How Julia Child saved me from being a Big Loser

I’d never really cooked anything before going to college. 

My mom is a great cook and I never exactly needed to do much in the kitchen. Sure, I could follow directions for package brownies or muffins, but that was about the extent of it. Sometimes, I’d help Mom cut up mushrooms. So yeah, that’s the sum of my culinary experience before age 20.

When I went away to school, I learned two things: dining hall food is not my mom’s cooking and neither is my cooking. I was struggling to make noodles, was afraid of raw meat and basically was living on a steady diet of cereal and canned soup.

My confidence in the kitchen completely evaporated the fifth time I burned rice.

[Sadly this was 15 weeks ago according to Instagram.]

But my best friends Amanda and Laura are amazing in the kitchen. 

So I decided to grab the ole proverbial bootstraps and keep trying. I texted them a lot of silly questions and asked even stupider ones when I tricked them into cooking dinner for me.

I also got married in July, so the pressure was on. I knew that either my husband and I would die of starvation, or we’d be auditioning for "The Biggest Loser" in six months. Something had to be done.

Enter Julia Child.

[photo pulled from goodreads, my other obsession.]

I read “My Life in France” on our honeymoon and was really surprised by how much I liked Julia Child – especially her tenacity. And I completely related to her humble beginnings. She’d never been great in the kitchen, but when she got married and moved to France, she knew she needed to step up her game. Plus, she wanted to.

So she developed a cooking community becoming friends with chefs, shop owners and fishmongers. She took cooking classes, practiced a lot at home and her cooking career took off from there. JC burned, ruined, and spilled her way to being one of the most iconic chefs of all time. And I realized that if she could do all of that—why couldn't I learn how to cook?

More importantly to me, Julia leaned on her two friends to help her. (Bam. Done.)

And as a writer who is tired of adding journals to my shelf, I decided it would be a lot more fun to include my friends that know a lot more than me and make it public so other people could know that even if they burn rice and can really only succeed at frozen pizza, things can change.

So from here on out, this is a learning experiment.

And remember:

“No matter what happens in the kitchen, never apologize.” Julia Child.