If you want more evidence of our narcissistic age, there’s no better example than the foodie film opening Friday, Julie & Julia. Nora Ephron’s screenplay tells the story of Julia Child’s fascinating life, culinary awakening, and rise to influentialism, paired with the tale of mousy NYC food blogger Julie Powell, who, at a personal and professional crossroads, found herself by cooking each recipe from Child’s seminal Mastering the Art of French Cooking and then writing a book about it, where her name comes before Child's! In some circles they’d call that necrophilia.
You don’t have to have seen the film to know one story is
interesting and the other not. Now, it’s not new for Hollywood to bastardize a
story to make it sell, but are there really that many people who would not pay
$9 to see a well-told version of Child’s story with Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci alone? How many of you could not relate well-enough unless there was one of your contemporaries as its focal
point?
I’m sure Child would be flattered to be immortalized, but would wonder why an extra 45 minutes of her story had to be excised to document a story so unworthy and uninteresting. It's telling that Powell was a blogger, because it offers a parallel to so much of the food writing on the Internet, mostly diary-type entries from people who aspire to write about what they eat, but have never had to submit to the gatekeeping of editors or prove their chops before they write about them.
The New York Observer belatedly handicapped the race to replace Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni (moving off the beat). It missed the winning candidate (culture editor Sam Sifton), but did quote city food bloggers as saying they’d have no interest in the demanding and ethics-bound role. Amateur Gourmet blogger Adam Roberts and Citysearch editor Josh Ozersky demurred because it wouldn't afford the opportunity to be on TV or pal around with chefs. Roberts had just been to El Bulli and couldn’t wait to post his pictures, in comic book format, he mentioned. Yippee!
The difference between Julia and Julie, between Bruni and
Roberts, is the difference between people in it to serve an audience or professional calling and those
in it to serve themselves and monetize a hobby. It's the difference between the real thing and
pretenders. Julie & Julia is the latest evidence that too many of us apparently can’t distinguish between the two.
© 2008 MSP Communications, Inc. All rights reserved
I have no interest in Julie so I won't see the movie until I can fast forward through her parts. I would have loved a movie just about Julia and would have gone to see that movie the first week of release, which is something I rarely do.
Posted by: Shevvi on August 5, 2009 at 9:39 PM
If you think Frank Bruni ate out five times a week to "serve his audience" or because it was his "professional calling," you're a dope. It's the bloggers who are writing out of pure love of food. I work for Citysearch; writing about food is my job. Bloggers like Adam Roberts are the real heroes, not sanctimonious columnists in the Twin Cities. I'd like to see you turn down a meal at El Bulli. Bashing Julie Powell for not being Julie Child is a cheap shot, a lay-in for preening, pompous writers who want to ally themselves with the deities of the food world. Give me a break.
And by the way, there's only one Adam Platt!
yours,
Josh Ozersky
Posted by: Josh Ozersky on August 6, 2009 at 8:02 AM
What a sad, bitter, misanthropic, delusional, ivory-tower, pompous, borderline-Luddite post this was. Get over yourself.
Posted by: Dave M on August 6, 2009 at 8:20 AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/magazine/02cooking-t.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=julia%20child&st=cse
Posted by: C. on August 6, 2009 at 8:43 AM
Jealous much?
Posted by: Tom on August 6, 2009 at 8:58 AM
Hilarious start to the day..."Bloggers like Adam Roberts are the real heroes, not sanctimonious columnists in the Twin Cities."
Bloggers are the real heroes? Not the people sweating over the stove, the people creating the restaurants, taking the risks? Dishwashers perform more heroically in one hour than any blogger will in their lifetime.
As a chef/blogger I can attest to the fact that sitting at a computer writing about food, and the people that make it is the activity of eunuchs, when compared to the heroics of working in the kitchen, any kitchen. I do it because fools like you can't be left unmolested when spewing your silly ideas across the Internet, I do it as a public service, not a job.
Lordy, lordy, Ozersky, you could cut the condescension with a knife, if you knew how to use one. Over my tenure in the Twin Cities I have watched two fantastic New York Chefs come to the Twin Cities, only to be shown the door. How was it that these men failed to produce a concept that couldn't pass muster with the locals? Was it perhaps the fact that they could not imagine a world that did not did not unfold like a giant twat, all that was needed to do was to suck up to the real heroes in the media? Was it that they could not temper their egos long enough to listen to people, to cook for them?
You are too funny Ozersky, now go get a real job, I'll start you in the dish room, offer is open anytime.
Posted by: shefzilla on August 6, 2009 at 9:40 AM
Oh Adam. Poor, sad, bitter little Adam... Julie got a movie deal and HE didn't. Rick Nelson totally kicks your ass in the review department with not even of fraction of your peevishness. He just writes awesome stuff. Period.
Posted by: Mike Weiner on August 6, 2009 at 9:49 AM
“I WANT TO BE famous,” said Josh Ozersky. “When I was born, I was anonymous, and I aim not to die in that position.” http://www.observer.com/2009/food-amp-drink/foodies?page=0
Sorry Josh, what was that about your "pure love of food"? Love love loving your NYC superiority.
Posted by: Chet on August 6, 2009 at 1:43 PM
This article misses a crucial point about much of the food writing that takes place online. The conversation that exists online between food amateurs and hobbyists is, in the vast majority of cases, not an attempt to monetize anything. It's about the effort it takes to incorporate the cooking and eating of quality food into busy lives. It's a conversation about making good food accessible in our homes and about staving off the ever increasing flood of commercially produced, partially hydrogenated, add-water-and-microwave, food-like substances that so often pass as meals in contemporary Western culture. That's not to say that a professional perspective isn't valuable, but it's often not applicable in the typical home kitchen. Just because the dialogue I'm describing doesn't pertain to you doesn't mean that it shouldn't exist.
Posted by: Elizabeth on August 6, 2009 at 3:00 PM
Heya Adam... If you think Julie has a mean case of necrophilia, check out Carol Blymire. She's already cooked her way through the French Laundry Cookbook, and now she's trying her hand at Alinea's. And she's blogging about it...
Posted by: Shane B on August 7, 2009 at 11:43 AM