'Julia and Julia' author Julie Powell. Photo: Sara Bonisteel.

Former Julia Child editor Judith Jones found herself in the spotlight Monday after Publishers Weekly quoted Jones saying that Child said of Julie Powell -- the blogger and author whose story is half of the movie adaptation "Julie and Julia" -- "I don't think she's a serious cook."

The magazine quotes Jones as saying of Powell's blog, "She didn't want to endorse it. What came through on the blog was somebody who was doing it almost for the sake of a stunt ... Julia didn't like what she called 'the flimsies.' She didn't suffer fools, if you know what I mean."

We caught up with Jones at her Vermont home and she elaborated, which she tells us is the last time she'll speak about the blog (though she promises a review of the movie is forthcoming at her own blog).
Jones said her Publishers Weekly comments were accurate, though "all a matter of selection," but clarified to Slashfood:

"People are curious about what Julia thought of Julie. I think it [the blog] made Julia feel that she wasn't very serious. Had she met her -- Julia was enormously supportive of people -- this is my interpretation, she didn't think she was a serious cook ... not that she would have said mean things. Julia was a very, very serious person with a mission. She wanted to teach people to cook well and to care and to take it seriously and to enjoy it. This particular [blog] didn't seem to appeal to her very much. That's all ... I feel that it's been whipped up into something."

Though Jones has been in the publishing industry for more than 50 years (at Alfred A. Knopf since 1957), she seems to have mixed sentiments about the intersection of technology and cooking. Of her own blog she tells us, "It's an electronic age and publishers better move with it." She followed with, "But so many young people just go to their computers. If they want to learn how to roast a chicken they just Google a chicken -- they don't care about who it's from."

Would Jones be open to meeting Powell?

"I don't know ... in the film she comes across as very appealing." She went on to explain her reaction to the blog (and subsequently, the film): "One has to remember that we just tuned into one of the first blogs and it didn't seem serious. As she [Powell] got going, she became empowered in a way, and she was really having fun."

Powell was unavailable for comment Tuesday, but did remark during an interview on July 16 that she had received a "very cordial" letter from Child after she wrote to her following the completion of "Julie/Julia," her yearlong project to cook and blog her way through "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."

"I've had a lot of people who've known her, and knew her, and worked with her or just met her, who are passionate on the subject: 'She would have loved you. I promise you she would have loved you,' and they are more upset about it [any snub] than I am," Powell said.



[Via Publishers Weekly]