Dorothy Canfield Fisher and Julia Child

I'm about two-thirds of the way through Julia Child's My Life in France, an account of the years she and her husband spent in France, and mostly in Paris.

Child had two Parisian friends, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, who were attempting to produce a French cookbook for the American market. They sent a rough copy to Dorothy Canfield Fisher, a family friend of Beck's, to get her opinion. Her response was:

"It won't do. This is just a dry bunch of recipes, with not much background on French food attitudes and ways of doing things. You've got to preface the recipes and tell little anecdotes - something that explains the whole way the French do things in the kitchen. Get an American who is crazy about French cooking to collaborate with you; somebody who both knows French food and can still see and explain things with an American viewpoint in mind."

And the rest is history! Which means I have Dorothy Canfield Fisher to thank every time I open my well-worn copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking!

(author touchstones don't seem to be working)

WOW!!! What an interesting piece of information!

Wow, I have never run across that piece of info about Canfield before! Thanks, miss_read!

Fascinating miss_read, thank you!