Julie Powell, the food writer known for diarising making every recipe from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking – a journey that was the subject of the 2009 film Julie and Julia – has died. She was 49.
Powell’s husband Eric told the New York Times she died on October 26, with the cause of death being cardiac arrest.
She was best known for staring her blog, the Julie/Julia Project, where she wrote about her cooking mishaps and kitchen victories as she worked her way through Child’s famous cookbook.
Her blog, the style of which in 2002 pioneered the casual format that’s normal for contemporary bloggers now, was eventually turned into a book called Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen in 2005.
That book, along with Child’s autobiography My Life in France, was turned into a Nora Ephron-directed film starring Meryl Streep as Child and Amy Adams as a semi-fictonalised version of Powell.
Tributes have poured in for Powell following her husband’s announcement, with many expressing disbelief at the news of her passing.
“I was shocked to learn this morning of the passing of Julie Powell, the original food blogger. Cooking through Julia Child’s books, she made Child relevant to a new generation, and wrote about cooking in a fresh, conversational, this-is-my-real life tone that was rare back then,” blogger Deb Perelman wrote on social media.
“How very sad. She was so young. I was a huge fan of her blog, and I am definitely old enough to remember when social media was more about being snarky about oneself than putting down others. RIP Julie,” chef Pim Techamuanvivit wrote.
