Julia Child - People Who Love to Eat Are Always the Best People: And Other Wisdom

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I (with Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck; 1961)

The French Chef Cookbook (1968)

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume II (with Simone Beck; 1970)

From Julia Childs Kitchen (1975)

Julia Child & Company (1978)

Julia Child & More Company (1979)

The Way to Cook (1989)

Cooking with Master Chefs (1993)

In Julias Kitchen with Master Chefs (1995)

Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home (with Jacques Ppin; 1999)

Julias Kitchen Wisdom (2000)

My Life in France (with Alex Prudhomme; 2006)

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

Copyright 2020 by The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts

Illustrations by Sidonie Coryn

Edited by Lexy Bloom, Tom Pold, and Todd Schulkin

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto.

www.aaknopf.com

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Names: Child, Julia, author.

Title: People who love to eat are always the best people : and other wisdom / Julia Child.

Description: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2020.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020005031 (print) | LCCN 2020005032 (ebook) | ISBN 9780525658795 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780525658801 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH : Child, Julia. | CooksUnited StatesQuotations.

Classification: LCC TX 649. C 47 A 25 2020 (print) | LCC TX 649. C 47 (ebook) | DDC 641.5092 [ B ]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020005031

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020005032

Ebook ISBN9780525658801

Cover illustration and design by Joan Wong

Author photograph by Paul Child The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts

ep_prh_5.6.0_c0_r0

A NOTE ON THE QUOTES

We at The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts have learned that people love to quote Julia. Julia herself certainly loved to quip. She was even known to quote herself, sometimes changing her words just enough to leave the original to each persons memory. Such is the public affection and fascination with all things Julia that stories about things she never did or said are frequently told with conviction. Given all the lore, we felt it was time to gather Julias wisdom into an authoritative compendium. We hope you enjoy her enduring wit as much as we still do.

Learn to cooktry new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!

Food, like the people who eat it,

can be stimulated by wine or spirits. And, as with people, it can also

be spoiled.

You can always judge the quality of a cook or restaurant by roast chicken. While it does not require years of training to produce a juicy, brown, buttery, crisp-skinned, heavenly bird, it does entail such a greed for perfection that one is under compulsion to hover over the bird, listen to it, above all see that it is continually basted, and that it is done just to the proper turn.

NO ONE IS BORN

A GREAT COOK,

ONE LEARNS

BY DOING.

I think careful cooking is love, dont you? The loveliest thing you can cook for someone whos close to you is about as nice a Valentine as you can give.

DONT FORGET

THE butter

THE FRENCH

NEVER DO!

Certainly one of the important requirements for learning how to cook is that you also learn how to eat. If you dont know how an especially fine dish is supposed to taste, how can you produce it? Just like becoming an expert in wineyou learn by drinking it, the best you can affordyou learn about great food by finding the best there is, whether simple or luxurious. Then you savor it, analyze it, and discuss it with your companions, and you compare it with other experiences.

FIND SOMETHING YOURE

PASSIONATE ABOUT

AND KEEP TREMENDOUSLY

INTERESTED IN IT.

It is hard to imagine a civilization without onions; in one form or another their flavor blends into almost everything in the meal except the dessert.

Theoretically a good cook should be able to perform under any circumstances, but cooking is much easier, pleasanter, and more efficient if you have the right tools.

Therein lies the science of the experienced wine connoisseurthe more you drink (and think upon it), the more youll know.

[ COOKING ] TAKES ALL

OF YOUR INTELLIGENCE

AND ALL OF YOUR DEXTERITY.

ITS ALWAYS CREATIVE,

ITS ALWAYS NEW,

ITS ALWAYS FUN.

The sweetness and generosity and politeness and gentleness and humanity of the French had shown me how lovely life can be if one takes time to be friendly.

TEACHING SHOULD

NEVER BE DULL,

EVEN IF YOURE TALKING

ABOUT HOW TO RAISE

TURNIPS IN DENMARK.

The souffl is the egg at its most magnificent. How glorious it is when borne to the table, its head rising dramatically out of its dish, and swaying voluptuously as it is set down.