"It's a shame to be caught up in something that doesn't absolutely make you tremble with joy!"

Julia Child, you will be missed.

The meal would begin with foie gras, oysters and "a little caviar." For thirty-five years she was repeatedly asked for the menu of her last meal. For one who loved a simple, well-cooked piece of meat and a ripe pear for dessert, she always named the most extravagant and rarest foods for her last repast:

First, caviar with Russian vodka (Duburovna) and oysters with Pouilly-Fuissé. And some foie gras, of course. Second she wanted to eat pan-roasted duck--the duck never varied--accompanied by little onions and chanterelle mushrooms, her main dish. Sometimes she mentioned pommes Anna, "that lovely cake of sliced potatoes baked in butter to a crisp brown crust." Sometimes she wanted fresh asparagus with the duck. She would drink a 1962 Romanée-Conti, which she had had only once, for it cost $700 a bottle. When she was in a frugal mood, she chose a delicate red Bordeaux, a St.-Emilion or Chateau Palmer. Sometimes, Chateau Lafite-Rothschild. Third, good French bread with Roquefort and Brie would be eaten with a great Burgundy, such as Grands-Echézeux.

Finally, dessert was a moveable feast on which she changed her mind over the years. It varied from pungent sorbet with walnut cake to a simple ripe pear and green tea. She was never strong on desserts, but as she got older she decided she could eat a gooey chocolate dessert or a charlotte Malakoff. When she dreamed big, her dessert was the creme brulée from Le Cirque with Chateau d'Yquem 1975 or 1976 at $450 a bottle.

"And I would die happy," she'd say.

From Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child by Noel Rily Fitch

*[This post has not been modified, but I have since gone vegan. Still gotta give props to Julia tho. She was awesome.]