The cookbook that became a lifeline

Available for over a year

From a young age, Julie Powell had been enthralled by a book in her mother’s pantry: Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It was co-authored by one of America’s culinary titans - the eccentric but pioneering TV chef, Julia Child. Years later when Julie was working as a secretary and suffering from depression, she returned to Julia Child’s book, but this time she decided she was going to master its recipes - all 524 of them, and she would do it in a single year. Her fridge soon became packed with endless leftovers, as she methodically worked her way through Child's great canon. It was a project that puzzled some, including her mother, but before long she and her project had legions of passionate followers. Would Julia Child herself be one of them? Julie shares her story with Outlook's Emily Webb. Also on the programme, the remarkable story of Ben McMahon who found a career in Chinese reality TV after a car crash left him unable to speak his native English. Waking from the coma, he could only speak Mandarin. Picture: Julia Child holding a large fish Credit: Alamy, Granger Historical Picture Archive.