She was already fifty when The French Chef went on the air - at a time in our history when women weren’t making those leaps. She eventually settled in Paris, where she learned to cook and collaborated on the writing of what would become Mastering the Art of French Cooking, a book that changed the food culture of America. Julia Child was a directionless, gawky young woman who ran off halfway around the world to join a spy agency during World War II. In Dearie, Spitz employs the same skill he brought to his best-selling, critically acclaimed book The Beatles, providing a clear-eyed portrait of one of the most fascinating and influential Americans of our time - a woman known to all, yet known by only a few.Īt its heart, Dearie is a story about a woman’s search for her own unique expression. Now, in Bob Spitz’s definitive, wonderfully affectionate biography, the Julia we know and love comes vividly - and surprisingly - to life. The warble-voiced doyenne of television cookery became an iconic cult figure and joyous rule-breaker as she touched off the food revolution that has gripped America for more than fifty years. And yet, that’s exactly what Julia Child did. It’s even rarer when that someone is a middle-aged, six-foot three-inch woman whose first exposure to an unsuspecting public is cooking an omelet on a hot plate on a local TV station.

It’s rare for someone to emerge in America who can change our attitudes, our beliefs, and our very culture.

Dearie by bob spitz