Happy 104th birthday to Julia Child, accidental revolutionary

I just came across this beautiful Jesse Kornbluth tribute to Julia and MY LIFE IN FRANCE from August, which would have marked her 104th birthday. Merci, Head Butler … now, what do you think of THE FRENCH CHEF IN AMERICA?

Julia Child: My Life in France

By JESSE KORNBLUTH
Published: Aug 31, 2016
Category: Food and Wine

Julia Child would be 104, so it’s understandable that, for many Americans, she looks and acts like Meryl Streep in the Nora Ephron film that burnished her eccentricities. But in the wayback machine, you can find the real Julia, teaching her fellow citizens the joy of French cooking on public television — a frowsy, big-boned (6’2″, 158 pounds) matron with a trill in her voice, hacking up a chicken with more zest than is called for, most likely because she’s been chugging the cooking sherry.
My favorite way of considering Julia Child — the Julia Child of “My Life in France” — is as a revolutionary. Not intentionally. She just had the great good fortune to find herself living in Paris with no job and nothing more compelling than a tentative interest in cooking …
The book ends this way: “The pleasures of the table, and of life, are infinite — toujours bon appetit!” As you read these words, you finally get it — this is not a book about food, this is a book about life. A wise life, a life of beauty, art and invention. You can learn a lot from a life like that.
Start with this book.