10 Things You Didn't Know About Julia Child

Unless you read her book, of course.

I finished reading "My Life in France" two days ago and the movie "Julie & Julia" just ended on my DVR. I wanted to know Julia Child through her own words first so I could test the movie against them (or the words she wrote with her beloved husband Paul Child's grand-nephew Alex Prud'homme).

"My Life in France" was a delightful read. It made me nostalgic for my three adolescent years growing up in Paris while it also inspired me to take cooking classes. I don't know if I'm cut out for Le Cordon Bleu, but an introductory course somewhere might do. If you're at all interested in food or cooking I highly advise reading it from cover to cover. I can't wait to buy "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" (Volumes I and II) and "From Julia Child's Kitchen" (a book Julia calls her "favorite"). I'm still uninterested, however, in reading the blog-turned-book "Julie & Julia" written by Julie Powell. I liked Powell's husband in the movie way more than I liked Powell (and I adore Amy Adams).

I decided to share a few items that I found fascinating from Julia's tale. Here is a taste:

10. Julia attended Smith College. She majored in history and graduated in 1934. Her plan after college was to become a famous woman novelist. She sought employment at Time, Newsweek and The New Yorker and when she didn't get a job at either magazine, she worked in the advertising department at the W. & J. Sloane furniture store. She made $25 a week.

9. Julia met Paul while working for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and "looking for adventure." The OSS was an intelligence agency formed during World War II. The two met in Ceylon (what is now Sri Lanka) in 1944; both were transferred with the OSS to Kunming, China; and in September of 1946 they were married. Paul had a black belt in judo and was a "physical person." He was a photographer and "his pleasure was in the act of creating." Paul took many of the photographs Julia used to inspire the artwork in her "Mastering" cookbook. Julia and Paul never got around to sending Christmas cards so instead they sent their family and friends homemade Valentine's Day cards. The more ridiculous the better. They seemed to be an adorable couple and I hope for that kind of married happiness someday.

8. One of Julia and Paul's first meals in France was at Restaurant La Couronne in Rouen, the city where St. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. Julia described it as "the most exciting meal" of her life. She feasted on sole meuniere and oysters. The restaurant is considered to be the oldest inn in France established just a few years ago in 1345.

7. Julia was big on nicknames. Her sister Dorothy -- five years her junior -- was nicknamed "Dort the Wort" while Julia was called "Julia Pulia" and at some times even "Juke the Puke." Julia became a very good friend of the legendary James Beard (he asked Julia to call him Jim) and whenever they cooked together they were known as GiGi, as in Jim and Julie with the letter "j" pronounced the French way.

6. Julia attended her first cooking class at Le Cordon Bleu with 11 GIs who were "studying cooking under the auspices of the GI Bill of Rights." She was the star student, although she began unable to properly scramble an egg.

5. Julia sought a diploma from Le Cordon Bleu so she could teach but she failed the first exam. It was made of two parts: a written and practical exam. She aced the written but didn't know how to cook a single item on the practical exam. It included the following: an oeuf mollet, a veau "en surpise," and caramel custard. Her teacher Chef Bugnard insisted that despite this debacle, Child was qualified to be a chef. She aced the second exam and became a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu.

4. On November 6, 1959, after more than seven years of collaboration, Julia's manuscript for a cookbook, co-written with two of her French friends Simone "Simca" Beck (later Madame Jean Fischbacher) and Louisette Bertholle, was rejected by the editor-in-chief at Houghton Mifflin for being "a big, expensive cookbook of elaborate information" that "might well prove formidable to the American housewife. She might easily clip one of these recipes out of a magazine but be frightened by the book as a whole."

3. The woman who would later be Julia's editor, Judith Jones, left New York for Paris in 1948 at the age of 24 for a three-week vacation, got her purse stolen and never left (her return ticket was in her purse). She was working for Doubleday in New York at the time and ended up getting a job as an editorial assistant to a Doubleday editor in Paris. She just so happened to pick up a book her boss was planning to reject, urged him to give it a second go and when he did, Doubleday bought it and it became a worldwide sensation. You may have heard of it: "Ann Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl." A similar situation happened with Julia's manuscript. Jones tested several of the recipes, realized what an incredible feat it was and insisted to her bosses it be published. In May 1960 Jones sent Julia the good news. "We have come to the conclusion it is a unique book that we would be very proud to have on the Knopf list."

2. The original title of "Mastering" was "French Recipes for American Cooks" and Jones said no way. Early contenders were "The Master French Cookbook" and "The French Cooking Master." Until finally "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." Et voila! Bon appetit!

1. Julia and Paul called their homes by names. They lived at 81 Rue de L'Universite in Paris and they called it "Rue de Loo." They called their property in Provence La Pitchoune or "Little Thing." Julia held onto La Peetch for nearly 30 years -- from 1965 until June 1992. Paul was 90 and living in a nursing home outside Boston at the time when she decided to move on from their "spiritual home." When asked if she was going to miss it, Julia replied, "I've always felt that when I'm done with something I just walk away from it -- fin!" She added, "the heart had gone out of it for me now." Sad, in a way, but I know exactly what she meant.