Sidonie Coryn isn’t a foodie, and she doesn’t have much interest in seeing the hit movie “Julie & Julia”, a movie based in part on the life of famed chef Julia Child.
But as thousands of moviegoers flock to bookstores with a newfound interest in Child’s classic book “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and flip through the pages of intricate French recipes, they see Coryn’s precise pen drawings adorning the pages.
The 80-year-old St. Charles woman, who lived on New York’s Upper West Side most of her life, collaborated with Julia and Paul Child to create more than 100 illustrations for the massive book that many say revolutionized American cooking. It was published to rave reviews and is a mainstay of serious cooks, but it was not until the success of the film that the tome hit the top of best-seller lists.
Almost a half-century after the book was published, booksellers are having trouble keeping it on the shelves. It topped the New York Times best-seller list last month, and the publisher reprinted 1.2 million copies in August alone. Bookstores in the Chicago area report that they, too, are unable to keep up with demand and have re-ordered dozens of copies.
David Hunt, owner of TownHouse Books in St. Charles, said the bookstore has long carried the classic, but it hasn’t been a hot seller until now. He estimates he is now selling three times as many copies, and noted that “My Life as Julia,” a book about Julia Child’s life, also is flying off the shelves.
Coryn isn’t keeping up with the hype. Now retired, she lives a quiet lifestyle in St. Charles, where she illustrates the church bulletin for St. Patrick Catholic Church in St. Charles and draws and paints for leisure. When people assume she lovingly re-creates intricate recipes because of her work on the book, she laughs at the idea.
“If I spent that much time in the kitchen, I wouldn’t be in the studio,” she said. “My training was to draw.”
Monsignor Joseph Linster of St. Patrick’s described Coryn as a faithful parishioner who lives a simple life and is always ready to offer insight to conversations that pop up around the church.
“She gets very lively and animated,” he said. “It comes from a heart that is truly sincere. Her life, her art — it is all very sincere.”
But Coryn said she knew she was a part of something special when she worked on the project 50 years ago.
“I could see right away that this was not going to be the usual book of recipes,” said Coryn, and the work the Childs wanted from her was not “going to be just little decorative touches to embellish the pages.”
Though she doesn’t know much about French cooking, she didn’t really need to, she said. Paul Child would send black-and-white photos of the dishes and techniques from Oslo, Norway, where they were living at the time, and Coryn would reproduce the photos with pen drawings. Many of the multiple-page recipes include step-by-step illustrations showing a difficult technique or showing a pair of hands manipulating the meat or dough.
Coryn, who was a freelance illustrator in her 20s at the time, had training in anatomical and life drawing, an education that fit well with the book’s thorough, almost-textbook feel, she said.
The Childs would send back the drawings with very specific revisions, she recalled, such as insisting that the crust on a certain dish be higher or rounder.
She met the Childs in person only when they would all meet with the publisher about deadlines or how the book was progressing.
“It wasn’t as if she was my buddy,” Coryn said with my laugh. “She was courteous and had a commanding presence.”
Coryn, who was working for Conde Nast publications at the time, was hired for the project after another illustrator hadn’t worked out, she said. Her sister worked at Knopf, the publishing house that had taken on the project, and suggested her name. A glowing recommendation from a higher-up at Knopf persuaded the Childs to take a look at her drawings.
Coryn was paid a few thousand dollars for her work, she said. Her contract did not include a provision for royalties, however, so the book’s newfound success is not translating to financial gain for Coryn.
She said she isn’t planning to see the movie, though if someone asked her to see it, she would go to be polite.
Coryn moved to St. Charles, her father’s hometown, in the early 1980s, when her father was ailing, and she stayed after he died. After the success of the two volumes of Child’s cookbooks, Coryn went on to illustrate other cookbooks.
