Julia Child: the delicious sensuality of food and marriage

Great Aunt Agatha, whose husband had many mistresses, said that the relationship between food and sex was lemon ice.  My sisters and I didn't quite understand until we were were in the shop one day and saw Guiseppe  filling pastry shells with one of the chefs. He giggled like a teen ager as she gave him her "cannoli kisses."

Before I talk about my favoirte review, do read our Female Friendship Examiner Debbie Puente: Julie & Julia movie review: Adams,Streep, and butter combine in recipe for charming chick flick

Of all the stories being published, I love best the Los Angeles Times review of  “Julie and Julia” by John Horn in which he talks of Nora Ephron’s ability to elevate food to the same plane as romance. 

There is something quite sensual about two people cooking together.

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eading the review by John Horn made me wonder why I never included "cooking together" in my Sudden Passion series.  What is more delectable than two people licking cream from a spatula?  Or adding a few sensual moves as one whips up the egg whites to a perfect stiffness.  Or taking a bit of chocolate icing and spreading it sensually.  

Here are just three paragraphs of a rather lengthy LA Times review, but you’ll get the picture and apparently won’t have difficulty finding the sexy connection to food.

From the review: “Julia (Meryl Streep) and Paul Child's (Stanley Tucci) postwar romance was a red-hot affair filled with afternoon delights, whereas Julie (Amy Adams) and Eric Powell's (Chris Messina) modern relationship was more focused on careers than copulating. "I may NEVER want to have sex AGAIN," a frustrated Powell writes in her book.

"‘Young people today really have no idea that people ever had sex before they were born except once or twice in order to have kids,’" the wiry Ephron said as she cut apples into incredibly even slices. "’These two people,’" she said of Julia and Paul Child, "’and you would never have guessed to look at them, had had this wild, fantastic sexual connection. And then there was the story of this married couple living in New York right now who absolutely never got laid -- ever.

"’The truth is that most marriages have food as a major player in them, and certainly mine does,’" said Ephron, who is married to author and screenwriter Nick Pileggi ("Goodfellas," "Casino") and wrote about her earlier marriage to journalist Carl Bernstein in the caustic roman à clef “Heartburn,” a novel that included recipes. Ephron's best-selling 2006 memoir, "I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman,"“Heartburn,” shares an almost equal fascination with gastronomy.” LATimes.com/entertainment

Bon Appétit!  

Copyright 2009 Rita Watson