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My Life in France

by Julia Child

A culinary life takes shape in France

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Awards & Recognition

  • Critical praise

    Praised by the San Francisco Chronicle

    The Chronicle praise calls the book captivating and says Child's distinctive voice is present on every page.

AlbakiReads Editorial

A culinary life takes shape in France

Julia Child’s memoir centers on the years after she arrived in France in 1948, when she spoke no French and knew little about the country. Local markets and classes at the Cordon Bleu became part of her immersion in French food and culture, and the book traces how that experience led toward cooking and teaching. Alongside this personal transformation, Child recounts obstacles surrounding her cookbook, including conflict at the Cordon Bleu and rejections from publishers. Her account also follows her long marriage to Paul and their travels around the globe, placing her culinary development within a broader life story.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in Julia Child’s life before her prominence as a chef and television figure.
  • Readers who enjoy memoirs about food, cultural immersion, and the development of a vocation.
  • Readers interested in the personal and professional life of a long-married couple who traveled widely.

Themes

French food and cultureCulinary educationFinding a vocationMarriage and travelPersistence in publishing

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - Julia's story of her transformative years in France in her own words is "captivating ... her marvelously distinctive voice is present on every page." (San Francisco Chronicle).

Although she would later singlehandedly create a new approach to American cuisine with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her television show The French Chef, Julia Child was not always a master chef. Indeed, when she first arrived in France in 1948 with her husband, Paul, who was to work for the USIS, she spoke no French and knew nothing about the country itself.

But as she dove into French culture, buying food at local markets and taking classes at the Cordon Bleu, her life changed forever with her newfound passion for cooking and teaching. Julia's unforgettable story--struggles with the head of the Cordon Bleu, rejections from publishers to whom she sent her now-famous cookbook, a wonderful, nearly fifty-year long marriage that took the Childs across the globe--unfolds with the spirit so key to Julia's success as a chef and a writer, brilliantly capturing one of America's most endearing personalities.
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