In anticipation of the close to the Julie/Julia Project, Julie Powell's marathon cook-and-blog-a-thon to cook every recipe from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and blog about it, Amanda Hesser visits Powell and her husband for a meal of veal kidneys, sautéed potatoes, glazed onions and a cherry clafouti. Hesser also finds out more about Powell (secretary at the LMDC) and that the cooking has taken a toll on the marriage (her husband, Eric: "A year is about enough time to be cooking with butter. It was like a long march.") not to mention her wallet and figure (she estimates she's used over 60 pounds of butter). The Powells will head to DC once the project is over for a pilgrimage to Julia Child's kitchen at the Smithsonian.
Hesser notes that the Powells' Long Island City kitchen is a "typically small New York kitchen, with no ventilation, no dishwasher (except for her husband, Eric), and a view of a brick wall." [When Gothamist has seen Hesser give cooking demonstrations, people would ask her what kind of kitchen she had. She answered (and these were her pre-Tad days) she had a tiny NY kitchen like the rest of us, making us feel shameful we weren't as industrious and good-spirited about it as she semed to be.] According to last week's entry about Hesser's visit, Powell was initially intimidated but was set at ease after meeting her. Plus Hesser apparently enjoyed the clafouti.
Gothamist was interested in what Powell said about her readers, who have grown more loyal and in number with every word she writes: "I'm miserable so they can be happy. I'm like the Jesus of extreme cooking. I got fat and very unhappy for their sins." And our own Justin has been raving about Julie Powell for a while.
