Hungry for the Holidays, with Julia Child
From: Leet and Litwin
Series: HUNGRY: The Literary Julia Child
Length: 54:49
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Everyone knows Julia Child loved to cook, but not everyone knows she loved to read. Long ago she started work on a series of specials that are only just now being completed and aired -- stories about food and a little cooking, but mostly about people. "A Christmas Carol is a lovely story to read over the holidays," she says, "because it has a happy ending." Peter Donat, a star of her favorite TV show, "Murder She Wrote," brings the story to life -- with sounds and music that stimulate the theatre of the mind. Next Julia introduces her old friend, M.F.K. Fisher, who was, in the words of the poet W.H. Auden, "the best prose-writer in America." The recording took place in the author's tiny house set in a meadow, with cows poking their noses to the window. Julia paints a funny, spontaneous portrait of her friend -- especially her "wicked" streak. The story Mary Frances Kennedy reads is "I Was Really Very Hungry," about a meal served off-season in a famous Burgundian restaurant, the passionate chef slaving in the kitchen, the passionate waitress bringing course after course to the only diner in the building, M.F.K. Fisher, whose pleasure shifts to fear as she finds herself "a victim of these stranded gourmets."
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Related Pieces
Piece Description
Everyone knows Julia Child loved to cook, but not everyone knows she loved to read. Long ago she started work on a series of specials that are only just now being completed and aired -- stories about food and a little cooking, but mostly about people. "A Christmas Carol is a lovely story to read over the holidays," she says, "because it has a happy ending." Peter Donat, a star of her favorite TV show, "Murder She Wrote," brings the story to life -- with sounds and music that stimulate the theatre of the mind. Next Julia introduces her old friend, M.F.K. Fisher, who was, in the words of the poet W.H. Auden, "the best prose-writer in America." The recording took place in the author's tiny house set in a meadow, with cows poking their noses to the window. Julia paints a funny, spontaneous portrait of her friend -- especially her "wicked" streak. The story Mary Frances Kennedy reads is "I Was Really Very Hungry," about a meal served off-season in a famous Burgundian restaurant, the passionate chef slaving in the kitchen, the passionate waitress bringing course after course to the only diner in the building, M.F.K. Fisher, whose pleasure shifts to fear as she finds herself "a victim of these stranded gourmets."
Broadcast History
Julia Child and the producers started work on this literary series in 1997 but had to drop the project until NOW! Thanks in part to the Julia Child Foundation, there will be more of these special programs.
Transcript
HUNGRY FOR THE HOLIDAYS
DULCIMER UNDER.
JULIA CHILD: I’m Julia Child, with a new show called Hungry. It’s about eating, some cooking, and most of all about people.
ANNCR: Welcome to Hungry, with Julia Child. Everyone knows Julia loved to cook, but not everyone knows she loved to read. To make you hungry for the holidays, she’ll take you back in time, with two stories. The late great M.F.K. Fisher will have one she wrote in 1937, about an amazing meal in France. But first, the actor Petor Donat takes us to Charles Dickens’s England – and chef Mary Risley takes us into her modern kitchen to make the figgy pudding.
JULIA: “A Christmas Carol” is a lovely story to read during the holidays, because it has a happy ending.
ANNCR: Hungry has been made possible in part by a grant from the Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts, with added support from the Fleishhacker Foundat...
Read the full transcript
Timing and Cues
Billboard opening: (DULCIMER UNDER) I'm Julia Child.
Billboard close: Julia brings you 2 stories, just ahead. (TOTAL 00:59)
NEWS (TOTAL 5 minutes)
Music bed 1 (00:29)
Segment A opens-- Charles Dickens published "A Christmas Carol" in...
Segment A closes: ...with additional support from the Fleishhacker Foundation (TOTAL 22:56:50)
Music bed 2 (00:59)
Segment B opening: MUSIC...I'm Julia Child.
Segment B close: ...from the Fleishhacker Foundation MUSIC UP & OUT.)
(TOTAL 28:26)
Music bed 3 (00:59)
Musical Works
| Title | Artist | Album | Label | Year | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Springwater at Jerry's Run | Malcolm Dalglish | Thunderhead. | Flying Fish Records | 1982 | 00:29 |
| "The French Chef Theme" | John Morris | TV Series, Station WGBH. | 1962 | 00:30 | |
| "Bjornvalser fran Skane" | Abe Moller and Aly Bain | Rully Rigged. | Northside Whirlie Recors and East Side, Inc. | 00:30 | |
| Gabriel Faure | "Fantasie pour Flute" | 00:48 | |||
| "Paris Street Waltz" | David Litwin | 1983 | 00:56 | ||
| "Sarabande from Cello Suite #3 in C" | J.S. Bach/Yo-Yo Ma | Bach Cello Suites. | Columbia Masterworks | 01:09 |
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Pat Benson
Posted on December 28, 2010 at 12:43 PM | Permalink
I was at a fundraiser for this project
I can't believe I am hearing that wonderful voice of M.F.K. telling that story. There was a fundraiser at Chez Panisse in the late 80's or early 90's I think that I attended. Robert Mondavi was there as well as Julia and Paul. It is so nice to know it finally paid off. Thank you for your persistance.
Pat Benson