julia would have been 100 years old today. happy birthday ol’ girl!

photographed in her cambridge, massachusetts, kitchen, june 29, 1970. by arnold newman/getty images.

i love this photo, mostly because her kitchen looks like a workshop, with all her tools on display behind her, and her plans to create something wonderful in front of her.

of course google honored her 100th birthday by having her as their theme of the day, the new york times put out a lovely piece about how she still translates into today’s cooks repertoire, and i will continue to pay homage to my muse, my inspiration and, although unbeknownst to her, my mentor every year on the day of her birth. i wish i would have known the impact she would have on my adult life when i would watch her tv show as a wee lass, or perhaps the reason cooking and food are as important to me as they are because she influenced me early on without my even knowing?

she was interested in what was in season, what tastes good, and figuring out what is the best method in which to cook food. even though some of her recipes were a bit complicated, many were pretty much back to the basics and fairly simple…good ingredients + optimal cooking methods = tasty food. all of which are right where my philosophy of cooking lands, and ultimately what this blog is about.

it is obvious that i love to cook, but i also believe as the master said,

‘cooking is like love; it should be entered into with abandon or not at all.’ -julia child

i love that my kitchen is like a workshop to me, is filled with the tools i need to create, and that julia is always there to remind me to enter into any experience with abandon.

thank you julia, happy birthday, and bon apetite!