Backstage with Julia: My Years with Julia Child - Hardcover

Barr, Nancy Verde

3.86

367 ratings by Goodreads

9780471787372: Backstage with Julia: My Years with Julia Child

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 047178737X ISBN 13: 9780471787372

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2007

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

You’ll love this intimate portrait of the inimitable Julia Child by Nancy Verde Barr, her executive chef and friend for twenty-four years. Brimming with anecdotes, memorabilia, and snapshots, Backstage with Julia conveys Julia’s generosity, her boundless energy, and her love of food and life. This loving memoir celebrates the adventurous, unassuming essence of the chef who seasoned American palates and heightened our appreciation of food.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap:

In 1980, Nancy Verde Barr was drafted to help organize a Julia Child cooking demonstration in Providence, Rhode Island. Barr immediately hit it off with Julia, setting the stage for a relationship that would last twenty-four years—and transform Barr's personal and professional life forever. Now, in this engaging memoir, Barr takes a fond look back at her years with Julia.

At the time Barr joined Julia's team, Julia had long been a celebrity. But as Barr soon realized, Julia didn't act like a celebrity. Julia in real life was the same Julia everyone saw on screen—dedicated to the art of cooking, brimming with energy, and full of fun—only more so. Whether flirting with Charlie Gibson on Good Morning America, lighting biscotti wrappers on fire at an Italian restaurant, or stopping for a hot dog at ten o'clock in the morning ("Why not?"), Julia was the life of the party—and she invited everyone around her to join in the fun.

As Barr took on more and more work with Julia, she became not only a colleague, but a friend. Barr takes us along as she helps orchestrate television tapings, food photo shoots, and live demonstrations—and marvels at Julia's unflagging energy (no one was allowed to utter the "t" word—"tired"), her wide-ranging curiosity, and her special knack for getting past flubs and setbacks. We meet Julia's beloved husband, Paul, and their extended family of siblings, nieces, and friends, and see what it was really like to have dinner at Julia's (hint: you were required to help cook). And we vacation with Julia in Venice, discovering her mixed feelings about Italian food (she never quite saw the point of pasta).

Brimming with stories, anecdotes, and snapshots, Backstage with Julia captures the essence of Julia Child—her generosity, her high spirits, and her openness to new ideas and adventures. It's a loving portrait of a woman who changed the way Americans thought about food and brightened the lives of everyone who knew her.

From the Back Cover:

"Who knows at what precise moment in those first few years Julia and I went from being colleagues to friends? I don't and doubt that she did. But I loved that she was my friend. Prone to foolishness, craving a laugh and a good time, she was a hoot. Forget her age; Julia Child never parted company with the spunky, outrageous Julia McWilliams who led her siblings and childhood friends through one mischievous neighborhood caper after another. She was always the slightly naughty Julia who piled her college friends into a 1929 Ford convertible and hauled them off to a nearby speakeasy; the adventurous Julia who in the midst of World War II, joined the Office of Strategic Services and fearlessly ventured to far-off Ceylon."
—From Backstage with Julia

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.