Julie Powell, a well-known food blogger whose book Julie & Julia, about cooking, served as the basis for a Meryl Streep-starring movie, has passed away at the age of 49.
She passed away on October 26 at their home in Olivebridge, upstate New York, from a cardiac arrest brought on by a heart arrhythmia, her husband, Eric Powell, revealed to the New York Times.
Powell gained notoriety in 2002 when, as she approached her 30th birthday, she set out on a year-long quest to recreate all 524 recipes from her mother’s copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1, a 1961 classic by Julia Child, a TV chef and the doyenne of French cuisine in the US. Powell described herself as “a secretary who lives with her husband, three cats, and a python above a diner on a barren street in Long Island
Powell, a self-taught cook, chronicled her trials in the kitchen on the well-liked, smart, and humorous food blog Julie/Julia Project in Salon.com.
After Powell’s passing, food editor Amanda Hesser remarked in an email that Powell’s writing was “so fresh, vibrant – often vulgar! – and so wonderfully unmoored to any precedent.” Powell had written about her initiative for the New York Times in 2003. Julie was the first recognisable voice of the new school, and the internet democratised food writing.
The best-selling Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen was adapted from Powell’s blog in 2005; the paperback edition’s subtitle was “My Year of Cooking Dangerously.”
Julie & Julia, a 2009 movie starring Amy Adams as Powell and Meryl Streep as Julia Child, was inspired on her biography. It was the final movie Nora Ephron, who passed away in 2012, wrote and directed.
Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession, Powell’s second book, which examined her marriage, was released in 2009.
Julie & Julia became an immediate classic, and it is with thanks for her unique voice that we will now remember Julie’s brilliant intelligence and creativity, said Powell’s publisher and editor-in-chief of Little, Brown and Co., Judy Clain.
