Firstly, sorry, no pictures. You’ll either have to imagine the greatness of what I’m about to tell you or go and watch the film yourselves (out 11th Sept).

I received an email from Niamh (eat like a girl) on Thursday saying that there were 20 pairs of tickets up for grabs to a private screening of the new film starring Meryl Streep on Friday evening. This is one of the reasons that after 4 years of living in the capital, I still adore it. I jumped at the chance, partly because I love a good film and partly because events like this excite me.

We turned up, were given our sticky labels and headed to the bar for a quick unwinding fresh glass of wine (it was Friday evening after all). A couple of hand fulls of communal crisps later and we were ushered into the small albeit cosy screening room.

I hadn’t done my homework and was not entirely sure what stories were about to unravel before my eyes but all became clear as soon as the film started. It’s two stories of a home cook turned famous (Julia Child, 1940s) and modern day food blogger (Julie, 2002). I was after all invited as a food blogger.

I’m not a film citic so i’m not going to try to get all serious about it but I will say that I got a strange feeling of familiarity when watching and not just for the fact that Julia and her sister appeared at least 2 inches taller than their husbands, similar to Jack and I (although he chooses not to think about it until, shock horror, he has to look at us standing side by side in the mirror!) No, this modern woman loved writing, cooking and her partner. It was the first film that i have seen that has so opulently sprung modern day activities into light. As you can see, I’m just at the becoming of my blogging adventures and the film reminded me of the exciting times I have yet to come.

I’ve never much been a fan of French food or Paris for that matter. I’ve been 3 times now and each time disappointed me a little more than the last, maybe because I was expecting more each time. I never managed to eat a good meal and the only tasty treats I had were from the plethora of boulangeries, fruit custard pastry please, yum. So the films portrayal of Paris was a breath of fresh air, if only the same outdoor markets and small shops selling the freshest of produce still existed today. 

Julia Child’s love of food began with a sole meuniere but I have to say that the best looking dish of the evening was boeuf bourguignon, the meat looking so tender. Although I rarely eat beef these days, it turned my stomach into a rumble attack. 

I don’t want to give too much of the film away but if you are a lover of food (particularly French cuisine) and a blogger/like Reading blogs/get why people read and write them then it’s worth a trip to the cinema this week.

We were all so very kindly given a free book on our exit, thanks to Duckworth publishers, who hosted the screening.

Not surprisingly I disembarked the building hungry and on a mission to find meat, not any meat though, it had to be red meat!!! Weird. After a short walk around Soho I found it! I’ve been in
Le Pain Quotidien a couple of times before for the berry and custard pastries they do so well (I’m such a pudding lover) but had never been for a main meal. I swear jack is the woman and I am the man in this relationship, I had steak, he had tuna and I paid the bill. I did owe him money though…

I’m looking forward to getting stuck into my book on the commute to work and trying, for the first time, to cook a delicious boeuf bourguignon.