(New York) Julie Powell, American writer who had risen to international fame thanks to her culinary blog and book inspired by the 1960s bestseller on French cuisine by chef Julia Child, died of a heart attack at 49 years, according to New York Times tuesday.
Posted at 4:49 p.m.
Quoting her husband, the newspaper indicates that Julie Powell died on October 26 at her home in New York State.
Born and raised in Austin, Texas, she worked in the administration of the municipality of New York, before launching a blog which she transformed in 2005 into a bestselling book: Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchentranslated into French under the title Julie and Julia: sex, blog and beef bourguignon (Threshold, 2008).
In a humorous tone, Julie Powell comments on and tries to make the recipes of the famous chef and Californian television host Julia Child (1912-2004), author in 1961 of the huge best-seller Mastering the Art of French Cooking aimed, at the time, to popularize French cuisine among American women.
A movie, Julie & Julia (2009), directed by Nora Ephron, was directly adapted from Julie Powell’s book and Julia Child’s autobiography (My Life in France) to make a portrait of the two women with actresses Amy Adams for Julie Powell and Meryl Streep for Julia Child.
The journey of Julie Powell, who died on Wednesday, has inspired dozens of blogs by American chefs and culinary and gastronomic authors such as Dorie Greenspan, Ina Garten, Deb Perelman, Alison Roman and the Frenchwoman Clotilde Dusoulier.
Deb Perelman declared herself on Twitter on Tuesday “in shock to have learned this morning of the death of Julie Powell, the first food blogger”.
” Books [de Julie Powell] brought Julia Child up to date with the new generation, thanks to a refreshing, informal and rooted in real life tone, which was quite rare” 20 years ago, commented Mme Perelman, from the Smitten Kitchen website.