Film and culinary enthusiasts are mourning the loss of a home cook who tried to master the art of French cooking.
Julie Powell, the food blogger played by Amy Adams in the film Julie & Julia, died at age 49 in her New York residence Oct. 26, per The New York Times. According to her husband, Eric Powell, Julie's cause of death was cardiac arrest.
Her passing comes about 20 years after Julie changed the trajectory of her life—and arguably the trajectory of food blogging—back in 2002 when she decided to set off on a mission to cook all 524 recipes listed in Julia Child's book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1. Julie documented this experiment in her blog "The Julie/Julia Project"—but that was just the beginning.
Julie eventually turned her blog into the book Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, which was published in 2005. And in 2009, the book was adapted into the movie Julie & Julia, a film written and directed by Nora Ephron which co-starred Meryl Streep as Julia. The movie intertwined the stories of both Julie's and Julia's culinary experience.
At the time, Julie reflected on how she differed from the way Amy portrayed her onscreen, noting that some aspects are the same and teasing that others are quite different.
"The marriage scenes between her and Chris Messina, who plays my husband, feel really authentic, very much the way we talk to one another and just ARE together," Julie told Orlando Sentinel in 2009. "She's much nicer than me, of course. Read the book after seeing the movie and you will be shocked. She plays these sweet roles and I, to say the least, am not sweet!"
Julie added, "I'm a complainer. But now, with my life these days, I have nothing to complain about!"
Now after her death, fans are remembering Julie for the life she led.
One user penned to Twitter, "I so admired her open-hearted honesty as a writer and a person. She was a vibrant presence here and everywhere. A great loss."
Meanwhile another added, "This hits me hard--J&J was a major influence in my decision to work in food, in part because Julie Powell was so effective at writing about cooking as a means of intellectual engagement and personal fulfillment. She was a splendid writer and lost far too soon."