Julie & Julia
My Year of Cooking Dangerously
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
The story of the culinary blogging sensation that inspired the hit film, starring Stanley Tucci, Amy Adams and Meryl Streep
Julie Powell's life is passing her by. By day, she answers unpleasant calls in a job she hates. By night, she weeps on the way back to her tiny apartment, grabbing items from the Korean grocery store on the corner to make for dinner.
But one evening, through mascara-smudged eyes, she realises the ingredients she picked up are exactly what she needs to make Potage Parmentier, as described in Julia Childs' legendary cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. And so The Project is born.
Julie begins to cook, tackling every one of the 524 recipes in the book in the space of just one year. Soon The Project is all she can think about. And before long, her life begins to feel as rich and delightful as the food she prepares . . .
'Sassy, quirky and disarmingly honest . . . Powell draws high-calorie comedy from her exploits' Marie Claire
'A gem of a book . . . Both hilarious and touching' Glamour
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Powell became an Internet celebrity with her 2004 blog chronicling her yearlong odyssey of cooking every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. A frustrated secretary in New York City, Powell embarked on "the Julie/Julia project" to find a sense of direction, and both the cooking and the writing quickly became all-consuming. Some passages in the book are taken verbatim from the blog, but Powell expands on her experience and gives generous background about her personal life: her doting husband, wacky friends, evil co-workers. She also includes some comments from her "bleaders" (blog readers), who formed an enthusiastic support base. Powell never met Julia Child (who died last year), but the venerable chef's spirit is present throughout, and Powell imaginatively reconstructs episodes from Child's life in the 1940s. Her writing is feisty and unrestrained, especially as she details killing lobsters, tackling marrowbones and cooking late into the night. Occasionally the diarist instinct overwhelms the generally tight structure and Powell goes on unrelated tangents, but her voice is endearing enough that readers will quickly forgive such lapses. Both home cooks and devotees of Bridget Jones style dishing will be caught up in Powell's funny, sharp-tongued but generous writing.
