yes I know! What's your point?

<i>I agree not the average but everyone I know knew who he is</i>

So? This simply means that you only know Francophiles. The reality is that Johny Halliday is not popular in Boston or anywhere else in the US. Just because someone gives a concert in a city does not make them popular. Selling out is simply about booking a small enough venue and setting the prices low enough.

I remember going to a "sold-out" Paul Weller show in Boston. Were he really popular, then he could have charged more than $25 (or whatever it was) and/or done more than a single show at the 2000-seat Orpheum. And, yes, "everyone" I know knows who Paul Weller is. He still isn't popular in Boston.

And this brings us back to the original question. No, I am not surprised that Julia Child is poorly known in France. And this is not any knock on Julia. It is simply the fact that there is little reason to dub a cooking show.

You don't know my area very well. I don't know who Paul Weller is...lol,
No not all my friends are francophiles.
I was simply posting the article not saying she should be dubbed and blah, blah, I think as usual, you love an argument. Your reality is not mine.

<i>You don't know my area very well.</i>

Considering I spent the better part of the last 15 years in Boston, I think I know it quite well. And Paul Weller is, basically, something like Johnny Hallyday. Far, far less cheesy, but someone of very limited appeal in the US. He is, however, pretty popular in the UK. Very popular among the wave of British artists like Oasis and Blur.

I'm not surprised that you don't know who he is. Frankly, I don't really think it says anything about you that you don't know who he is. But if you spent much time with me, then, at some point, you would have learned who he is, and probably even know some of his work. Accordingly, that my friends know who he is says little to nothing about his popularity in the US. Similarly, I don't find it at all surprising that someone who is clearly very fond of French culture has friends that, if only by virtue of being your friend, are aware of Johnny Hallyday.

The objective reality is that neither Johnny Hallyday nor Paul Weller, whatever their qualities, are popular in Boston. If you ain't selling out The Garden (or at least booking multiple shows at The Orpheum), then you simply aren't very popular. The Boston area has something like 5m people, getting 250 to show up at a small club simply isn't much of an accomplishment.

You can have the last word. I've lived here.
for over 70 years

"<i>Julia Child isn't that famous in the U.S., especially with younger generations. Many people know who she is—but many other people don't.</i>"

Depends on what you consider 'younger'. I'd say Julia Child is very famous to anyone over about 30-35. She was a major mainstay of PBS for a couple of generations.

She was probably as much or more famous in her time than someone like Jamie Oliver is today. More famous than - say - Nigella Lawson, Delia Smith, etc in the UK.

I've read that her picture is displayed in the cooking store in Paris that she loved to buy her equipment from: E.Dehillerin.

Julia Child was a national treasure. And Meryl Streep did a great job portraying her. I love them both. Had never thought about whether or not she was known in France, but it doesn't surprise me that she's not.

Anyway, it is Jean-Philippe Smet, not Pierre Smet, and he is half Belgian anyway.

As for Julia Child, of course she is not known in France. Why should she be? However, the French dearly love Meryl Streep, so the people promoting the film went out of their way to explain that Julia Child was indeed somewhat weird in her mannerisms and that Streep was being extremely faithful to the person she was portraying.

Johnny is rubbish.

Paul Weller on the other hand is a genius.

He started off in The Jam, so a generation before Oasis etc

Ah, but Johnny is rubbish for whom? For other countries, most certainly. As a French national icon, it is another matter, and I think that very many countries have icons that have not gone far beyond their own borders, so I try not to judge such subjective elements (I have always despised Johnny Hallyday, just as I have always despised Elvis Presley -- they are identical icons as far as I am concerned. When Johnny started, he was doing covers for Elvis in French.)

Never having heard of Paul Weller, I will abstain from giving an opinion of whoever he is and/or from which country.

Just out of interest, I went looking for "my Life in France" by Julia Child in Waterstone's (our equivalent of Borders), just before I went on hols. The girl serving had never heard of her, and they didn't have her in their catalogue (I see they do now).

Who is Julia Child? Reading above I guess a cook. The US also had some woman who dressed up houses and had to go jail. Did Julia have go to jail too?

lol....no that was Martha Stewart

We had Fanny Craddock - check out 'Fear of Fanny' if you're ever lucky enough to get it in the US....

We had that fanny Craddock come to our restaurant when I was a lad. She brought her weird boyfriend they then sat in the bar drinking a bottle of whiskey and finally ate. These critics comments were "food tastes of very little". Or as my father said "they were so drunk they couldn't taste a thing".

This thread is outright insulting. The French do not need Americans to teach them how to cook French cuisine.

When we had French neighbors for a year, Maman and I did some cooking together. Once we used "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," my favorite resource, and Maman said "But yes! That is how we do it! She explains so well!"

Last month we went to one JC dinner at a local restaurant: each course made from "Mastering." Then one Saturday there was a special prix-fixe Literary Luncheon, by reservation only. We went with our Francophile friend and had a terrific meal, including boned duck stuffed with minced pork and veal (yes, yes, I know, and otherwise never eatit) and sprinkled with truffle oil, the whole covered with a pastry crust. Before the main course was served a platter was brought out so we could see the decorations on the pastry; Julia would have been pleased. Dessert was her favorite, Ile flottante.

>>>boned duck stuffed with minced pork and veal (yes, yes, I know, and otherwise never eatit) and sprinkled with truffle oil, the whole covered with a pastry crust<<<

Sounds like a pre-war dish (I mean WWI). Nobody would cook it in France anymore.

But now, I understand why some Fodorites say they do not like French cuisine. What this Julia soandso proposes is not French cuisine - it is midwestern American cuisine with French nametags.

You say only people over 35 know who Julia Child is? Perhaps it more like who/what you are exposed to. My 12 year old granddaughter knows who Julia Child is. She wants her cookbook (although her mother persuaded her to check it out from the library first to see if she actually will use it) and she attended the recent movie with her friends. We brought her a couple small things from E. Dehillerin as souveniers of our recent trip to Paris and she was delighted. I think she enjoyed them more then another tee shirt (like her brother and cousins got).