Julie & Julia — Accountability Techniques at the Movies

Accountability: anything or anyone that helps us gain mental leverage to achieve the results we desire.

–The Accountability Stop

Julie & Julia combines the charming and inspiring stories of both Julia Child as she wrote “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” and Julie Powell*, who wrote a daily blog, “The Julie/Julia Project**,” as she cooked and journalled her way through “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”

Julie Powell’s Story

Julie Powell’s adventure started in a fit of jealousy. Her frenemy wrote a blog with lots of followers. Julie’s college career showed great promise as a writer, but she had stalled after writing half a book. Julie decided in an instant to start her own blog project. So (according to the movie) her first accountability was secret benchmarking. I can write a better blog than my frenemy.

Julie set up “The Julie/Julia Project” blog with three accountability techniques—internet accountability, schedule accountability, and deadline accountability. She would write a blog post every day and cook all the recipes in “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” in one year. In my opinion, that accountability decision made the project work. Had she said “I’m going to write a blog about cooking my way through Julia Child’s cookbook,” she would have had the option every day to say, “I don’t feel like it.” The chance of failure would have been much higher. Using her accountability techniques as she did, Julie obligated herself to cook and journal every day, post on the internet every day, and complete her project in one year. (She included a countdown of days and recipes on her blog page, according to the film.)

Also of note—Julie’s mom called her to ask about the blog. Mom was concerned that Julie was putting too much pressure on herself. Mom was trying to stop Julie from doing her project! A perfect example of a pitfall of internet or public accountability—“well-meaning” comments can work against you!

Later in the movie, Julie’s accountability turned from being internet-only to real-life public accountability. New friends cheered her on. Internet friends sent her culinary gifts. Established media outlets began to contact her. What started as blog posts sent into the internet void morphed into real connections with real people. What began as a journaling project turned into a book and a movie.

Julia Child’s Story

Julia Child was restless and wanted something to inspire her as she started a new life in Paris. She was bored with her previous secretarial work. Hobbies didn’t do the trick. Then she decided to try learning about what she really loved in Paris—the food. After being placed in a “how-to-boil-an-egg” class at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school, she had an “I’ll show you” attitude toward the school administrator. Julia wouldn’t accept defeat—another example of secret benchmarking accountability. 

Julia enrolled in a professional class at Le Cordon Bleu school—a form of accountability, even if it was only a byproduct. Julia’s description of this time suggests that she was so engaged with the class she hardly needed its obligation aspect.

At first, Julia was catching up to the skill level of the other students. Practicing chopping a mountain of onions at home to improve her technique, Julia’s husband, Paul, observed, “Jule, aren’t you being a little competitive?” Again, Julia was secret benchmarking—she wanted to appear competent in front of others.

Julia met Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, who were French cooks writing a cookbook for Americans. The three became an accountability group for each other by starting their own small cooking classes together to teach expat Americans. 

Mastering the Art of Accountability

As a result of teaching together, Julia helped edit, then substantially rewrite the cookbook that Beck and Bertholle began. It was a group effort to create and publish, later including Julia’s friend and editor Avis DeVoto as part of the project/accountability group. The book, of course, became “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”

Julia Child’s story suggests she approached her book with more moxie than accountability. Finishing the book was part of her identity. She was inspired by the work and had a strong “why.” It became her life’s mission. Toward the end of the film, Julia did seem frustrated at the difficulty of finding a willing publisher for the work. Part of what kept her going was her accountability to others.

By contrast, Julie had more accountability built into her story. In my opinion, she needed it more than Julia Child. The amount of distractions available increases exponentially each year. If Julia Child were trying to write a French cookbook today, would she make it through? Personally, I think it’s debatable. What I don’t think is debatable is that accountability would still need to be significant ingredient in the recipe.

What’s Your Account?

Am I overanalyzing again? What do you think about the accountability of either Julie or Julia? 

*I found out while writing this article that Julie Powell passed away at the age of 49 in October of 2022. That is so sad to hear! 

**Navigate “The Julie/Julia Project” blog archive with the calendar at the right of the page.