The French Chef in America

Julia Child's Second Act

By: Alex Prud'homme

Narrated by: Alex Prud'homme

The enchanting story of Julia Child's years as TV personality and beloved cookbook author--a sequel in spirit to My Life in France--by her great-nephew

Julia Child is synonymous with French cooking, but her legacy runs much deeper. Now, her great-nephew and My Life in France coauthor vividly recounts the myriad ways in which she profoundly shaped how we eat today. He shows us Child in the aftermath of the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, suddenly finding herself America's first lady of French food and under considerable pressure to embrace her new mantle. We see her dealing with difficult colleagues and the challenges of fame, ultimately using her newfound celebrity to create what would become a totally new type of food television. Every bit as entertaining, inspiring, and delectable as My Life in France, The French Chef in America uncovers Julia Child beyond her "French chef" persona and reveals her second act to have been as groundbreaking and adventurous as her first.

Critic reviews

Praise for My Life in France:
"Lively, infectious.... [The] elegant but unfussy prose pulls the reader into her stories" -- Chicago Sun-Times
"Captivating.... [Child's] marvelously distinctive voice is present on every page" --San Francisco Chronicle
"Delightful and ebulliently written.... [Child's] joy just about jumps off the book's pages."
--Christian Science Monitor
“A delight. On one level, it’s the story of how a ‘six-foot-two-inch, thirty-six-year-old, rather loud and unserious Californian’—her words—discovered the fullness of life in France. On another, it recounts the making of ‘Julia Child’, America’s grande dame of French cooking. Inevitably, the stories overlap.” --Alan Riding, The New York Times Book Review
“Charming and affectionate.” --Colman Andrews, The Wall Street Journal
“An engaging, endearing love letter to the country Julia regarded as her ‘spiritual homeland’… Written by Julia Child’s grandnephew, Alex Prud’homme… [A] highly readable posthumous memoir that chronicles not only her discovery of the culinary glories of postwar France but also her transformation into a confident chef, teacher, and ultimately apostle of French cooking to millions of Americans.” --Mackenzie Carpenter, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Inspiring.” --Jennifer Rose, Entertainment Weekly
“A luscious combination of culinary adventure, love story, and memoir… Gives readers a true taste for the woman behind the recipes.” --Heather Grimshaw, The Denver Post
“Captivating… My Life In France captures the essence of Julia Child.” --Martin Rubin, San Francisco Chronicle

Praise for The French Chef in America:
"Intricately and intriguingly detailed . . . delicious." --Mimi Sheraton, The Daily Beast
"[An] opportunity to lap up the timeless kitchen wisdom of one of the world's greatest cooking teachers." --Penny Pleasance, NY Journal of Books
"Relive the moment that Julia Child became an American icon." --Boston Globe
"Highlights flavors and philosophies that fueled [Julia Child's] style of cooking, the legacy of which would go on to change and shape the way we eat today." --Nylon

Another Great Biography of Mrs. Child!

Often, in other biographies, the narrative just trails off towards the end of Julia's life. This focuses upon it and ties it up nicely. Also, since it is partially from a first-person perspective (through Mr. Prudhomme's eyes) it's nice to get to see snatches of the parts of her life that weren't on camera.

Julia enthusiast

I loved it. I have always admired Mrs. Child. I am a culinary arts teacher and turn to teach my students to love cooking as much as Julia did.

Even If You Think You've Heard it All...

Surprisingly, even if you've read several biographies of Julia Child, this one manages to give a very thorough overview of events in Julia Child's life up until her death, and to keep it fresh along the way, especially in contrasting Julia's personal thoughts (gleaned from letters and so on) compared to the Julia we saw that was her public persona. (The same can be said for her collaborators, Simone "Simca" Beck and Judith Jones.)

The narration was well done. It's well researched, insightful, and well written. If I have one criticism it's with pronunciation of some of the names of people. Pierre Franey's last name is pronounced to rhyme with Rainy rather than rhyming with Fan-Bay. Dione Lucas is pronounced as Dee-Own when it should be Dee-Oh-Knee. And so on.

Overall, highly recommended. It was a pleasure to listen to from beginning to end, and a fond remembrance of many of the events in Julia's life and memories of our own revisited along the way here.

Delightful!

Enjoyed every chapter. Since watching the Max series it’s wonderful to hear what was true and not true about Julia and her time in TV. Enjoyable to listen to and can’t wait to listen to more by the author!! Thank you.

Great story - Narration not so much

Thoroughly enjoyed the book. Julia’s life makes for a very entertaining read/listen. I only wish they had gotten a better narrator. I was drawn to this book because of Mr. Prud-Homme’s “My Life in France” which I thoroughly enjoyed, especially the narrator.