Amuse-Bouche

This book lives because of Julia Child. And it breathes because of the generous chefs who inhabit its pages.

In 2012, I applied for a Julia Child grant through the Culinary Institute of America. I pondered the idea of bistronomy — that elusive partnership of gastronomic excellence in the comfortable, relaxed atmosphere of a bistro — and what it meant in terms of Julia’s love of French gastronomy and her absolute ideals of sharing food around the table. Somewhere, somehow the culinary gods were on my side. I received the grant, packed my bags and headed to Paris. I ate, I talked to chefs, I discovered. Then I did it all again. And again, for good measure.