In the acknowledgments to this enthusi-astic, heroically researched biography of Julia Child, Bob Spitz explains that he got to know his subject during a jaunt around Sicily lasting several weeks, and found her "exactly like her tv persona: warm, funny, outgoing, whip-smart, incorrigible and, most of all, real. If I have to admit to one prejudice confronting this book it is that I had a powerful crush on her. Sorry. Deal with it." Join the queue, Mr Spitz. Julia (it seems odd to call her anything else) had that effect on many people. Unlike the prefabricated, brand-conscious hosts of contemporary America's popular food shows-smirking, mugging Guy Fieri, swooning Padma Lakshmi, grumpy Tom Colicchio-there was something eminently jaunty and intimate about Julia. She did not preen, bluster, condescend or intimidate; instead, she just spoke to her viewers, in much the same unfussy, confident way that Elizabeth David did on the page. What David did for Britain with Mediterranean food, Julia Child did for America with French cuisine.
展开▼
