The bored secretary who turned a quirky hobby into a best-selling book and Oscar-nominated movie: FEMAIL lays bare fascinating life of late Julie and Julia author Julie Powell – from food blogger fame to her late-in-life career as a BUTCHER’S ASSISTANT

Food writer Julie Powell, who was propelled into the spotlight after she started a tongue-and-cheek blog that showcased her cooking every recipe in one of Julia Child’s cook books, has tragically died of cardiac arrest at age 49.

Powell started her career off working as a secretary for a company in New York City, but she would spend her days dreaming of doing more with her life.

The blogger and acclaimed author always aspired to break into the entertainment industry, but when the idea struck her to attempt to cook all 524 of Child’s lavish recipes in one year – despite having almost no experience in the kitchen, very little tools, and a tiny and run down space to work with – she never imagined that it would launch her into stardom almost overnight.

She later said she thought of the endeavor as a distraction from her boring, low-level administration job – but what began as an way to avoid the monotony of her run-of-the-mill life eventually helped her achieve the fame she always longed for.

Food writer Julie Powell (seen in 2005), who was propelled into the spotlight after she started a tongue-and-cheek blog that showcased her cooking every recipe in one of Julia Child’s cook books, has tragically died of cardiac arrest at age 49

As the news of Powell’s death sends waves around the food industry, FEMAIL has broken down her impressive career – from her early years as a secretary who had her heart set on becoming famous to how she made that dream come true

It was really Powell’s spunky personality, witty sense of humor, and clever sarcasm that captured the nation; the self-deprecating drama of her mishaps both in and out of the kitchen quickly captivated readers around the globe, who would avidly tune in each day to see what she cooked up.

It became so popular that she was asked to turn it into a book; the memoir was then adapted into a 2009 movie, called Julie and Julia, which starred Amy Adams and Meryl Streep – and even earned Streep an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. 

As the news of Powell’s death sends waves around the food industry, FEMAIL has broken down her impressive career and achievements. From her early years as a secretary who had her heart set on becoming famous to how she made that dream come true, here’s a look back Powell’s fascinating life.

Powell’s early years: How she went from being a bored housewife and secretary to a famous blogger almost overnight

Powell was born on April 20, 1973, and grew up in Austin, Texas. She graduated from Amherst College in 1995 with a double major in theater and creative writing. She is seen as a teen

The food writer (seen in 2009) started her career off working as a secretary for a company in New York City, but she always aspired to break into the entertainment industry and would spend her days dreaming of doing more

Powell was born on April 20, 1973, and grew up in Austin, Texas. She graduated from Amherst College in 1995 with a double major in theater and creative writing; three years later, she married her husband, Eric, a super-private editor for the magazine Archaeology, and together, they moved to New York. 

She started her career off by working for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation – an organization dedicated to rebuilding the downtown area of New York City after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

When the idea struck her to attempt to cook all 524 of Child’s lavish recipes in one year – despite having almost no experience in the kitchen – she never imagined that it would launch her into stardom practically overnight

She dreamed of being an actress or writer – but said she never committed to either so she ended up working as a secretary for the company. 

‘My ambitions got in the way of each other,’ she explained in a 2009 interview. ‘I kept half-heartedly doing both and never had the confidence to commit to the writing.’

In August 2002, she began something called the Julie/Julia project in an attempt to take her mind off her boring secretarial job.

She decided to cook all 524 recipes in Child’s 1961 cook book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, in just one year, and documented her successes – and struggles – along the way in a blog she started for the website Salon. 

She detailed her culinary adventures from her tiny, broken-down kitchen in her Long Island City, Queens, apartment using spiky humor in a direct, diaristic tone. 

‘365 days. 524 recipes,’ she wrote back in 2002 in one of her original posts. ‘How far it will go, no one can say…’ 

It certainly went far. The blog was an instant success and it quickly gained a large following, making her one of the internet’s first food bloggers. Within a year of launching, it had around 400,000 page views and thousands of regular readers at a time when many people still used dial-up internet.

‘I generally wrote in the morning before I went to work, so I’d get up at 6 am and write out my blog about what I made the night before and I would go to work by 8:30 am and do my job, which was an exhausting job,’ she recalled of working on the blog during an interview with GoldsteinAndGasol.com. 

She later said she thought of the endeavor as a distraction from her boring job – but what began as a way to avoid the monotony from her run-of-the-mill life eventually helped her achieve the fame she always longed for. She is seen in 2009

‘Then I usually got off by 6:30 pm and I would [food] shop on my way home and get back to Queens and cook. Usually, I didn’t get dinner on the table until 10 pm at the very earliest. 

‘And I’d be drinking the whole time just to get myself through it, so I wasn’t ready to write about it after I made these heavy, rich meals. Then I’d go to bed around midnight and get up again to do the same thing. That was pretty much the routine for that year.’

She added that while it was certainly stressful at times, she ‘thrived on panic’ and was ‘driven forward’ by the positive response from her fans. 

 It was really Powell’s spunky personality, witty sense of humor, and clever sarcasm that captured the nation; the self-deprecating drama of her mishaps both in and out of the kitchen quickly captivated readers around the globe, who would avidly tune in each day to see what she cooked up

‘I’ve always been a person who thrives on panic. I can pull out something if I can convince myself that it has to be done,’ she explained. ‘And I had convinced myself that I had to do this. That it was a moral imperative. 

‘And part of it too is the early days of blogging where you’d get ten comments on a blog post and go “Oh my god, the world is watching! I must fulfill my duties as a food blogger.” So I let peer pressure and fan pressure drive me forward, which was very helpful.’

And while Powell was gaining lots of supporters, there was one person who didn’t appear to be a fan of work – Child.

‘She just doesn’t seem very serious does she? I worked very hard on that book,’ the acclaimed chef, who died in 2004, told Los Angeles Times in 2009. 

‘I tested and retested those recipes for eight years so that everybody could cook them. And many, many people have. I don’t understand how she could have problems with them. She just must not be much of a cook.’

Child’s editor, Judith Jones, also blasted Powell, calling her blog a ‘stunt’ that didn’t focus on the food itself.

‘What came through on the blog was somebody who was doing it almost for the sake of a stunt. She would never really describe the end results, how delicious it was, and what she learned,’ she said.

In response to Child’s comments, Powell had nothing but positive things to say about the chef. She gushed: ‘I admire her not just as a cook but as a writer and as an example for people who feel lost and managed to find a way for themselves.

‘That’s really what I was writing about the whole time, is how to find that passion and confidence to move forward despite seemingly impossible obstacles. And that’s what she did with her life.

‘For me, that’s what inspired me about her and I hope it can be what inspires other people, especially now as things are so uncertain.’ 

Powell’s continued success: How her blog inspired a popular book and Oscar-nominated movie

Her blog became so popular that she was asked to turn it into a book; and the memoir was then adapted into a 2009 movie, called Julie and Julia, which starred Amy Adams (seen) and Meryl Streep and an Oscan nomination

While discussing the film, Powell admitted it was hard for her to watch it, writing, ‘Somehow seeing yourself – or a Rom-Com-ed, slimmed-down, considerably less foul-mouthed version of yourself – on a movie screen is a whole different thing’

She then signed a book deal with Little, Brown and Company, releasing a memoir about the experience, entitled Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, One Tiny Apartment Kitchen, in 2005, which sold more than a million copies. 

The author called her success ‘beyond surreal,’ adding: ‘It knocks you for a loop. But doing the blog, I realized I did have a perspective that was mine and that I felt was unique. That was a great confidence-builder.’

The book was so popular that it even got turned into a movie in 2009, called Julie & Julia. Directed by Nora Ephron, the Oscar-nominated flick starred Adams as Powell and Streep as Child; it also featured Chris Messina, Stanley Tucci, and Linda Emond.

While discussing the film, Powell admitted that it was hard for her to watch it, writing on her blog, ‘Somehow seeing yourself – or a Rom-Com-ed, slimmed-down, considerably less foul-mouthed version of yourself – on a movie screen is a whole different thing.’

She also said that Adams portrayal of her was ‘much sweeter’ than she is in real life, and joked that she would have preferred Kate Winslet play her instead ‘because she can curse like a sailor.’ Streep (left) and Adams (right) are seen in the movie

As for Adams, she said she was drawn to the role due to Powell’s ‘strength,’ as well as her depth and honesty. She explained: ‘It was this strong character but also completely flawed and grouchy and selfish and loving and confused’

She also said that Adams portrayal of her was ‘much sweeter’ than she is in real life, and joked that she would have preferred Kate Winslet play her instead ‘because she can curse like a sailor, and she looks like she could keep down some creamy French food.’

She also echoed those sentiments to Oprah, stating: ‘The Julie Powell portrayed by Amy Adams is nicer than I am – the cursing has been pared down a good little bit! And, her edges are a little bit smoother.

‘But, she does such a lovely job, and it is such a sweet portrait of that year and of that relationship with my husband, and I just think everyone connected [with the film] did such a wonderful job.’

As for the actress, she said she was drawn to the role due to Powell’s ‘strength,’ as well as her depth and honesty.

‘It was this strong character but also completely flawed and grouchy and selfish and loving and confused,’ Adams explained. ‘She was a very well architected character.’

Powell’s later years: How she stepped out of the spotlight to become a butcher’s apprentice while facing problems in her marriage 

In the years following her book success, Powell decided to take on a new job – as a butchers assistant, which she wrote about in her second book, Cleaving: a Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession

In the tome, which she described as ‘much darker and more personal’ than her first book, she also opened up about her marital struggles and revealed that she and her husband had both previously cheated on each other

In the years following her book success, Powell decided to take on a new job – as a butcher’s assistant.

‘Butchers have fascinated me ever since I moved to New York. When I was growing up in Austin, Texas, all my meat came from a supermarket, wrapped in cellophane,’ she told Wow-WomenOnWriting.com.

‘So when I discovered my first real, old-school butcher shop, I was just overwhelmed by the sights and the smells and especially by the men behind the counter.

‘Eric and I had been together since I was 18. We hadn’t found ourselves as adults. I think the crisis in the marriage was already there, and this fellow just popped himself right in it,’ she said in another interview, while discussing her infidelities

‘I envied the physical confidence and skill and knowledge that comes from having done the same work for decades upon decades, work passed down for generations.’

In 2009, Powell released a second book called Cleaving: a Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession, which detailed her experiences while working at a butcher shop in Kingston, New York. 

In the tome, which she described as ‘much darker and more personal’ than her first book, she also opened up about her marital struggles and revealed that she and her husband had both previously cheated on each other. 

‘Cleaving is a much, much darker book, and a more personal one, about a later period in Eric’s and my marriage. People who really invested a lot in the perfection of our union as depicted in Julia & Julia may be thrown for a loop by Cleaving,’ she warned before its release. 

‘Not that the events and the relationship in the earlier book were inauthentic in any way; but as any person who’s been married knows, even the strongest marriages change and are threatened and in fact, must change and be resilient if they’re to survive. Cleaving is, in part, about that process.’

She and her husband were thankfully able to work through their problems, and were together up until her death on October 26, when she passed away in her home in Olivebridge, upstate New York

Before her passing, Powell lead a pretty private life, but she continued to write about her day-to-day life on her blog and Twitter account. She is seen in 2017

While she didn’t have any children, based on her Facebook account, it appears that she loved animals and had multiple pet dogs

‘Eric and I had been together since I was 18. We hadn’t found ourselves as adults. I think the crisis in the marriage was already there, and this fellow just popped himself right in it,’ she said in another interview, while discussing her infidelities.

She and her husband were thankfully able to work through their problems, and were together up until her death on October 26, when she passed away in her home in Olivebridge, upstate New York.

‘One of the things that’s wonderful about Eric is that he knows that this book is vital to me,’ she said of her husband’s support of Cleaving in 2009, despite the book exposing the intimate details of their affairs. ‘He’s not thrilled by it, but he’s pleased that I’m proud of it.’ 

When asked if he read it, she added: ‘Parts of it. He keeps it in his bag, but I don’t know if he’ll ever get round to reading the whole thing.’

Before her passing, Powell lead a pretty private life, but she continued to write about her day-to-day life on her blog and Twitter account. While she didn’t have any children, based on her Facebook account, it appears that she loved animals and had multiple pet dogs.

Source: Read Full Article