How Finding A Julia Child Cookbook On The Street Changed This TikToker's Life

Photo credit: Greer Hiltabidle/TikTok
Photo credit: Greer Hiltabidle/TikTok

People find stuff on the streets of New York all the time. Sometimes it’s a couch, a TV, or a slightly crusty coffee table that you ambitiously think you can fix up. But about a month ago, Greer Hiltabidle, 24, found something on the streets of SoHo she had to have.

“I’m walking around, and I see Julia Child’s name glistening in the sun,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Someone has just abandoned this beautiful Julia Child cookbook on the street? I have to rescue this. It’s a sign.’” For Hiltabidle, that sign was to recreate the classic movie Julie & Julia. "Julie & Julia is one of my favorite movies," she said. But being a Gen Z-er, she was going to modernize it...by posting the whole journey on TikTok.

“I have always romanticized my life,” she said. “I love French culture. And I was in such a funk, maybe this would bring me out of it, maybe it’ll make people smile.”

The funk Hiltabidle was in was something she had struggled with most her life. Born and raised in Annapolis, MD, she said she has always suffered from depression. And cooking has always been a way for her to pull herself out of it.

“When I got to college, I started baking,” she said. “I got really invested in putting ingredients together, and if it comes out to be something I can give to someone, that's amazing. But if I mess it up, and it's just like a pile of garbage, I can throw it away.”

After graduation, she moved to New York City and got a job as an office assistant at an advertising agency, where she has worked for 2 years. “I do all the office happy hours,” she said. “Each week, we have a cocktail [modeled] after one of our employees [that I make]. I put together charcuterie boards. I churn butter at my desk. I’m annoying but appreciated because of the food.” This earned her the nickname "Gen Z Martha Stewart." When the pandemic hit, Hiltabidle found herself slipping into depression, so she started posting to TikTok. Shortly after, she stumbled across Julia Child’s The Way to Cook. She figured this journey could be a way to get her out.

On July 9, she posted her first video of the Greer & Julia series, where she cooked a cheese and bacon quiche. “This will get me out of my depression,” she said in the video, sitting cross-legged with the book propped open in her lap. She cooked the quiche, adding extra cheese and noting all ingredients are and will be from local businesses. It got 200,000 views.

Hiltabidle is so open about her mental health struggles, plus her realistic cooking methods make the series relatable. In one video, where she makes an oil and lemon dressing, she ended it by saying, “Yo, this is fire!” In another, she calls her seafood guy “a fish Pete Davidson.” Now, she has a community of people rooting for her, even if she is working at a slower pace than she’d hoped.

“I think it’s been a month, and I’ve done 11 recipes, which is so sad,” she said, laughing. “But somehow I found my way onto the really nice, supportive mom TikTok who are just like ‘Take your time. It’s OK if you miss a day.’ As of right now, I’m going at my own pace, but I know there’s a day when I can knock out 20 recipes. I don’t know when, but that day will come.”

Hiltabidle is determined, but the economics of doing all 524 recipes isn’t cheap. “If you break down all the ingredients—someone did the math online—it’s $10,000,” she said. And her commitment to get everything from small local businesses doesn’t lower the cost. But her followers are helping. “I had a bunch of people on TikTok Venmo me for the ingredients. Like a woman sent me $50 for the lobster. So I owe it to her to cook a live lobster.”

There’s also an accountability Hiltabidle feels from her followers; not a burden, but a drive to keep going, something Julie Powell also felt during her year-long journey. “All these people are like ‘I believe in you’ and ‘You are capable of this’ and ‘I bought this book too’ and ‘I’m sad, and I’m doing it with you,’ she said. “That makes me want to continue posting videos. It has brought me so much joy.”

But her ability to fold in her cooking missteps into a delicious meal is something only reminiscent of Julia Child herself. While making a bechamel sauce in another video, she adds the flour to the butter over heat and in a panicked voice says, “OK, now we have roux, I think?” The mixture looks thick as she adds hot milk. “OK, maybe?” she says as she is whisking. “I added more milk and fixed it. Now, it’s more of a sauce consistency.” As she layers the eggplant with the sauce, breadcrumbs and butter, she says “This is a mess!” But in true JC style, it tastes delicious in the end. “It’s so rich, but it’s good!”

One thing that Hiltabidle has learned from the whole experience is maybe not what you would think. “The amount of butter that this woman cooks with is absurd!” she said of Child’s recipes. “I cook with a lot of butter, but damn, this woman! Her whole life is butter. She doesn’t care about eating a lot of butter, and I don’t think I do either. I’m a lot happier eating butter.”

Follow the Greer and Julia journey on Hiltabidle’s TikTok.

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