Recreating Julia's Recipes At Home (HER Home)

I love this story about the new owners of Julia Child’s Cambridge house, who incidentally are thought to have purchased the house for 3.7 million dollars(!) in February.

A Boston Globe reporter thought it would be fun to have the new owner cook something from Mastering the Art of French Cooking in Julia’s (completely renovated) kitchen. The funny thing? The owner, Lisa Landsverk, is a vegan, but she was willing to cook from the book, as long as the recipe had no animal products, including BUTTER!

Lisa and her daughter Rachael chose to make ratatouille and pêches cardinal, a fresh peach dessert with a raspberry sauce. They really enjoyed their more than 2 hours of cooking. And the reporter noted that they (just like Julie Powell before them) actually thought of Julia as cooking alongside with them:

They never said “the recipe wants’’ or “the book says;’’ they said “she says mind the heat’’ and “she wants us to chill the purée.’’ In “Julie & Julia,’’ Powell describes feeling that Julia was by her side like “some great big good fairy.’’

A good cookbook writer (heck, ANY good writer), does just that – takes us along on a journey of food or fun or adventure, and, at times, all three.