It's a remarkable thing, to linger in the charmingly utilitarian kitchen of Judith Jones and think about all of the iconic names in culinary history who have stood right there, taking a sauté pan off the wall and pulling out some eggs from the refrigerator: James Beard. Julia Child. Edna Lewis. Madhur Jaffrey.
To think of some of the people who've clinked wineglasses in the book-lined dining room: John Updike. Anne Tyler. John Hersey. William Maxwell. To think of some of the people Jones corresponded with using her old typewriter: M.F.K. Fisher. Jean Paul Sartre. Albert Camus. André Malraux.
For Judith Jones, these people weren't towering figures but friends and colleagues. Her remarkable story, captured in her 2007 autobiographyThe Tenth Muse: My Life in Food,begins 87 years ago in the same apartment she calls home today. Jones was born in New York City, into a family where cooking was more of a chore, one performed chiefly by her beloved nanny, Edie; food and cooking were more about sustenance of the stomach than the soul.
Jones began to experiment in the kitchen as a teenager, and then really earned her pork chops after leaving New York for Paris, where she worked for Doubleday. Armed with letters of introduction to the literati of post–World War II Paris, Judith began running a private supper club with a friend in a grand apartment. It was there she would meet the love of her life, Evan Jones, and set out on her path as muse, editor, sergeant major, test-kitchen director, agent, and all things in between to myriad renowned cookbook authors and fiction writers. It was there that Jones also discoveredThe Diary of Anne Frank,and fought to get it published in America.
Her professional seminal moment was most likely as a young assistant editor at Knopf in 1959, when an enormous manuscript landed upon her desk. Having originally submitted it to Houghton Mifflin six years prior, the authors had been told to cut a great deal of the book. They did so, yet the book was rejected, because, in the publisher's words, instead of being a "short simple book directed at the American housewife…it is a big, expensive cookbook full of elaborate information and might well prove formidable to the housewife."
But from the moment Jones opened the manuscript on French cuisine by Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle, and Julia Child, she decided, "this was the book I had been searching for." It was Jones who got it published, in 1961, and helped entice Americans to understand the basic techniques of French cuisine. And ultimately, what grew into a two-volume tome, and Jones' insightful actions, helped lead entire generations into the kitchen.
Jones ended up discovering dozens of now celebrated cookbook authors, who in turn introduced us to the recipes and techniques of other cuisines from around the world: Jacques Pépin, Marcella Hazan, Marion Cunningham, Edna Lewis, Madhur Jaffrey, Lidia Bastianich, Joan Nathan, Nina Simonds, and Claudia Roden, among others. It is in large part because of Jones that Americans embraced cooking and good, real food from the garden and the globe. She is a true American icon herself.
This fall, on the 50th anniversary of the publication ofMastering the Art of French Cooking,I interviewed Jones, perused her tattered original copy of the book, rifled through her jars of beans and jams, admired her pans lined up years ago by Paul Child, and savored her wisdom, knowledge, and stories. To hear her talk about James Beard and imitate Julia Child,watch this video interview of the beguiling Ms. Jones.
See more in Chefs in the Kitchen:
- The Essential Jacques Pépin ›
- Charlie Palmer in Sonoma ›
- Thomas Keller: Perfection at Per Se ›
- Mario Batali Cooks the Feast of the Seven Fishes ›
