the food writer Julie Powell, known for her cooking blog “Julie & Julia” and the subject of a film starring Amy Adams and Meryl Streep, has died at the age of 49.
The New York Times newspaper announced Tuesday that Powell died on October 26 at her home in Olivebridge, in upstate New York, and that her husband, Eric Powell, said the cause was cardiac arrest.
The writer became famous by recounting in a blog in an amusing way what it was like to cook for a year all the recipes (524) of chef Julia Child, author of “The art of French cuisine” and one of the great promoters of good table among American housewives.
Before the year was out, Salon reported that the blog had some 400,000 total page views, as well as several thousand regular readers asking each day if Powell really would finish on time.
Norah Ephron film
Publisher Little, Brown & Company turned the blog into a book, “Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen.” And from there came a movie, “Julie & Julia” (2009), which was director Nora Ephron’s last film and starred Mery Streep as Julia Child and Amy Adams as Julie Powell.
Chef Julia Child died in 2004, so she never got to see the film, but, according to The Times, she was aware of Powell’s blog and told the press she didn’t understand why Powell had so much “trouble” recreating her recipes.
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In 2009, Powell published his second and final book, “Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession,” in which he describes the extramarital affairs he experienced as a couple.
This time, the connection to food was darker: she juxtaposed her apprenticeship as a butcher with a dissection of her moods and marriage.