3 questions for...Judith Jones

1 You edited Julia Child’s magnum opus, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. On a recent panel discussing Child, Molly O’Neill said she wasn’t a very good cook. Do you agree?
Absolutely untrue. I spent many, many dinners with her after we’d worked all day till almost 11. I would do a little dish; she’d whip up something perfectly delicious and soigné. She cooked with care. I never had a bad meal at her house.

2 I watched her show as a little girl and remember thinking, She’s sloshed! Was she a big drinker?
Really? [Laughs] The glass of wine was part of enjoying the cooking; she was trying to show there was pleasure in it. Julia was a careful drinker. The Brits thought she was some old American drunk; it was part of her lustiness.

3 Your new memoir mentions a 1976 Forbes article in which you said, “If you consider yourself a creative person, it is no longer possible to be a bad cook.” Do you still stand by that statement?
Yes. Today people are afraid to cook at home; they say, “Oh, it’s too expensive.” They see it as a chore. I think they’re going out to eat too much, for companionship. I wish this whole “foodie” thing, food-consciousness, translated to more home cooking. I’m not sure that’s true.

Jones’s The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food (Alfred A. Knopf, $25) is out now.