Judith Jones was the editor who pushed Julia Child’s first book into print, and she remained Ms. Child’s editor throughout both their careers. The story she tells is about searching for food that pleases as fully as it nourishes, and that does not leave out those not trained to cook. This book will be a joy for anyone who has ever organized a day around dinner.
Old Fashioned Table Manners
Jones writes easily, and with humor, about growing up in New York City in a household mired in dining rituals -- rituals at once training children to respect the food in front of them and to refrain from mentioning it. “And if we indulged in appreciative sounds like ‘yum-yum,’ we just might be sent from the table,” she writes on page five. The attitude behind these rituals, and the ongoing focus on them fostered, even as it warned against, a life built around food.
An Honest Story
The Tenth Muse is not a tell-all about infamous literary figures, nor it is an exhaustive memoir. Mentions of Truman Capote, John Paul Sartre, and Ms. Jones’ relationship with her boyfriend, then husband, Evan Jones are sparingly doled out amid more detailed accounts of, for example, the author’s experiments making boef bourguignon.
Jones’ tenure as Child’s editor is discussed but not dwelled upon. Early, and in an even-handed way, this book lets readers know it will not be hurried through for juicy tidbits. Despite the author’s clear control, it feels honest, as though Ms. Jones’ loyalty is not to her friends or her cooks, but to her own particularly un-dramatic view of history.
Easy Gourmet Recipes
The last 82 pages of the book are filled with recipes adapted by the author after decades of experimentation. These are Judith Jones’ beloved favorites, and reading about them is fun, with or without any intention to cook them. Her descriptions (like the one for Sorrel and Leek Pancakes, on page 249, inspired by one of Jones’ cookbook authors at Knopf), go beyond making gourmet recipes sound easy—they actually open up gourmet food to the willing, reading public. Julia Child made her career on explaining French cooking to an American audience; Judith Jones recognized the need for such explanation and fought for Julia Child’s first book deal. After long nurturing the attempts of other people to write about great food, successfully, she does it herself.
The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food, By Judith Jones
Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1997
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