Rouses_FB_July_August_2017

the Burger issue

brought cooking well, with passion and exuberance, to television. Or, you know her via her foundational tour de force bestseller, Mastering the Art of French Cooking .Written specifically for Americans with two French coauthors, in this book Child’s was the distinctive American voice, approachable yet authoritative. Volume 1 of Mastering appeared in 1961, Volume 2 in 1970; with this guide, thousands of people taught themselves to cook. In 2002, Julie Powell began the Julie/Julia Project, in which she cooked all the recipes in the book within one year, blogging about it as she went; Mastering became a bestseller for a second time. Later, the blog, combined with Child’s own last book, My Life in France , became a film. Meryl Streep played Child. I’d met Julia a few times at previous IACPs. Tall, warm, unpretentious, endearing, she possessed an irresistibly agile, curious mind; she embodied the term “lifelong learner.” She seemed to me eager to meet others as colleagues. While not unaware that she was a star, she chafed against being revered instead of related to. Several times we went on the same IACP culinary tours at various conference cities; we participated in one called “Kosher Philadelphia,” during which she and sausage-maker Bruce Aidells peppered a kosher butcher with questions.

the fearless Julia Child by Crescent Dragonwagon

T here’s an opaque curtain between us and our futures. Plan though we may, what happens on any given day in any given life is unpredictable. On March 9, 2000, I woke up with my husband, Ned, in a hotel room in Providence, Rhode Island. We were attending the annual conference of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), where I’d teach an all-day workshop called Fearless Writing. I’ve taught it (and still do) in many iterations; this one was subtitled “Finding Your Voice, Vitality, and Vibrancy in Culinary Writing.” At 8:20 a.m. or so, as I was walking across the hotel lobby towards the venue where I’d be teaching, someone — I’m embarrassed to say

When Julia attended Fearless, she was over 85.Though widowed six years earlier and walking with a cane, she was as vibrantly curious as ever. I was over 45, happily married, comfortable in my twin careers as a writer and teacher of writing. Over the years, other famous writers (not just culinary ones) had taken my course, side by side with beginning or aspirational writers. As a teacher, I know it is essential not to be overawed by any individual’s star power (nor to dismiss someone who has not yet published), but to try and simply see each person’s needs and where they are in the writing process. One way I do this is by, at the start of a session, asking students what they’d like to leave class with. Julia was one who chose to speak up. “I’d

I can’t remember which of my “pan pals” it was — stopped me. She said, “Crescent, do you have room for one more person in your class?” I said, “Sure.” She replied, “Then we’ll go over with you.” I turned, and standing next to her was Julia Child. Thus began my day as writing coach/mentor to Julia, along with another 30 or so other culinary writers. You probably know Child as the charming, iconic, delightfully goofy woman who

like to leave,” she said, “knowing how to write funnier, to get across humor on the page.” When I recall that day, I remember this, and that, during the catered lunch, she asked that Ned and I sit on either side of her. Somehow, the story of my recently having made barbecued tofu at a small-town community fundraiser came up. “How,” she asked me, with genuine curiosity, “do you make it?” So. Not only do I have the distinction of

“That Julia Child once took a workshop with me — and that to this day occasionally people wash up in Fearless who tell me, “Julia told me I should take your class” — also amazes me.”

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MY ROUSES EVERYDAY JULY | AUGUST 2017