Simone "Simca" Beck (7 July 1904 – 20 December 1991) was a French cookbook writer and cooking

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

who, along with colleagues

Julia Child Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, '' ...

and Louisette Bertholle, played a significant role in the introduction of French cooking technique and recipes into American kitchens.

Early life

She was born on 7 July 1904, in Tocqueville-en-Caux, near

Dieppe Dieppe (; Norman: ''Dgieppe'') is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to Newha ...

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

. Her family was rich because they had a business in production of Benedictine liqueur. When she was little, she liked helping her family cook to prepare desserts or entire meals. She spent some years learning bookbinding and being a sales representative, where she met her second husband, but subsequently Beck's career was devoted to food. In 1933, at the end of her marriage with Jacques Jarlaud, she applied for

Le Cordon Bleu Le Cordon Bleu (French for " The Blue Ribbon") is an international network of hospitality and culinary schools teaching French ''haute cuisine''. Its educational focuses are hospitality management, culinary arts, and gastronomy. The instituti ...

school in Paris. In 1937 she married Jean Victor Fischbacher, keeping her maiden name as a

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

and professionally, but using her husband's name socially.

Cooking career

The start of Beck's professional career as a

cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (professional), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * ...

and

was after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and after joining

Le Cercle des Gourmettes Le Cercle des Gourmettes was an exclusive club or "circle" of women in Paris devoted to gourmet food. The circle was started in 1929 by an American, Paulette Edlinger, and the name may have been a bon mot in protest of the non-feminine form of t ...

, an exclusive women's culinary club. She became involved in the world of cooking. She was inspired to write a cookbook for Americans by Louisette Bertholle and her husband. The first attempt at writing a cookbook wasn't successful, so Beck and Bertholle published the brief ''What's Cooking in France?'' in 1952. After that Beck published a

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...

let ''Le pruneau devant le fourneau: Recettes de cuisine'' (ca. 1952), Beck's only publication in French. In 1949, after she had met

, she became inspired to write a French cookbook for Americans again. She, Child, and Bertholle together wrote ''

Mastering the Art of French Cooking ''Mastering the Art of French Cooking'' is a two-volume French cookbook written by Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, both from France, and Julia Child, who was from the United States. The book was written for the American market and published ...

'', which was published in 1961. ''Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. II'' (without Louisette Bertholle) followed in 1970, elaborating on several subjects (particularly baking and

charcuterie Charcuterie ( , also ; ; from french: chair, , flesh, label=none, and french: cuit, , cooked, label=none) is a French term for a branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products, such as bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, ''galantines'', ''balloti ...

) that the authors felt had received insufficient coverage in the first volume. Both Bertholle and Child became members of

. After three years, the three women formed l'École des trois gourmandes to give lessons in French cooking to American women who lived in Paris. This school had been working up to the late 1970s. While Child became a successful television chef in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, Beck continued her teaching practice at home. In 1972 she published her own

cookbook A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes. Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food. Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (appetizer, first cour ...

, ''Simca's Cuisine'' (with Patricia Simon), using some of the recipes that had not been mentioned in her previous books with Child and Bertholle. In 1979, she published the second volume, ''New Menus from Simca's Cuisine'', with Michael James, who was her student, friend, and assistant since the 1970s. ''Food and Friends: Recipes and Memories from Simca's Cuisine'', her autobiography and last cookbook (with Suzy Patterson), was published in 1991, the year she died.

Death

Simone Beck died on Friday, December 20, 1991, at her home in Châteauneuf-de-Grasse, a small village near

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

. She was 87. Her cousin, Harold Earle said she had been having heart problems for several months and had stopped eating, he added, "The doctor said that because she wouldn't eat, she died".

In popular culture

* She was portrayed by American actress

Linda Emond Linda may refer to: As a name * Linda (given name), a female given name (including a list of people and fictional characters so named) * Linda (singer) (born 1977), stage name of Svetlana Geiman, a Russian singer * Anita Linda (born Alice Lake ...

in the 2009 film ''

Julie & Julia ''Julie & Julia'' is a 2009 American biographical comedy-drama film written and directed by Nora Ephron starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, and Chris Messina. The film contrasts the life of chef Julia Child in the early years of her ...

''. * She was portrayed by

Isabella Rossellini Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini (born 18 June 1952) is an Italian-American actress, author, philanthropist, and model. The daughter of the Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and the Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, she is noted ...

in the 2022 comedy television series ''

Julia Julia is usually a feminine given name. It is a Latinate feminine form of the name Julio and Julius. (For further details on etymology, see the Wiktionary entry "Julius".) The given name ''Julia'' had been in use throughout Late Antiquity (e.g. ...

''.

Bibliography

*''What's Cooking in France'' (Ives Washburn, Inc., 1952) *''Le pruneau devant le fourneau: Recettes de cuisine'' (Louis Moulinié, 1957) *''

'' Volume 1 co-authored with

and Louisette Bertholle 1961 *''

'' Volume 2 co-authored with

) 1970 *''Simca's Cuisine: 100 Classic French Recipes for Every Occasion'' co-authored with Patricia Simon 1972 *''New Menus from Simca's Cuisine'' co-authored with Michael James 1979 *''Food and Friends: Recipes and Memories from Simca's Cuisine'' co-authored with Suzanne Patterson 1991

References

External links

Simone Beck Papers.Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beck, Simone 1904 births 1991 deaths French chefs Women cookbook writers Alumni of Le Cordon Bleu 20th-century French women writers 20th-century French non-fiction writers James Beard Foundation Award winners