.s.s market."

When Louisette expressed her regret that she was not contributing as much work as her partners, Julia wrote an understanding letter in March about Louisette's family and social demands and suggested that her contribution would be a careful review of the ma.n.u.script, some suggestions for nice touches, and connections to women's clubs, their potential ma.s.s market ("Get hold of a mailing list from them"). When Julia and Simca finished the chicken recipes, Julia suggested that Louisette could write the list of suggestions for accompanying vegetables, which she did.

The new year brought numerous upheavals. The most dramatic was the birth of Julia's nephew. After a critical period in which the doctors believed that the baby would be lost, Sam was born two months early at three pounds-"No bigger than a fine roasting chicken? Ye G.o.ds," gasped Julia.

Then came the news that Paul and Julia would have to leave France because the government decreed that diplomats could stay no more than four years in one country; they had been in France for more than five. Julia and Paul learned late in March that they would be transferred later in the year, though they were not told where. Soon they suspected Bonn, which did not please them. After living on the Mediterranean, Julia and Paul's compa.s.s turned southward. Thus, when asked on their annual government form to express their future interests, they said they wanted to learn Spanish and go to Spain.

The good news this spring was the arrival, after much delay, of their contract with Houghton Mifflin. The contract was dated June 1, 1954; they would receive $750 as an advance against royalties, to be paid in three installments of $250. Paul's nephew Paul Sheeline, acting as agent, declined the legal fee, suggesting that his aunt and uncle could buy something for his house worth $50. "If you become famous and on TV and another Dione Lucas and need a lawyer," he added, "my firm, Sullivan and Cromwell, will be glad to represent you," he wrote in March.

Riding high with her contract, Julia accompanied Paul to a five-day PAO conference at the American Emba.s.sy in Paris. During her stay she cooked with Simca, dined with chefs Bugnard and Thillmont at Louisette's home, and visited other friends. The chestnut buds were ripe and ready to burst on the trees lining the Seine in Paris. While in Paris they learned they would be transferred to Bonn, a place "terribly GI," Julia reported to Dort: "I had enough of that meat-ballery during the war to last me a lifetime." She added a note of fear to her sister: "After the events of the last few years, I have entirely lost that n.o.bility and esprit de corps. I feel, actually, that at any moment we may be accused of being Communists and traitors." Every month there was news of a China a.s.sociate losing his job.

Paul hated to think of leaving Ma.r.s.eilles: "This is hard on Julie's Bookery. Just h.e.l.lishly h.e.l.lishly hard. Every time she just gets settled-in, establishes a time-schedule, gets her pots and knives and spoons hanging, Wham!" Paul wrote her a "Nostalgic Folk Song" a decade later that began- hard. Every time she just gets settled-in, establishes a time-schedule, gets her pots and knives and spoons hanging, Wham!" Paul wrote her a "Nostalgic Folk Song" a decade later that began- Carry us, Bach, to old Parigi, La ou le Metro et Les Halles sont toujours beaux!

Leaving France was also "painful" for Paul, who had spent eleven years of his life in that country. During April and May, before they began their packing, Julia experimented with rabbit, pate brisee, gratin dauphinois pate brisee, gratin dauphinois, pork, and quenelles.

Before they were to report to Bonn, Julia and Paul were required to return to the United States for a sabbatical. They had a farewell dinner with Guido, and the Whartons gave them a grand final party. Months before, Julia confided to Freddie that she had "a terrible wave of homesickness for real and life-long friends, and the USA." She blamed it on the fact that they had not made many intimate friends in Ma.r.s.eilles.

They saw their most intimate friends during a week's stopover in Paris, having their last bouillabaisse, dining with Simca and Jean Fischbacher one evening and at the Baltrusaitis apartment the last night before the boat train. They sailed on June 18, 1954, and arrived in New York Harbor on the seventeenth. Charlie and Freddie Child met them at the dock.

Julia's request was for a lunch of "US steak first thing" (it was the only dish the French could not match). According to her datebook, she found New York City "loud, fast, hot, mechanical." Julia and Paul picked up their new Chevy and reported to Washington for a week. For their official holiday they visited the Sheelines in New York City as well as other friends and family before driving to Boston. When they finally drove up to 8 Berkeley Street in Cambridge to meet face to face with Avis and Bernard DeVoto, their book's G.o.dmother and Harper's Harper's "Easy Chair" columnist already seemed like "old friends." When Julia said that she wanted "one of those martinis I've been reading about" (his famous "Easy Chair" columnist already seemed like "old friends." When Julia said that she wanted "one of those martinis I've been reading about" (his famous Harper's Harper's article on the dry martini was collected in article on the dry martini was collected in The Hour The Hour, 1951), Bernard was smitten. Like Julia, he was a Westerner (Utah) and a "Populist ... an honorable word," wrote his friend and neighbor Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Julia and Paul also had fish and Chablis at Locke-Ober and visited with May Sarton, Edith Kennedy's longtime friend, and Edith's sons. Julia concluded that Boston was "civilized," with an "English feeling of old houses and tradition."

It was a long train ride to San Francisco, where they stayed with Dorothy and Ivan and met baby Sam and his sister Phila. Julia visited the new, large supermarkets with Dort, impressed with the changes in American consumer products, television, and chlorophyll toothpaste. And finally, after much dreading by Paul since John McWilliams's letter accusing them of aiding the "communist" agenda, they spent eight days with Julia's father and Phila in Pasadena. Dorothy warned them that their father believed "McCarthy was a victim of an international Jewish plot in which Cohn and Shine are the bad ones." Julia believed her father was "horrid" to Paul, avoiding whenever possible even addressing him by name. "It was a Westbrook Pegler atmosphere," she confided in Dort.

They returned to the East Coast and the Child family vacation house in Maine. On the cool cliff over the ocean, they celebrated Julia's forty-second birthday and then enjoyed two and a half weeks of continuous lobster prepared in every form, hot and cold. There were many visits from old friends and picnics with the Walter Lippmanns (who owned a nearby home). And, as usual after his visits with Charlie, Paul fretted about the twin bond during a final stop in Cambridge, where Julia and Avis finally met with Dorothy de Santillana, the editor who had signed them up with Houghton Mifflin.

During this visit to the United States, Julia investigated everything from cream and b.u.t.ter to meat thermometers, constantly noting changes in lifestyle. Americans were now more informal, people were eating more frozen food, wine was still not a national drink, and chickens differed, even between Ma.s.sachusetts and Maine. Though she told Simca she would avoid "cooking experts" in New York City until their book was done ("They are a close and gossipy and jealous little group"), she did visit the kitchen of the A&P's Woman's Day Woman's Day.

In mid-September, they returned to Washington for less than a month of German study. In her datebook, under a list of people to see in Washington, she noted one couple and beside their names wrote "Democrats, Secretariat, good taste, intelligence. Eat and Talk." All values she and Paul cherished. Then, on October 15 they sailed for Paris, crossing the Belgian border to Germany on the twenty-third. The following month, unbeknownst to them, Jane Foster would have her pa.s.sport confiscated, beginning a chain of events that would shake their world.

Chapter 13.

A L LITTLE T TOWN IN G GERMANY.

(1954 1956) "It is such fun, this work of ours."

JULIA CHILD to Simone Beck, December 3, 1954

"WOE-HOW DID WE get here!" Julia wrote in her datebook for October 24, 1954, the day they arrived in Bad G.o.desberg, Germany. They would spend two years here, learning the rudiments of the language, searching (in vain) for good restaurants, and going to Paris as frequently as possible for Julia to work with her collaborator. Though this was Paul's most important government a.s.signment, far surpa.s.sing his job in Ma.r.s.eilles (he was now in charge of exhibits for all of Germany), it would be their unhappiest a.s.signment. get here!" Julia wrote in her datebook for October 24, 1954, the day they arrived in Bad G.o.desberg, Germany. They would spend two years here, learning the rudiments of the language, searching (in vain) for good restaurants, and going to Paris as frequently as possible for Julia to work with her collaborator. Though this was Paul's most important government a.s.signment, far surpa.s.sing his job in Ma.r.s.eilles (he was now in charge of exhibits for all of Germany), it would be their unhappiest a.s.signment.

GOLDEN GHETTO ON THE RHINE.

Upon arrival Julia called their home in Plittersdorf on the Rhine "a housing project." A year later she called it a "dump." There was no denying that Apartment 5 at 3 Steubenring was modern, sterile, and efficient-without any of the charm or character of the German country itself. The inhabitants called it the "Golden Ghetto on the Rhine," according to Lyne Few (a colleague in Dusseldorf), or "Westchester-on-the-Rhine," according to Lee Fairley, who served here, as he had in Paris, as a.s.sistant Cultural Officer.

Despite the military living environment, Julia immediately learned to love walking along the western bank of the mighty Rhine River. Still, Paul was ill at ease in an environment emphasizing weekly car washings, football scores, and drunkenness. Postwar Germany, not surprisingly, had the largest concentration of American military in Europe. There were 250,000 soldiers in this country alone, without counting support staff. Thus, the role of the USIA was the most vital one in Europe. But Julia and Paul valued quality of life above job status: It was a terrible place because we did not like living in the military housing. The town housed mostly the military who really did not want to be there anyway and did not take any interest in the language or the people. We resented living in that kind of environment. We wanted to live with the Germans. If we had lived in the city and on the economy I would have been very happy.

"I feel we are on the moon," she told Simca, and immediately threw herself into the poultry chapter of her book, testing the meat recipes Simca sent, and learning the language.

She began cla.s.ses in German at the local university, telling Simca that "to function at all properly as a cuisiniere, I must absolutely learn the language. Without it, one is too cut off." Later she said, "I went to the university, but it takes more than two years to learn a language." As she and Paul shopped, patronized restaurants, and visited the sights, they used their dictionaries as much as possible. Few Americans tried to learn any German or take part in the community, but the Childs were different. Within a year Julia was understanding the language and communicating, but Paul did not have her marketing practice or her sense of freedom to make mistakes and thus never learned the language well enough: "Paul just doesn't like Germany, really, and he gets furious because he can't speak German," she confided to Simca the following July.

Plittersdorf was the riverside suburb of Bad G.o.desberg, a town just south of Bonn (now a suburb of Bonn). Julia soon realized that this province of North Rhine-Westphalia was a vital region of what was now the strongest country in Europe. Germany was broken in 1945, its cities in rubble and its bridges blasted, but now with ma.s.sive Marshall Plan dollars it was booming, exporting resources and goods worth four and a half billion dollars a year. The occupation of Allied forces (under High Commissioner James B. Conant) would soon be dismantled. All this industry was thriving north in Cologne and in the Ruhr Valley or southeast in Frankfurt.

Bonn itself, though now the capital city, was relatively untouched by the bombing and had been the least n.a.z.ified. Yellow trolley cars rolled along cobblestone streets lined with trees. Famous as the birthplace of Beethoven, Bonn was once a sleepy university town "snuggled along the curve of the Rhine," said Theodore White, "just across the river from the murky hills where Siegfried slew his dragon." White compares the city to the university town of Cambridge, Ma.s.sachusetts, fifty years before, a city where Paul and Julia would eventually settle. The gold, red, and black flag of the German Republic snapped in the wind above the government building where Chancellor Konrad Adenauer presided (White in 1949 had called him "a wrinkled mummy breaking into voice"). Compared with Berlin, this city was tranquil and placid, which is why Julia and Paul would have preferred to live there rather than in Plittersdorf had they the choice.

Among the hard-drinking Americans and what White called the "dull, dreary, plodding men of Germany," Paul found few kindred spirits. One of Paul's a.s.sistants, a German national named Freifrau Dorothea von Stetten, remembers Paul's "gentle personality, his fairness and his quest for excellence." He was "very sincere and totally unbureaucratic," she adds, and when events at the office became difficult, he would take her home for Julia's dinner and a dose of "the sincerity and warmth which surrounded me in their home." She eagerly read each copy of The New Yorker The New Yorker when they finished it (they continued a subscription in her name when they left the country). when they finished it (they continued a subscription in her name when they left the country).

THANK HEAVENS FOR THE BOOK.

"Thank heavens for the book," Julia would say later about their years in Germany. At the end of the second week in Plittersdorf, they returned to Paris to see about their furniture and to work with Julia's collaborators. On their way to Bonn, they had stopped in Paris and dined with the Fischbachers and Bertholles. This time they began with breakfast at Deux Magots, lunch at Le Grand Vefour, c.o.c.ktails with the Walter Lippmanns, and dinner at La Grille. Just like old times. Julia attended one of their school's cooking cla.s.ses, conducted by Thillmont, and spent the entire next day with Simca in Neuilly, working on the organization of the book and discussing the letter to Louisette that Julia drafted and Simca approved. "We must be cold-blooded," Julia told Simca, "... I shall love her more once we get this settled."

"Dear Louisette," Julia wrote, explaining that after months of working together and seeing "how we actually do function," and after hearing from her that she "cannot put in the 40-hours a week that Simca and I can," they wished to rea.s.sign duties and designations. Because the book would take another year and a half at least, and the "major responsibility for the book rests on Simca and me," they wished to be known hereafter as "Co-Authors." For her editorial criticism, ideas, and public relations, Louisette would be called "Consultant." These t.i.tles, they said, in fact described how they were collaborating. Louisette's responsibilities were clearly listed and amounted to three hours in the cooking school and six hours on research and kitchen work a week. The letter, postmarked November 19, 1954, praised Louisette's gifts and her contribution.

Julia and Simca listed their own responsibilities, suggesting that the book be ent.i.tled "French Cooking in the American Kitchen "French Cooking in the American Kitchen by Simone Beck and Julia Child with Louisette Bertholle," and stating a "fair split" of 10 percent for Louisette and 45 percent each for Simca and Julia. They long knew that Louisette had, in Julia's words, "gotten mixed up in a type of Magnum Opus" that was not to her taste. By mid-December, Julia informed her lawyer and nephew Paul Sheeline that they were probably stuck with the three authors' names as listed in the Houghton Mifflin contract, but confided to Simca that "it is bad for the book for her to present herself as Author, as she really does not cook well enough, or know enough, and it is not good publicity." The final arrangement on the cookbook came sometime later, and was a distribution of royalties with Louisette receiving 18 percent and Simca and Julia each 41 percent. This agreement was clear and mutually agreed to years before the publication of the book, which carried all three of their names in alphabetical order. As far as the world knew, they were equal authors. Their private royalty agreement reflected the reality. by Simone Beck and Julia Child with Louisette Bertholle," and stating a "fair split" of 10 percent for Louisette and 45 percent each for Simca and Julia. They long knew that Louisette had, in Julia's words, "gotten mixed up in a type of Magnum Opus" that was not to her taste. By mid-December, Julia informed her lawyer and nephew Paul Sheeline that they were probably stuck with the three authors' names as listed in the Houghton Mifflin contract, but confided to Simca that "it is bad for the book for her to present herself as Author, as she really does not cook well enough, or know enough, and it is not good publicity." The final arrangement on the cookbook came sometime later, and was a distribution of royalties with Louisette receiving 18 percent and Simca and Julia each 41 percent. This agreement was clear and mutually agreed to years before the publication of the book, which carried all three of their names in alphabetical order. As far as the world knew, they were equal authors. Their private royalty agreement reflected the reality.

Snow-covered blocks of ice were floating down the Rhine in early spring when Julia moved into high gear on the poultry chapter (including some recipes that Simca had done two years before). It was a chapter Julia would work on all year. The chapters on soups, sauces, and eggs were finished. They thought they were almost done with the fish chapter, but would still be working on it in 1956. Simca was writing up the meats and sending them to Julia. Because Avis asked about pommes de terre d.u.c.h.esse pommes de terre d.u.c.h.esse, Julia spent one week cooking a different recipe each day (this pureed and molded potato dish would not appear until their second book). In January, Julia made chicken ca.s.serole several ways and poulet farci au gros sel poulet farci au gros sel (they finally chose a chicken stuffed with mushrooms); in February (they finally chose a chicken stuffed with mushrooms); in February poulet grille a la diabolique poulet grille a la diabolique (broiled chicken with mustard, herbs, and bread crumbs); and in March several others of the more than two hundred possible chicken recipes (broiled chicken with mustard, herbs, and bread crumbs); and in March several others of the more than two hundred possible chicken recipes Larousse Gastronomique Larousse Gastronomique listed. listed.

They chose recipes for several reasons, primarily because a recipe was a traditional French dish. But they also considered its usability in the United States (where some ingredients were not available, and no one had a duck press), and its flexibility, meaning its potential for using several other ingredients to make another dish. In other words, they attempted to have a recipe for each method. For example, for sauteed chicken they included crisp, simmered, and frica.s.seed.

Julia and Simca took nothing for granted, checking every detail themselves. They consulted Careme, Larousse, Ali-Bab, Madame Saint-Ange, and lesser known great French cookbook authors-all of whom present their cla.s.sical dishes in more or less summary fashion. "Mme Saint-Ange," Julia said, "is an inspiration." She thought Good Housekeeping Good Housekeeping "dull" whenever she looked at it, and "dull" whenever she looked at it, and Gourmet Gourmet inaccurate: "I prefer Mrs. Joy inaccurate: "I prefer Mrs. Joy [The Joy of Cooking] ... [The Joy of Cooking] ... and I love Saint-Ange. Ours must be the best of all!" For the availability and measurement of produce in the United States, Julia wrote to organizations such as the National Turkey Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. and I love Saint-Ange. Ours must be the best of all!" For the availability and measurement of produce in the United States, Julia wrote to organizations such as the National Turkey Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

For this cooking Julia had to use electric burners, which she loathed because the heat was so hard to control ("but I am learning its problems"). Each chicken dish and several meat dishes appeared at the dinners Julia and Paul held for new friends. Julia and Simca wrote each other about every detail of ingredient and language. They already knew each other's quirks, such as Julia's dislike of tomato sauce, especially with beef or chicken, and Simca's hatred of turnips, which Julia loved.

She and Simca now expected to spend two more years completing their book. They appear not to have taken notice of the appearance of The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook, published in 1954 in London. A collection of memoirs and largely untested recipes by the charming seventy-seven-year-old companion of Gertrude Stein, it was not in their league. Alice was a Sunday and holiday cook, and her book had celebrity appeal (custard Josephine Baker) and recipes that called for canned soup. She was scandalized when she discovered one recipe submitted by a friend included hashish in the cookie dough and succeeded in having it eliminated from the American edition of her book.

They took more seriously Sadie Summers's American Cooking dans la Cuisine American Cooking dans la Cuisine (1954), a book in two languages for the overseas American and her French cook, because it contained an equivalents chart; but they needn't have worried, for its focus audience was narrow. Julia was concerned briefly the following March with a new series of (1954), a book in two languages for the overseas American and her French cook, because it contained an equivalents chart; but they needn't have worried, for its focus audience was narrow. Julia was concerned briefly the following March with a new series of grande cuisine grande cuisine dishes by Diat in dishes by Diat in Gourmet Gourmet magazine. Another American who was working on a food book was Waverley Root, then living in The Hague and editing Fodor travel guides. His magazine. Another American who was working on a food book was Waverley Root, then living in The Hague and editing Fodor travel guides. His The Food of France The Food of France, a regional history, would appear in 1958.

Food for the American enclave in Plittersdorf was provided by a modern American grocery store, full of all the most recent canned and frozen food. Julia missed the regional markets, but consoled herself with the idea that she needed to know all these products to be aware of what American women were buying in supermarkets. Their cookbook would have to accommodate itself to the food available in the United States, just as Julia was cooking Simca's recipes with frozen chicken from the commissary on her American electric stove. For this reason, Julia constructed a table of American poultry names and their French equivalent to open their chapter (a stewing chicken is a poule de l'annee) poule de l'annee).

Julia learned about meats while in Germany. When she later mentioned the food of Germany, she said, "We had venison and lots of potatoes." Another time she said the food was "interesting, with wonderful lamb and pork and sausages." She told Simca she was safest in ordering well-known dishes such as sauerkraut, sausage, smoked pork, and beer. And she delighted in buying the large, heavy mixers and grinders sold in Germany (for a cooking performance with Jacques Pepin in 1996, she brought out a huge potato ricer from Germany that was a hit with the audience). When May arrived it was asparagus time, thick white juicy asparagus. She was also taken with the mushrooms, and told Simca and Louisette about the girolles, cepes, and morels growing in the German forests. What should they do about such mushrooms in the book, when Americans cannot find them in their markets?

The Childs' holiday celebrations this first winter were hardly worth mentioning, except for the frozen turkey from the PX, which Julia called a Turkey Fiasco Dinner for six people. There was a Wa.s.sail party on Christmas night, and a dull New Year's Eve. "So many US army [are] depressing," Julia wrote in her datebook for January 2. "But I got quite a bit of working and cooking in, so it was not wasted!" she told Simca. Julia planned weekend trips to distract Paul, including a brief one to Nuremberg on the first weekend of the year. Six months later, after many more German lessons, Julia informed Louisette: Although I continue to dislike Les Tristes Lieux de Plittersdorf, every time I get out of it to market, or something, I am quite happy. Paul just doesn't like it here at all, and has a blockage against the language ... il est trop francais! ... il est trop francais! I, as seems to be my habit, am "adapting" quite well, and can get around fairly decently with the language. But I wish we were in Munich or Berlin, where there was a bit of civilization.... I am not a country girl! I, as seems to be my habit, am "adapting" quite well, and can get around fairly decently with the language. But I wish we were in Munich or Berlin, where there was a bit of civilization.... I am not a country girl!

As if to revolt against the German austerity and repression, Paul designed their Valentine's card for 1955 with a naked man and woman (her nipples carefully dotted) pulling on each end of an arrow threaded through a heart with their names on it. It was a saucy and sophisticated scene amid floating hearts encircled by a continuous scroll of the word liebenswurdig liebenswurdig (lovable). Many of their friends framed Paul's annual work of art. (lovable). Many of their friends framed Paul's annual work of art.

They spent weeks painting the hearts red, as they did every year to add a splash of color, and the individual messages were upbeat. "We are struggling to learn the language, which just bristles with grammar," Julia told her old Smith friend Ellie (and Basil Summers). To Hadley and Paul Mowrer she wrote, "We shall never be so comfortably housed. Everything works, all is clean and utterly convenient. Only thing we lack is Germans! But we are not glued here by any means and have already made quite a few trips."

Indeed, Paul and Julia explored the country, and "what a vigorous bustling country this is-we'd better keep it on our side!" Julia told Hadley. During their two years there they visited the cities along the castle-lined gorge of the Rhine: Dusseldorf and Cologne to the north of Bonn; Mainz to the south; and beyond Mainz, Heidelberg, Frankfurt (a two-and-a-half-hour drive), and Nuremberg. They also visited the large cities in the north of Germany: Bremen, Hamburg, and, on numerous occasions, Berlin (they found a good Chinese restaurant there). They went as far east as Dresden (in 1956) and as far south as Munich in Bavaria. Because they were in West Germany, which bordered the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and Switzerland, they visited the major cities in each, most frequently Amsterdam, Antwerp ("fried potatoes everywhere-smell," Julia wrote in her datebook), Brussels (once with Lee Fairley and his wife and several times to see Abe and Rosemary Manell), Strasbourg, Basel, and Geneva. Fairley remembered that Paul "kept meticulous notes on the wine." The last city visit was for Paul's exhibit on the peacetime uses of atomic energy, which President Eisenhower attended.

Part of their explorations included studying German wine. They visited the winemaker of Niersteiner Domtal, one of Paul's favorites. In 1976, Paul would proudly show off his collection of Rhine and Mosel wines to New York Times New York Times wine critic Frank J. Prial. wine critic Frank J. Prial.

Their tour of duty coincided with their desire to travel and explore. Paul, as Exhibits Officer of Germany, was visiting each of the Amerika Hauser, the U.S. cultural centers. Julia found most of the diplomatic dinners "boring," but she loved walking through the cities with Paul, always checking out the local produce and cuisine. In her datebooks during these years, she listed restaurants, particularly in Brussels, Berlin, Dusseldorf, and Frankfurt, and wrote Ollie Noall, an early friend of Paul, "We spent the entire two years looking for a good French restaurant."

Julia's favorite trip was back to Paris and work with Simca. "Simca [is] an incarnate French driver," Julia wrote in her datebook during a second visit to Paris. They were visiting Curnonsky, shopping at Dehillerin for pots and pans, and cooking together. While Julia was there, Louisette signed their new agreement.

KAFKA MEETS MCCARTHY.

When Paul was suddenly called back to Washington, DC, he and Julia a.s.sumed that after years of working at foreign service rank four (sometimes without diplomatic status), he was being promoted at last. Paul did not like the people he was working with in Germany, in part because of the military environment (the diplomatic corps always looked down on the military) and in part because one of the heads of the outfit and his wife were alcoholics. "It is terrible to be with people who are uninspired," Julia later explained. "We did not admire them." There were exceptions, of course, but morale was not high and Paul's immediate boss was called "Woodenhead," with his a.s.sistant known as "Woodenhead the Second."

Paul was informed on Thursday, April 7, 1955, to report to Washington the next Monday. Julia and the Manells, who had come from Brussels for a visit, drove Paul to the airport in Dusseldorf on Sunday. Julia was full of antic.i.p.ation: "I was sure he was going to be made head of the department." Next day she attended the reception for High Commissioner Conant with a sense of pride in her husband.

"Situation confused," Paul telegraphed from Washington, DC, his first day there. As if in a modern reenactment of Kafka's novel The Trial The Trial, Paul sat outside one office after another waiting for various people to return. No one he talked to knew anything of why he was there. Each person with whom he discussed his situation (and he had friends in high places) suggested several possible reasons for his return, most of which involved new a.s.signments or promotions (he eventually compiled a list of ten possibilities). He wrote to Julia suggesting she put off her trip to Paris because she might need to come home. When a man named Parker May told him he was "not allowed to" say anything, but the wait "was in [Paul's] own interest," he telegraphed Julia: "situation here like Kafka story I believe I am to [be] in same situation as [Rennie] Leonard." Suddenly, Julia understood. "Paul is being investigated!" investigated!" she wrote in her datebook on April 13, terrified of everything from Paul's being fired to his being arrested. Immediately she consulted their trusted friends, talking that very night to foreign service officer James McDonald until four in the morning. she wrote in her datebook on April 13, terrified of everything from Paul's being fired to his being arrested. Immediately she consulted their trusted friends, talking that very night to foreign service officer James McDonald until four in the morning.

Paul was called into the Office of Security for the USIA and relentlessly interrogated the rest of the day and evening by Special Agents Sullivan and Sanders, "McLeod's Boys," he called them. R. W. (Scott) McLeod, whose mentor was J. Edgar Hoover, was a former FBI official whom Hoover had placed in the Department of State when Eisenhower became President in 1953. McLeod headed the Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs and essentially took over Personnel through his appointment of Ruth Shipley as head of Pa.s.sports. Neither Eisenhower nor his Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, could or would curtail the reign of terror that ensued. Shipley proudly confiscated or denied pa.s.sports to any left-winger who criticized the government, from Howard Fast (novelist and biographer of Thomas Jefferson) and Paul Robeson to Dulles's sister Eleanor. In one year more than three hundred pa.s.sports were taken or denied.

Sitting before McLeod's Boys that day was a foot-high dossier on Paul Child. First they grilled him for hours as to what he knew about Jane Foster, then they asked about Morris Llewelyn Cooks, an old-time liberal whose name Paul once gave as a reference. Guilt by a.s.sociation. They asked him "a type of question particularly embarra.s.sing to them." In his dossier was a charge he was h.o.m.os.e.xual: "How about it?" Paul burst out laughing. "Drop your pants," they insisted. Paul got angry and refused. "h.o.m.os.e.xuals often have wives and children," they explained. "As I have a wife but no no children perhaps that gets me off the hook," Paul responded. Except for the bitterness of his humor, he kept cool and rational. They soon veered off to Jane Foster again, apparently judging by his response that he was not a h.o.m.os.e.xual. Because the records were "routinely destroyed" in 1986, there is no way of knowing if an informant interpreted Paul's European refinement as fey, but during McCarthy's reign, communists were frequently linked with h.o.m.os.e.xuals and aliens. McLeod was fond of saying, "I hate drunks, perverts, and commies!" But Paul called their bluff with his rhetorical logic. Eventually he charged his tormentors with handling the entire business "in an amateurish and preposterous fashion," and left believing he was cleared, "a monument of innocence." children perhaps that gets me off the hook," Paul responded. Except for the bitterness of his humor, he kept cool and rational. They soon veered off to Jane Foster again, apparently judging by his response that he was not a h.o.m.os.e.xual. Because the records were "routinely destroyed" in 1986, there is no way of knowing if an informant interpreted Paul's European refinement as fey, but during McCarthy's reign, communists were frequently linked with h.o.m.os.e.xuals and aliens. McLeod was fond of saying, "I hate drunks, perverts, and commies!" But Paul called their bluff with his rhetorical logic. Eventually he charged his tormentors with handling the entire business "in an amateurish and preposterous fashion," and left believing he was cleared, "a monument of innocence."

"Investigation concluded successfully for me," he telegraphed Julia, writing her to give copies of his detailed letters to two friends and colleagues, including Joe Phillips, the Director of Public Affairs for Germany. When he demanded a written clearance, they mentioned a thirty-day period of investigation. Paul went directly to the top security official in the USIA and demanded clearance, which he received, telegraphing the news to Julia. Staying in Washington, he threw himself into securing Edward Steichen's "Family of Man" exhibit for Berlin, going to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City (where Steichen took him on a two-hour private tour). The exhibit (and the universally popular book that would follow) included five hundred photographs of faces from twenty-six countries. Paul's calm and professionalism were betrayed by a series of physical ailments and insomnia that plagued him all month. The only solace and balance he had were the letters from the woman he called "my beloved wifelet," and the knowledge that she was driving to Paris, their city, where he would eventually join her. "I can't get over how good good I feel about your being in Paris! And I love to think of you and Bugnard working together. And you and Simca." I feel about your being in Paris! And I love to think of you and Bugnard working together. And you and Simca."

It was ironic that during the time Paul was suffering under accusations of treason, he was being entertained with a party honoring him in Washington by Marie Bissell, the mother of Richard Bissell, his friend and a leader in the CIA. Of course, Bissell was considered "a liberal." Hoover's witch hunt always focused on the Department of State, and recent history has uncovered the antagonism that Hoover and the FBI had for the OSS/CIA, a "secret war" that claimed a number of former OSS people as its victims. "The FBI happily a.s.sisted in the purge of CIA officers," says historian Harris Smith.

Julia, who thought the "investigation inexplicably weird," sent special delivery letters and telegrams to Paul and called on the telephone. "You are finer, better, more lovable, more attractive, deeper, nicer, n.o.bler, cleverer, stronger and more wonderful [than other men] ... and I am so d.a.m.ned lucky even to know you, much less (or more) to be married to you," she a.s.sured him. "Your lovely long letter came in this morning," he wrote back April 26, 1955, "in which you made a two-line list of superlative adjectives about your husband, which he lapped up like a cat lapping up cream, shame on the old b.a.s.t.a.r.d." Not only his wife was smiling on him: Paul finally received clearance for the "Family of Man" exhibit for Germany (its first European showing) and was asked by the government to go to Brussels on his way home to negotiate with the Commissioner-General for a noncommercial American exhibit in a World's Fair planned for 1958.

Though Julia and Paul would never forget the injustice of the charges leveled against Paul, the Jane Foster affair was not over. In August, when they were again in Paris sunning themselves at the Deux Magots, they encountered Jane's husband, George Zlatovsky, who told them that when Jane went to see her dying mother in San Francisco she was caught there, her pa.s.sport confiscated by Ruth Shipley. Julia and Paul decided to write a letter defending their friend: "We cannot with decency turn our back on a former colleague," Julia wrote in a letter to warn her father that they might be thrown out of the government. They did not send the letter to Pop, but did write to Jane in New York City: "We really don't know anything about your political affiliations ... but consider you our friend. And we are terribly sorry you are in this predicament." Two years before, Julia had written to Avis DeVoto wondering what she could do to fight McCarthyism: this letter was her stand. She wrote it believing they would pay the consequences. (Some of their friends, for example Budd Schulberg, who named fifteen people, did not stand by their friends and appeared as friendly witnesses before House Un-American Activities Committee.) Jane, who suffered an emotional breakdown and was hospitalized, eventually found a good lawyer and regained her pa.s.sport. She immediately sent a telegram on August 27 to the Childs saying she was safely in Paris with her husband. She followed through with a lengthy letter to "Julie and Paul" thanking them for their support and detailing her travails. Jane and George were safely in Paris in 1957 when they were indicted on five counts of spying. The United States and France did not have an extradition treaty related to espionage, so Jane held off the press behind locked doors in Paris until the charges were dropped. Julia and Paul stood by a friend they believed innocent (while holding doubts about her husband); Julia was surprised and disappointed when Jane gave up her citizenship for a French pa.s.sport.

Finally, on October 25, 1955, six months after his interrogation, Paul received a letter from the Chief of the Office of Security at the USIA (Charles M. Noone) informing him that his "case had been considered ... and a favorable decision reached." His "case" was over, but the hysteria lingered on, ensnaring other former OSS personal friends, including Duncan Lee, George Jenson, and John Paton Davies, Jr. Davies, born in China of American missionaries, was transferred to an obscure post in Peru the same month as Paul's investigation. Indeed, in his 1995 memoir, Robert McNamara charges that the "ignorance" about Southeast Asia that led up to the war in Vietnam "existed largely because the top East Asian and China experts in the State Department-John Paton Davies Jr., John Stewart Service, and John Carter Vincent-had been purged during the McCarthy hysteria of the 1950s. Without men like these to provide sophisticated, nuanced insights, we-certainly I-badly misread China's objectives and mistook its bellicose rhetoric to imply a drive for regional hegemony. We also totally underestimated the nationalist aspect of Ho Chi Minh's movement. We saw him first as a Communist and only second as a Vietnamese nationalist."

Despite Paul's exoneration, he was to witness the continuing threat of McCarthyism when exhibits were suddenly canceled because some U.S. senator objected to something trivial such as "the brother of one of the artists who once subscribed to the New Ma.s.ses" New Ma.s.ses" journal. He was angry that Eisenhower did not stand up to McCarthy and was dismayed the following year when Ike, after a heart attack, announced he would run for a second term. He and Julia preferred, as they had four years before, Adlai Stevenson. journal. He was angry that Eisenhower did not stand up to McCarthy and was dismayed the following year when Ike, after a heart attack, announced he would run for a second term. He and Julia preferred, as they had four years before, Adlai Stevenson.

ESCAPING TO PARIS.

AND POULTRY.

Loading their car with her files and a food-stained ma.n.u.script, Julia drove to Paris for a three-week working session as soon as she realized that Paul would be in Washington for a while. Their best friends were in Paris, and they supported her, as Paul's friends (including Charlie and Freddie) supported him through his ordeal in Washington. Julia expressed her anger, talking over l'affaire l'affaire and McCarthyism with Paul's former colleague Bob Littell. She also attended the Gourmettes luncheon and the Trois Gourmandes cooking cla.s.ses, cooked twice with Bugnard, and dined with the Bertholles and Fischbachers, and worked diligently with Simca in choosing, cooking, and composing the introductions and recipes for their book. Paul urged that they keep their introductions lighthearted. and McCarthyism with Paul's former colleague Bob Littell. She also attended the Gourmettes luncheon and the Trois Gourmandes cooking cla.s.ses, cooked twice with Bugnard, and dined with the Bertholles and Fischbachers, and worked diligently with Simca in choosing, cooking, and composing the introductions and recipes for their book. Paul urged that they keep their introductions lighthearted.

Julia returned to Bonn, German lessons, and further chicken recipes. By summer she completed the section on sauteing and gave a few private cooking cla.s.ses. Louisette sent her comments on the poaching and stewing sections (thirty-two pages), and Simca and Jean visited in time for the brief asparagus season. Julia and Paul celebrated Julia's forty-third birthday with a brief weekend in Paris. They had breakfast once again at the Deux Magots, visited Dehillerin's (for some knives for Avis), saw an exhibit of Pica.s.so's work, and dined for her birthday lunch at Laperouse, just down the street from Pica.s.so's former studio on the rue des Grands-Augustins. Julia was disappointed in the meal of tourte gelee tourte gelee (crab) and (crab) and ris de veau braises ris de veau braises (sweetbreads). Her improved recipe for the latter dish would appear in the book in progress. (sweetbreads). Her improved recipe for the latter dish would appear in the book in progress.

With each return to Germany, she threw herself into another poultry dish each day: frica.s.see, saute, and canard a l'orange canard a l'orange with a disappointing sauce. "Our tenure in Cologne was all poultry," said James McDonald, who frequently dined with his wife at the Childs' home. Each of these recipes would be perfected for the book. And each one was tried by Avis DeVoto in Cambridge, as well as by Julia's other "guinea pigs." With hundreds of traditional and precisely named French recipes for chicken, duck, and goose, they would choose the recipes Julia thought most Americans could and would prepare. They already had hundreds of pages of recipes to date, far more than would eventually be included. with a disappointing sauce. "Our tenure in Cologne was all poultry," said James McDonald, who frequently dined with his wife at the Childs' home. Each of these recipes would be perfected for the book. And each one was tried by Avis DeVoto in Cambridge, as well as by Julia's other "guinea pigs." With hundreds of traditional and precisely named French recipes for chicken, duck, and goose, they would choose the recipes Julia thought most Americans could and would prepare. They already had hundreds of pages of recipes to date, far more than would eventually be included.

When she got discouraged and "beset by doubts, wishing we had been working with Escoffier for twenty years before ever undertaking such an enterprise!" she reminded herself and Simca that "then, of course, we would not have a housewife's point of view at all." "We" must do exacting experiments "to be absolutely sure of our conclusions," she told Simca in May 1954 as she tested their pate feuilletee pate feuilletee with the flour she bought in Bonn. Julia continued to experiment with her duck in orange sauce, which would be one of only three duck recipes included, each with variations. For example, with the flour she bought in Bonn. Julia continued to experiment with her duck in orange sauce, which would be one of only three duck recipes included, each with variations. For example, canard a l'orange canard a l'orange had two variations (cherries and peaches: had two variations (cherries and peaches: caneton aux cerises caneton aux cerises, also called caneton Montmorency caneton Montmorency, and caneton aux peches) caneton aux peches). Accompanying these recipe groups were clear and simple descriptions of how to choose, wash, disjoint, truss, or stuff poultry, how to tell when it is done, and suggestions for vegetable, sauce, and wine with each.

Julia took her ma.n.u.script and files with her during the Steichen exhibit in Berlin in September (where 30,000 people saw "The Family of Man") and in Frankfurt and Munich in November, as well as on their two-week gastronomic vacation in France in October. They drove through Colmar, Bourg-en-Bresse, and Les Baux to Ma.r.s.eilles, where they stayed with the Whartons, then through the wine country, where the air was filled with the work of wine presses, to a foggy Paris, for a full day of work with Simca.

While nursing Paul through nearly two months of infectious hepat.i.tis, with his high fever and jaundice, Julia finished and sent to Simca (and Houghton Mifflin) the section on cut-up chickens, asked Louisette for vegetable suggestions, and worked up the section of recipes for supremes de volaille supremes de volaille (skinless, boneless chicken b.r.e.a.s.t.s). Not surprisingly, these recipes with little fat (skinless, boneless chicken b.r.e.a.s.t.s). Not surprisingly, these recipes with little fat (pot-au-feu, poule-au-pot) (pot-au-feu, poule-au-pot) came at a time when Paul was restricted to a no-fat regime. "I find to my surprise that I can grill meats and chicken with no fat ... I usually put in a bit of salt and lemon juice." She also learned to vary her recipes by using shallots, lemon juice, and vegetable stock. By the time Paul was able to return to work for half days in January 1956, she had completed this work. Unfortunately, they missed their second Christmas in Cambridge with the Bicknells. The day after Paul's doctor told him to go south for two weeks, he bought train tickets to Rome and Julia began her first research on cooking a goose. In Rome she had the best baby peas of her life and for the first time had the fennel bulb thinly sliced in a salad. came at a time when Paul was restricted to a no-fat regime. "I find to my surprise that I can grill meats and chicken with no fat ... I usually put in a bit of salt and lemon juice." She also learned to vary her recipes by using shallots, lemon juice, and vegetable stock. By the time Paul was able to return to work for half days in January 1956, she had completed this work. Unfortunately, they missed their second Christmas in Cambridge with the Bicknells. The day after Paul's doctor told him to go south for two weeks, he bought train tickets to Rome and Julia began her first research on cooking a goose. In Rome she had the best baby peas of her life and for the first time had the fennel bulb thinly sliced in a salad.

"Have you seen Dione Lucas's new book?" Julia asked Louisette in January. "I find it very poor in many respects ... and it is certainly not French cooking." She told Simca ("ma plus que chere et adorable amie") ("ma plus que chere et adorable amie") three months before that Lucas's three months before that Lucas's Meat and Poultry Meat and Poultry was a little "sloppy" and not as detailed as theirs, but "with our snail's pace we have a chance to study our compet.i.tors." None of the Trois Gourmandes personally knew Dione Lucas, the most prominent cooking figure in New York City in the 1950s, but since 1948 she had both a cooking school and a local television cooking program. Lucas was a severe and dry English woman, but her cooking programs (her name was synonymous with omelets) hold up even today. Several people in the New York food world, including cookbook writer James Beard, questioned the validity of Lucas's claim to Cordon Bleu training, a question echoed in Julia's judgment. But her book first gave Julia and Simca the idea that they might publish their work in several volumes. was a little "sloppy" and not as detailed as theirs, but "with our snail's pace we have a chance to study our compet.i.tors." None of the Trois Gourmandes personally knew Dione Lucas, the most prominent cooking figure in New York City in the 1950s, but since 1948 she had both a cooking school and a local television cooking program. Lucas was a severe and dry English woman, but her cooking programs (her name was synonymous with omelets) hold up even today. Several people in the New York food world, including cookbook writer James Beard, questioned the validity of Lucas's claim to Cordon Bleu training, a question echoed in Julia's judgment. But her book first gave Julia and Simca the idea that they might publish their work in several volumes.

"Your old prince is but an unhappy octogenarian," Curnonsky replied to a Christmas card from the Julia. The great man had taken a terrible fall and broken several ribs. The doctors put him on a un regime terrible un regime terrible that excluded wine, salt, sauces, and cream. He h