JOHN HORN AND NEW YORK — "I don't understand this," Nora Ephron said, shaking her head. "Why isn't it done yet?"
The writer-director of the foodie movie "Julie & Julia," opening Aug. 7, is as comfortable wielding a paring knife as she is aiming a movie camera; Ephron has self-published for herself and friends a spiral-bound booklet of scores of favorite recipes. On this day, though, she can't figure out why her apple tart won't cook.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Monday, July 27, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 33 words Type of Material: Correction
Nora Ephron: An article in Sunday's Calendar section about writer-director Nora Ephron and her new film "Julie & Julia" incorrectly stated that she was a graduate of Wesleyan. Ephron graduated from Wellesley College.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, August 02, 2009 Home Edition Sunday Calendar Part D Page 2 Calendar Desk 1 inches; 34 words Type of Material: Correction
Nora Ephron: An article in last Sunday's Calendar section about writer-director Nora Ephron and her new film "Julie & Julia" incorrectly stated that she was a graduate of Wesleyan. Ephron graduated from Wellesley College.
The dessert has been in the oven of her Upper Eastside apartment for more than an hour, twice the time recommended in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Volume One," from which the recipe (and a good chunk of Ephron's new movie) comes. She isn't panicking, even though a recent shared afternoon of cooking a Child recipe with the filmmaker started problematically, as she nearly set fire to a store-bought cabbage strudel warming in her toaster oven.
Cooking, like filmmaking, can't always be governed by inflexible rules and timing; there has to be some serendipity too. "Julie & Julia" is a movie about two chefs, but their parallel stories are intended to dramatize a bigger idea -- that determination, creativity and passion can change a life. Those same attributes can produce memorable dishes in the kitchen too, as the apple tart may prove -- if it ever finishes baking.
Considering that some of Child's recipes are as intricate as a Tolstoy novel, the pioneering chef/author's instructions for Tarte aux Pommes are remarkably simple. The apples -- about four pounds peeled, cored and sliced "crisp cooking or eating apples" -- are tossed with a teaspoon of lemon juice and two tablespoons of sugar before they top the tart. But Child calls for a homemade pastry shell, made-from-scratch applesauce and an apricot glaze that must be heated exactly between 225 and 228 degrees to achieve the right consistency. This much is clear: If we don't take some shortcuts, the apple tart won't go in the oven until very late in the evening.
Julie Powell's 2005 book "Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously" and Child's 2006 autobiography "My Life in France" have at their centers the kind of unusual romances that the 68-year-old Ephron has been drawn to throughout her film career, a slate that includes writing credits on "Heartburn" and "When Harry Met Sally. . ." and directing and writing credits on "Sleepless in Seattle," "You've Got Mail" and "Michael."
