Julia and Me by @LeslieKarst

LUCY BURDETTE: It's always a pleasure to welcome Leslie Karst back to the blog--it's timely for me as I'm just reading her new book! Welcome Leslie!

LESLIE KARST: In my just-released Sally Solari mystery, A Sense for Murder, the dining room manager of a restaurant/culinary bookstore is found murdered on the night of a benefit dinner, and the primary clue is the simultaneous theft of a boxed set of signed first editions of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

It’s no accident that I decided to use this iconic cookbook as a major piece of the story, for Julia Child has long held a special place in my heart.





Cardboard cut-out of Julia at the Smithsonian Institution

I first encountered the French Chef back in the late ’60s, when she was a regular part of the PBS lineup on TV. I’d join my mother upstairs on my parents’ bed to watch the show, and as Mom took notes on a pad of paper, scribbling down recipes for use at future dinner parties, I’d gape open-mouthed at this big, boisterous, woman slapping butter on chickens as she laughed and recounted tales of her days in Paris.

Years later, I finally bought a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and started trying out the recipes for myself. (Note: Yes, her multi-page method for making coq au vin is rather time-consuming, but preparing the mushrooms and onions separately to add at the end—thereby allowing them to retain their own special flavors—makes for a truly remarkable dish.)

I credit Julia with inspiring me to go to cooking school, for it was shortly after I purchased MtAoFC when—bored with my job as a research and appellate attorney—I was searching for something to add a little spice to my life and hit upon the idea of enrolling my my local community college’s culinary arts program. Enraptured with the classes I’d started taking at night, I’d regale the attorneys at my law firm the next morning with stories of carving eye-dazzling garnishes out of carrots and radishes, deboning and stuffing chickens, and learning to prepare all five of the French “mother” sauces.





Julia Child’s diploma from Le Cordon Bleu cooking school

One of those attorneys happened to be a kindred cooking spirit, and as I was waxing poetic one day about the sauce bearnaise I’d made the night before, he asked if I was a fan of Julia Chid.

“Are you kidding?” I said. “I absolutely adore her!”

A broad cat-who-ate-the-canary smile spread across his face. “Would you like to meet her?”

It turned out that Julia Child was going to be the guest of honor at some food-related event down in Carmel Valley, where my fellow attorney lived and apparently had “connections,” and he’d been asked to be her host for the day—to pick her up at the airport, take her to lunch, and then escort her to and from the event. “You can come along with me as co-host, if you’d like,” he offered.

Needless to say, I jumped at the chance.

Alas, however, it was not to be. Just days before what would surely have been one of the most exciting experiences of my life, Julia fell and broke her arm, and had to cancel her trip up north from Santa Barbara.

But, perhaps because of all the fantasizing I engaged in leading up the the big day, part of me feels like it actually did happen—that I did indeed get to spend a full day with the French Chef, talking about food and Paris and how very much I loved her detailed recipe for coq au vin.

A few years back, I flew to Washington, D.C., a day early for the Malice Domestic mystery writers convention, so I could pay my respects to Julia by visiting her Cambridge, Mass. kitchen, which had been deconstructed and moved to the Smithsonian Museum. Staring through the plexi-glass window into the exhibit, I smiled as I imagined Julia standing at that custom-made counter (built higher than normal to fit her tall frame) whipping up egg whites for a soufflé in one the copper bowls hanging from that very same peg-board.

yours truly at the Smithsonian

How fitting, that the woman who almost single-handedly brought French cuisine to the American masses, should now have her own exhibit at “America’s museum,” don’t you think?

Readers: For a chance to win a signed copy of my new book, A Sense for Murder, answer this question in the comments below: Are any of you fans of Julia Child, or of other cookbook authors or TV chefs?



About A Sense for Murder:

It’s the height of the tourist season in Santa Cruz, California, and Sally Solari has her hands full, both juggling crowds of hungry diners at her French-Polynesian restaurant Gauguin, as well as appeasing her father, who’s distressed at the number of homeless people camped out in front of Solari’s, the family’s Italian seafood restaurant out on the historic fisherman's wharf.

Nevertheless, when Sally gets the opportunity to volunteer at a farm-to-table dinner taking place at the hip new restaurant and culinary bookshop Pages and Plums, she seizes the chance. Not only is it a fundraiser for an organization aiding the homeless and seniors, but up for auction at the event is a signed boxset of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Sally’s hero, the renowned chef Julia Child.

But then the Pages and Plums dining room manager turns up dead—the locked cabinet containing the precious books now empty—and the irrepressible Sally once again finds herself up to her neck in a criminal investigation. She may have a sense for murder, but can Sally outwit a devious killer with a taste for French cooking before the villain makes mincemeat of her, too?

About Leslie:





Leslie Karst is the author of the Lefty Award-nominated Sally Solari mystery series and “Justice is Served: A Tale of Scallops, the Law, and Cooking for RBG.” After years waiting tables and singing in a new wave rock band, she decided she was ready for a “real” job and ended up at Stanford Law School. It was during her career as an attorney that Leslie rediscovered her youthful passion for food and cooking and once more returned to school—this time to earn a degree in culinary arts. Now retired from the law, Leslie spends her time cooking, cycling, gardening, observing cocktail hour promptly at five o’clock, and of course writing. She and her wife split their time between Santa Cruz, California and Hilo, Hawai‘i.

buy Leslie's book!