"julie powell" news and stories

Julie Powell, the writer who blogged her way through Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol. 1," is back with her second book, a sequel memoir about the world of butchery.

"Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession" follows Powell as she has an affair, tries to rebuild her marriage and learns about butchery. As Slashfood alum Rebecca Marx puts it in the Village Voice, "the act of trying to choose between one's bottomlessly loving husband and one's snakey-sounding lover, all while having the financial freedom to hang out with butchers just for the hell of it, is accompanied by the sound of the world's most minuscule violin."

Powell admitted this week that fans of "Julie & Julia" might find it a bit much: "People coming from the movie 'Julie & Julia' and picking up 'Cleaving' are going to be in for some emotional whiplash," she tells the Associated Press. "I don't believe it's going to be a Nora Ephron movie."

Do you plan on reading it? Let us know in the comments below.

'Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1'
by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck
Illustrations by Sidonie Coryn
Knopf -- First published 1961
Buy it on Amazon

Julia would not have been our "French Chef," had she not collaborated with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle to transform their draft of a French cookbook into an essential guidebook to French food for American cooks.

Long before she showed television audiences that it was OK to screw up in the kitchen, Julia Child and the two other "Trois Gourmands" (Child, Beck and Bertholle ran a cooking school of sorts -- Ecole des Gourmands -- in Paris) were teaching the American cook the wonders that are beurre blanc, boeuf bourguignon and omelettes through "Mastering the Art."

"This is a book for the servantless American cook who can be unconcerned on occasion with budgets, waistlines, time schedules, children's meals, the parent-chauffeur-den-mother syndrome or anything else which might interfere with the enjoyment of producing something wonderful to eat." With those words, Child inspired bloggers and chefs and turned French cuisine into something our nation's home cooks could do ... and well. Bon appetit!

See what we tested and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.

Photo: Random House

'Julia's Kitchen Wisdom - Essential Techniques and Recipes From a Lifetime of Cooking'
by Julia Child
Knopf -- 2009 (original pub. date 2000)
Buy it on Amazon

In the thick of the media blitz surrounding the release of the Julia Child/Julie Powell biographic mash-up movie, it would be easy to mistake this volume -- ours came bestickered with "Now a Major Motion Picture" -- for a quickie cash-in. It's anything but.

Rather, this is a previously published compendium of Julia Child's kitchen notes from her years of writing cookbooks and filming "The French Chef" and we're warning you now -- your copy will get messy. Julia wouldn't mind.

Takeaway tips: In Child's words, "It doesn't pretend to take the place of a big, detailed, all-purpose cookbook like 'Way to Cook' or 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volumes I and II'. It is, rather, a mini aide-mémoire for general home cookery, and is aimed at those who are tolerably familiar with culinary language; whose kitchens are normally well equipped with such staples as jelly-roll pans, a food processor, a decent rolling pins; and who know their way around the stove reasonably well."

"Kitchen Wisdom" is packed with time and temperature charts, foolproof, building block recipes for mother sauces, breads, desserts and soups, as well as her rigorously tested methods for everything from soaking beans and boiling eggs to the ins and outs of flour dredging and sourcing omelet pans. If it's got a soupçon of French technique, it's in the book.

See what we tested and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.

Photo: Sony Pictures Entertainment.

This evening, Slashfood will be joining Meryl Streep and Amy Adams on the red carpet for the New York premiere of "Julie and Julia"! And naturally we'll be Tweeting, so follow along here or on Twitter.

The movie is Nora Ephron's melding of Julie Powell's "Julie and Julia" and Julia Child's "My Life in France." It opens nationwide on Aug. 7.

But don't forget that you have a chance to see it before anyone else. You have until 2 p.m. Friday to enter to win passes to a screening on Aug. 3 in New York. Just click here to tell us what Julia Child meant to you.

Meryl Streep as Julia Child. Photo: Sony Pictures Entertainment

One of the brightest stars of the new film "Julie and Julia" gets no billing. Yup, you foodies have probably guessed that the dishes in this culinary melding of Julie Powell's "Julie and Julia" and Julia Child's "My Life in France" are the pieces de resistance.

A group of very giddy foodies gathered Thursday in New York to get a first glimpse of the film -- which opens Aug. 7, 2009 -- and chat with the film's director, Nora Ephron, about how she recreated the dishes that made America's French Chef famous.

"This is just a celebration of food, which is a thing that changes both of these women's lives," Ephron says. "It's about joy -- and the joy of food, and the joy of cooking."

Some of the dishes in the film and exclusive photos after the jump.