Julie Powell (Amy Adams) leaves a butter offering to a portrait of Julia Child (Meryl Streep).

After a screening of Julie & Julia, we narrowly missed walking smack into a building as we ogled a waffle truck, which filled the warm summer air with a scent much more alluring than the usual odor of the nearby subway entrance. The film, in theaters today, follows the true stories of chef/TV personality Julia Child (Meryl Streep) and blogger Julie Powell (Amy Adams), who spends a year cooking her way through Child’s groundbreaking 1961 cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Alfred A. Knopf, 2001). But while the French fare on the big screen will have you heading for the nearest bistro, it’s merely the means to an end for both women, who find their passions and creative outlets — Child through cooking, Powell through writing about Child’s cooking.

The film, which flashes back and forth from 1950s Europe to 2002 New York, was directed and produced by Nora Ephron. She also wrote the screenplay, which melds the stories of Child’s autobiography written with Alex Prud’homme, My Life in France (Anchor, 2009), and Powell’s book, Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen (Little, Brown and Co., 2005). Child’s storyline starts at age 37 in post-World War II Paris, where her husband, Paul (Stanley Tucci), works for the U.S. Information Agency. Streep’s ebullient Child often is adorably funny, and after several unsuccessful attempts to find a suitable pastime — with the ever-supportive Paul prodding, “What is it that you really like to do?” — she finds her calling at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. You then follow her challenges leading up to the publication of her book, which brought French cooking to American homes, including — fast-forward a half-century — the Queens kitchen of Julie Powell.

Stuck in a bureaucratic cubicle job, Powell feels lost and decides to start a blog called The Julie/Julia Project, chronicling her French cooking adventures. The story then follows the ups and downs of her blog and her marriage to Eric (Chris Messina). But if her dinner toast to him in the movie leaves you teary, then the subject of her upcoming memoir Cleaving (Little, Brown and Co., 2009) is kind of like finding out what happened to Bambi’s mother.

If you’re inspired by the film to try your hand at boeuf Bourguignon, you have through Aug. 14 to enter Sony Pictures’ Anything Is Possible Sweepstakes & Instant Win Game. The grand-prize winner receives a trip for two to Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa, with airfare, accommodations, a culinary workshop and dinner at Signatures Restaurant. Instant-win prizes include Wüsthof Classic eight-piece knife sets, Scharffen Berger Everything Basic Baking Baskets and Le Cordon Bleu Gourmet Food Baskets.

We thoroughly enjoyed seeing the two women in this film discover their talents and become successful. Has anyone ever inspired you to follow a dream?

Photo credit: Jonathan Wenk

Tags: Alex Prud’homme, Bambi, Beef Bourguignon, Bleu Gourmet, Bleu Ottawa, Brown and Company Ltd, Chris Messina, Cooking, Cooking school, Culinary art, Education, Entertainment/Culture, Europe, France, French cuisine, Gastronomy, Hospitality/Recreation, Jonathan Wenk, Julia, Julia Child, Julie, Julie & Julia, Julie Powell, Le Cordon Bleu, New York City, Nora Ephron, Paul, Signatures Restaurant, Soni Kabushiki Kaisha, Stanley Tucci, Streep, U.S. Information Agency