Monday, August 24, 2009

souffléd


In a month, I’ve sold almost seven times what I sell, typically, in a year of ‘Mastering,’ and it’s going to get even higher. It’s amazing.


Lee Stern, cookbook buyer for Barnes & Noble, in After 48 Years, Julia Child Has a Big Best Seller, Butter and All in this morning's New York Times.

The New York Times reports that Child's iconic cookbook "will make its debut at No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list of Aug. 30 in the advice and how-to category," and that the 22,000 copies that sold in the last week tracked were "more copies than were sold in any full year since the book’s appearance."

All good, and Yay, Julia, and yes the movie is a delight. What strikes me about this success however is the contrast to earlier sales figures. Julia Child is an icon. Her kitchen is entombed in the Smithsonian. She changed how Americans cook.

Somehow she did all this without ever before reaching Number One on the New York Times bestseller list.

With those previous sales figures would she have become the icon that she is in today's America? Would her television viewing numbers rank her among the also ran chefs of the Food Network?

Given today's media saturation, would any of us know Julia Child today?

Video: The Omlette Show (The French Chef)

2 comments:

Lolabola* said...

I have never watched her live before. I feel like I just watched the muppet show.

anne said...

omg - i have never seen anything like this - she is hysterical! so much more informative than what is on the food network right now - my kids love all the shows there - but this is really a "how to cook" show and I can see why millions of people followed her advice!

thanks for sharing!

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