“The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” Grandma always reminded us waving her wooden spoon whenever we ventured into her kitchen of flour clouds and powdered sugar.
Despite attending a French convent school, we grew up with cannolis, zeppoles, (made only in March in honor of San Giuseppe), and the sfogliatelle, a clam-shell shaped pastry filled with custard or ricotta. Grandpa was a pastry chef. And growing up Italian we learned that food and love are always romantically entwined, though we were never told so explicitly. Neither Grandma nor Aunt Agatha, whose husband had many mistresses, would have told us about a sex surge — only to eat lots of lemon ice if we had “those urges.”
As such, I love 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. I wonder if that is the reason that Kim Cattrall spent five years with her much young Chef?
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
COMMENTS: Please leave comments after my Examiner story today — and so many thanks: Julia Child: a New Haven love story
Copyright 2009 Rita Watson