Julie & Julia & Michael

Special to Seattlest by Canlis sous chef Ryan Tateishi

Knowing nothing else about the film Julie & Julia, aside from the fact that the screenplay is by the same person that wrote When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, and You’ve Got Mail, you could safely assume it’s a chick flick.

So given the fact that the newest Nora Ephron film is indeed a love story, why would we attend an advance screening? It was free, it was 100 degrees outside, and we were curious to see if Meryl Streep played a better Julia than Dan Aykroyd.

While the movie itself met expectations, it unexpectedly generated conversation beyond Julie Powell and Julia Child. I’m specifically referring to Michael Pollan’s recent New York Times article reviewing the film. In it Pollan asks, "How is it that we are so eager to watch other people browning beef cubes on screen but so much less eager to brown them ourselves?" He goes on to point out how the rise of celebrity chefs has coincided with the rise of fast food and subsequent decline of home cooking.

Pollan states that Americans spend more time watching cooking shows than actually cooking. He proceeds to ask what makes cooking shows such good television. Why is such pleasure derived from watching other people cook while individuals have lost the desire to cook for themselves? It seems paradoxical that all the time saved by having some one else cook for us is spent watching others cook on television.

Pollan suggests that while a majority of people feel they don’t have the time or energy to cook for themselves every day, they’re not prepared to part with the act entirely. We live vicariously through celebrity chefs in large part because we have lost the ability to do it ourselves.