Julie Powell Obituary, Funeral

Julie Powell, the food blogger best known for her 2005 book Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen which inspired a film starring Meryl Streep, has died at the age of 49.

Child was reported to have been unimpressed with Powell’s blog, believing her determination to cook every recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year to be a stunt.

Despite Child’s reservations, Powell became an internet sensation after blogging for a year about making every recipe in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”

Child’s editor, Judith Jones, said in an interview:

Flinging around four-letter words when cooking isn’t attractive, to me or Julia. She didn’t want to endorse it. What came through on the blog was somebody who was doing it almost for the sake of a stunt. She would never really describe the end results, how delicious it was, and what she learned. Julia didn’t like what she called ‘the flimsies.’ She didn’t suffer fools, if you know what I mean.

• Powell’s struggles in the kitchen inspired the 2009 film Julie & Julia, starring Amy Adams as Powell and Meryl Streep as Julia Child.
• It was the last film written and directed by Nora Ephron, who died in 2012.

Her second book, Cleaving: a Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession, was published in 2009.

• The book detailed the experiences she had while learning to butcher at Fleisher’s butcher shop in Kingston, New York, and the effects of affairs by both her and her husband on their marriage.
• It was published on November 30, 2009.

Earlier in the year [2022], Powell began writing a series of commentary pieces for Salon about The Julia Child Challenge, a Food Network reality television show.

Powell died of cardiac arrest at her home in Olivebridge, New York, on October 26, 2022.