Julia and moi
My 1997 phone interview with Julia Child magically resurfaced. Plus: a side order of Julia's recipe for Tomatoes à la Provençale.
Memory is a funny thing. For instance, I distinctly remember meeting Julia Child, but don’t remember the specifics, other than it was in Manhattan sometime late last century at food-world reception of some kind. She was tall (six feet two) and charming.
Weirdly, what eluded my memory is that I actually interviewed Julia — not once, but twice, in 1996 and then in 1997 — for a book I was working on called American Appetite: The Coming of Age of a National Cuisine.
Not until I stumbled on the transcribed 1997 conversation — a phone interview — hiding deep in the recesses of my computer did I remember it. The 1996 interview is nowhere to be found, but it definitely …