It’s not often that a movie comes along and in its wake you see visible differences in those who watched it. Julie & Julia is about two true stories of Julia Child and a blogger who attempts within a year to make every recipe in Julia Child’s 752 page classic, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Julie & Julia has generated new interest in the culinary arts and everyone - especially the tasters of these culinary creations – is benefiting. After almost 50 years of its publishing, Mastering the Art of French Cooking has jumped to #1 in its category on the New York Times bestseller list.

I’m not a serious cook, but I do love to bake. I belong to a Meet-up group called Iron Cupcake (the Iron Chef of the cupcake world). Every month we’re given a challenge (theme or required ingredient) and then competitors bake mini-cupcakes which are judged and the winner is announced. Since the movie, group attendance has tripled in size to over 100.

If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s definitely worth watching. And if it inspires you to improve your skills, grab some girlfriends and stop by a free Williams Sonoma class, check-out Yelp for an informal cooking class , or take a culinary vacation. But don’t stop there – host a simple get together using your new found culinary skills. I just did and I’m reminded how happy people are when they can relax and enjoy good food together.

Bon appetit!

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 6th, 2009 at 2:46 pm and is filed under Culture, Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.