Dearie

Starred review from July 9, 2012
On November 3, 1948, a lunch in a Paris restaurant of sole meunière, the sole so very fresh with its delicate texture and cooked like an omelet in nothing but a bath of clarified butter, changed Julia Child’s life. In that moment, Child (1912–2004) recognized and embraced food as her calling, setting out initially to learn the finer points of cooking, and French cooking in particular. In this affectionate and entertaining tribute to the witty, down-to-earth, bumptious, and passionate host of The French Chef, Spitz (The Beatles) exhaustively chronicles Child’s life and career from her childhood in California through her social butterfly flitting at Smith and her work for a Pasadena department store to her stint in government service, her marriage to Paul Child, and her rise to become America’s food darling with the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her many television shows. In spite of her miserable failures in her early attempts to prepare food for her husband, a determined Child enrolled in courses at the renowned French cooking school, Le Cordon Bleu, where she mastered everything from sauces to soufflés. Spitz reminds us that Child had always possessed a tremendous amount of excess energy with no outlet for expressing it. With the publication of her cookbook and the subsequent television shows, she discovered the place where she could use her cooking skills, her force of personality, and her abundant charm. Released to coincide with Child’s centenary, Spitz’s delightful biography succeeds in being as big as its subject. Agent: Sloan Harris, ICM.

Starred review from July 1, 2012
Published to coincide with what would have been her 100th birthday, this biography of the iconic Julia Child (1912-2004) does full justice to its complex subject. Spitz (The Saucier's Apprentice: One Long Strange Trip through the Great Cooking Schools of Europe, 2008, etc.) describes the "irrepressible reality" of Child, who became a TV superstar, effectively launching "public television into the spotlight, big-time." In his view, the 1961 publication of her book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, came at just the right time. Americans were tired of the preceding "era of dreary button-down conformity," and they were ready for a gastronomic revolution. Frustrated housewives reading Betty Friedan's groundbreaking The Feminine Mystique welcomed the larger-than-life personality and showmanship of this tall, outspoken woman as she demonstrated the intricacies of French recipes with what appeared to be blithe disregard when things went wrong. Child reveled in her celebrity status, but this was only one aspect of her complex personality. Like most women of her generation born in traditional upper-middle-class homes, she was not expected to have an independent career. A wartime stint in the OSS was liberating. Not only did she hold a highly responsible job, but she met and married career diplomat Paul Child, moving with him to France. Popular accounts of her life, including the book and film Julie and Julia, describe her enchantment with French haute cuisine and her determination to master the skills of a top chef. Spitz captures another side of her complex personality: her fierce diligence in mastering the science as well as the art of cooking through detailed experimentation and her concern to translate the preparation of complex French recipes for readers in America--an attention to detail that carried over to her TV programs. An engrossing biography of a woman worthy of iconic status.

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 1, 2012

Journalist/biographer Spitz does celebrities well; he's responsible for the hugely best-selling The Beatles: The Biography. This book, publishing on August 15, the 100th anniversary of Julia Child's birth, has the support of Child's estate and promises to be the definitive account. The 100,000-copy first printing says it all.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2012
The latest biography of Julia Child commemorates the centennial of the birth of America's undisputed queen of cuisine. Drawing on diaries and correspondence, it fleshes out details of her already much-examined life. Spitz reviews Child's upbringing in Pasadena, her education, her wartime career in America's intelligence services, and her move to Paris, her life's undisputed turning point. Spitz awards her husband, Paul, full credit for providing a solid marriage and encouraging his wife to realize her ambitions as cook, writer, television performer, and teacher. Spitz's research pays off in revealing accounts of Child's sometimes-prickly collaborations with coauthors and her generous friendships and occasional rivalries with professional colleagues. Spitz adeptly details her conflicts with publishers and television producers, who did not always live up to her exacting standards. Boundlessly talented and energetic, Child worked well into her eighties, despite her beloved's devastating illness and the deaths of so many fellow cooks and friends.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)