My Life in France

I just finished reading My Life in France, Julia Child's new memoir. It's lovely, and part of the reason I loved it so much is that it really is a vocation story, the story of someone stumbling upon a passion (French food) that took hold of her in such a compelling way that she decided to devote her life to it. I was surprised to learn that Julia didn't even start cooking in earnest until she was 36 years old! You never know what kind of turn your life will take. I highly, highly recommend this delightful book.

Some of my favorite quotes:

Chef Bugnard, Julia's instructor at the Cordon Bleu in Paris, after artfully cooking, of all things, some humble scrambled eggs:
"You never forget a beautiful thing that you have made," he said. "Even after you eat it, it stays with you--always."

Julia, on falling in love with French food and cooking:
"I had always been content to live a butterfly life of fun, with hardly a care in the world. But at the Cordon Bleu, and in the markets and restaurants of Paris, I suddenly discovered that cooking was a rich and layered and endlessly fascinating subject. I had never taken anything so seriously in my life--husband and cat excepted--and I could hardly bear to be away from the kitchen."

"What fun! What a revelation! How magnificent to find my life's calling, at long last!"

"I was thirty-seven years old, and still discovering who I was."