I wonder if Julia Child would Twitter?

While I was on a beach vacation in August I decided not to take my Kindle with me for fear of sand that seems to come home with us in every nook and cranny of our belongings. So I grabbed an actual book called, My Life in France written by Julia Child and Alex Prud' homme who is also Paul Child's grand nephew. Paul Child of course being Julia Child's beloved husband. What an amazing story on so many levels.

We all know Julia Child, right? The 6'2" American, world famous chef, quirky TV personality, and author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I remember watching reruns of her shows with my mother growing up and seeing my mother chuckle as Julia would swoop the mess from her cooking surface on to the floor. And who could forget her "Chicken Sisters" episode of "The French Chef" series? She was pretty much the Food Network before there was a Food Network!

Did you know she went to culinary school at age 32 while in Paris? By her own admission, she couldn't "boil an egg" when she arrived in Paris in 1948 but that didn't stop her from enrolling in the 10-month course at Le Cordon Bleu and immerse herself in the art of cooking. Not only was I amazed by her culinary talent after reading this book, I was also amazed with her communication skills.

In 1951, Julia joined a women's cooking club called Cercle des Gourmettes where she met, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, fellow foodies who were writing a French cookbook for Americans. Simone Beck proposed that Julia work with them to help it appeal to Americans and that's how she became involved with the 734-page Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Are you surprised to learn Julia Child is a co-author on the now famous cook book?

When the three started their collaboration on the book they all lived in Paris. In 1953, Julia and her husband, Paul moved to Marseilles, more than 400 miles from Paris, and in 1956 they moved back to the US. The book wasn't published until 1961. If you didn't know Sodexo (then Sodexho) was launched in 1966 by Pierre Bellon in Marseilles, France, initially serving company restaurants, schools and hospitals under the name Societé d'Exploitation Hotelière. And today, Sodexo’s 2,000 chefs and 25,000 culinary professionals dish up millions of delicious, nutritious meals for customers in businesses, colleges and universities, hospitals and schools across North America. I wonder if Pierre Bellon (founder and Chairman of the Board of Sodexo) knew Julia?

It took 10 years to write the book. Chef's notes for each chapter were hand written, typed and mailed back and forth to each other until a recipe was mastered. There are 426 recipes in this book. She had to communicate with her co-authors by way of short phone calls, letters and an occasional visit. The amount of time they spent writing what has become a work of art is mind boggling and at first I had a hard time grasping how it could even be done. But then I realized most of Sodexo's Talent Acquisition team is remote. Instead of hand written letters, we send emails and if email happens to be "down" we send direct messages in Twitter or Facebook. I guess we all adapt to the technology or lack of technology available. But, can you imagine if Julia had the internet, email, Facebook or Twitter?

Do you think Julia would be on Twitter if she were still with us today? What do you think her handle would be?