WWJCD?
What Would Julia Child Do?
This morning while making my first “fall batch” of homemade granola, I realized I have several things coming down the pipeline I’m really excited for, and no one to talk to about them.
Then I remembered I have a Substack. Lucky you.
But before that, let me just share my favorite bit of advice from Julia Child. I should mention at the start, I struggle to take this advice, though I think of it often. I’m a chronic apologizer. It’s not uncommon for me to open with “sorry” before “hello”.
Julia has a different approach however. She says to never make any apologies or excuses for the food you make when you serve it. It comes across desperate and no one will ever care as much as you do that there isn’t enough salt, or that you didn’t brown the meat long enough, or that you should have added more mustard. It’s boring and draws attention to the wrong thing. Just make your food, serve it, keep the notes to yourself and let people enjoy the meal without having to talk about it.
I find a lot of writers open their Substack articles similarly: “I’m sorry for being here, but would you consider reading this…?” Or they add qualifiers, or critique their writing before you get to even experience it.
Just let it be. You probably could do better— there is always room for improvement or an edit. It doesn’t mean what you’ve made (food or writing!) isn’t enjoyable just as it is.
Speaking of Julia Child, her memoir is has been the main source of inspiration behind the Gilmore Girls fanfiction I’ve been writing lately. In fact, I even ripped the title— My Life in Stars Hollow— and the graphic design straight from Julia’s memoir My Life in France.
While to me, Sookie and Julia are fundamentally different people, their ability to be singularly obsessive about tiny details around food is what sets them apart from their peers. They’re both the kind of people who would get lost in thought dreaming up the PERFECT brine for a Thanksgiving turkey, or spend hours researching the best fat to salt ratio in butter. That kind of singularity intrigues me because I’ve never had a perfectionism streak. Good enough’s, close enough as my husband likes to say! People who give a shit are important to me, academically speaking.
So if you’re a fan of Sookie or Julia, I think you’ll enjoy the fanfiction I’ve been writing. It’s Sookie’s origin story as I like to imagine it. What brought her to Stars Hollow? How did she start at the Independence Inn? Were her and Lorelei always such good friends? Who was her first love? Plus, what’s more “fall” than hanging out in Stars Hollow? (Nothing, the answer is actually nothing.)
Sookie’s story is for paid subscribers and there are two chapters to consume already. Three comes out in a few days.
Anyway, let’s talk about Martha Stewart’s Netflix documentary. As far as I’m concerned, October 30th can’t come soon enough. I want to sit down, dim the lights, pour a glass of red wine and get swept up in her world. (As an aside, Martha shading Ina Garten for cutting ties with her after she went to prison on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen is the kind of celebrity chef drama I live for!!)
The other thing coming down the pipeline I’m excited for is The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny on October 29th. It’ll be the 19th installment in her Inspector Gamache series. I think this series is single handedly responsible for getting me through 2020. It was the perfect, cozy escape.
Finally, the last thing I’m looking forward to is more imminent than the first two, and that is that I’m making these fall stuffed peppers by Olivia Noceda for dinner tonight. I have all the ingredients assembled finally and I can’t wait. You should definitely subscribe to her Substack as well. I think it’s mostly free and she’s got loads of amazing recipes.
Okay that’s all folks! If there’s anything I should add to this list of delights, please comment and add your recommendations below. I really want to just load these next few weeks up with things I can look forward to (ahem, election season in America is a traumatic time for us all!) and I think we all could do with heavily stacking our dopamine menus.
Cheerio!
-g xxx