Sonny Jean: A note on Julia Child

Yesterday I watched the film Julie & Julia. It inspired and delighted me. It resonated. I felt validated.

Julia Child - I've flipped through her cookbooks at the library. They have been recommended to me. However, I never knew her. And now I feel like I do. She was colorful and lively, she was thrilled with her life - her sweet husband, her home, her tallness - all of it. She reminds me of my grandma Tiger - always with a sparkle in her eye. The audacity to be content in a world full of rat races appeals to me. Julia walked through life joyful, yet honest. She wanted kids, but didn't have any. She wanted to stay in France, but her husband was transferred. When she wanted to learn to cook, she could barely boil an egg, but she pushed forward anyway. She was an optimistic queen who loved despite her struggles.

I adored everything about the film. The cooking, being in France, her being 6'2" and not looking like all of the other petites around her. She didn't care. She didn't shrink for anyone - and in turn, everyone loved her for it. She gave me an idea of who I'd like to be.

I want to inch toward her mindset. I want life in its various facets to be mine, to satisfy and challenge, to delight and test me. I want to be brave enough to be myself, and I don't want to compare myself to the petites around me. I want to be like Julia Child. And I want to cook more. One journalist said that one of Julia Child's greatest contribution to cooking was "freeing Americans from the necessity of cooking for a purpose other than pleasure." YES! I have always had a yearning for the simple things, a fresh pot of chicken broth, a vase of colorful flowers, hearty artisan bread dipped in vinegar and oil, the sunrise casting light on a wood floor. Those things carry memories with them, and those memories carry me.

This summer will be the perfect time to excel in the cooking sphere because I have my own Julia Child who will be living upstairs - my mother-in-law V-. She went to culinary arts school in 2008, and never prepares a dull plate. There is always some element of sparkle and pizazz, whether its the aged cheese she used in the alfredo sauce, or the garden cucumbers bathed in vinegar and dill, dipped in homemade hummus.

I want to devote time this summer to cooking. I want to make it second nature before we have kiddos and my bandwidth shrinks down. I want to cook like Julia, never getting uptight about the kitchen's demands. Just growing as I go, and doing it for the pleasure. I have heard my women professors talk about how they think being in the kitchen is a waste of time, they'd rather be somewhere else. They might think that, but I don't have to. I was raised on meals from scratch, because that is what we could afford in a household of ten, and to me, that is magic. Family time, eating together, and made with love. So cheers to a summer of gathering veggies from the garden, using more butter, and delighting in the day-to-day. Let's go!