Julia Child: A legend who redefined cooking shows and introduced Americans to the nuances of French cuisine
Julia Child was a savored household name for most of the latter part of the 20th century and continues to be so, even today, she established herself as one of the most successful and celebrated chefs and cookbook authors of all time.
She practically pioneered the concept of cooking shows while teaching her ardent audience the simplicity and enjoyment in cooking delicious food.
Child was an expert in French cuisine, who went on to broadcast many of her shows on PBS. 'The French Chef', her first-ever cooking show aired in 1962 on WGBH, where she dished out the culinary secrets to perfecting the art of making poached eggs and also taught us to embrace butter in our cooking, whole-heartedly. Not only did she pass on her knowledge of cooking and French cuisine but also taught many people helpful kitchen skills, that are still widely popular
Most know her for being a chef, cooking show host and cook-both author, but there is more to her than just cooking. PBS is premiering a six-part tribute series, 'Dishing with Julia', dedicated to her, two episodes of which airs tonight, April 3.
Here are 9 fascinating things you need to know about the dynamic best-selling author and cooking legend.
She didn't learn to cook until she met her husband
Child was baptized Julia Carolyn McWilliams and was born on 15 August 1912 in Pasadena, California. As a child, the McWilliams family had a cook to serve them, so she never grew up with an interest in cooking nor did she observe the family cook. She only learned to cook when she met her husband, Paul Cushing Child, who unlike her grew up in a family that had a keen interest in food.
She was a self-proclaimed disaster when it came to cooking and admitted to having fed herself quite a few frozen dinners until she was well into her thirties. She attended a culinary course at Le Cordon Bleu, when she lived in Paris with her husband, to become a full-fledged cook.
She worked as a spy and developed a shark repellent during WWII
Child was extremely tall and stood at 6'2". Even on her cooking shows she would often outshine her guests with her height. She wanted to pursue a military career but had to forfeit enlisting in the Women's Army Corps and in the U.S Navy's WAVES because she was much too tall. Instead, she joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) at their headquarters in Washington, where she worked as a typist and worked her way up to become a top-secret researcher working directly under the head of OSS. The OSS was a WWII era predecessor to the C.I.A, so Child practically worked as an official spy for US authorities.
She later went on to work with the Emergency Sea and Rescue Equipment Section, helped the team develop a shark repellent. U.S naval officers were incessantly attacked by sharks since the outbreak of the war, and so the OSS hired a zoologist and anthropologist to come up with a solution.
She met her husband during one of her postings
For the last two years of the war, Child accepted overseas postings in Ceylon, Sri Lanka, and Kunming China, where she served as the chief of the OSS Registry and had a top-level security clearance. In Kunming is where she met her would-be husband, Paul Child, who himself was an OSS officer. The two married in Lumberville, Pennsylvania, on September 1,1946, and then moved to Washington.
Paul hailed from New Jersey and spent his years across the pond in Paris as an artist and poet. He was known to have a refined palate and introduced his wife to the fine French cuisine. Paul joined the United States Foreign Service and in 1948, the couple moved to Paris when the US State Departement posted him there as an exhibits officer with the United States Information Agency. The couple had no children.
Culinary revelation in Rouen
The life changing moment for Child was her first meal in Rouen, which jump-started her interest in food. It comprised oysters, browned and buttered sole meunière and a bottle of fine wine that they downed amid their 5-meal course.
Her first cookbook was a decade in the making
Child's first cookbook 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' (1961) changed the way women all over the globe cooked in their kitchens, but it wasn't an overnight success. She began working on it in 1952 when she met fellow culinary enthusiasts Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle.
The three women wrote a cookbook with the aim of teaching American's to cook French cuisine. The book comprised a decade worth of research and revision. It was also rejected several times before finally being picked up by a publishing house.
The book became a critically-acclaimed best-seller and gained wide recognition for its illustration and attention to detail. Its imminence got her a regular column on The Boston Globe and she went on to write articles for several magazines, as well.
Her second book 'The French Chef Cookbook', was the literary adaptation of her recipes and demonstration on the show that she did with WGBH. She wrote her third book in collaboration with Simone Beck, titled 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume Two'. Her fourth book, 'From Julia Child's Kitchen' featured photographs of her husband, chronicled the colored series of 'The French Chef' and was also inclusive of all kitchen notes that Child had compiled during the show.
Her big television break
Child's first television appearance was on WGBH, Boston's local station. She appeared as a guest while promoting her book on the review program 'I've Been Reading' and rather than discussing the book, she cracked an egg on a hot pan she'd brought along. She made an omelet while answering questions on air, and won the viewers' hearts.
The feedback on the show was amazing, with the station receiving tonnes of letters begging for more cooking demonstrations. This eventually led to Russel Morash, the WGBH producer offering her deal. She filmed three pilot episodes, which became 'The French Chef', the show that catapulted her to fame.
In the 1970s and 1980s she continued to star in several namesake television programs: 'Julia Child & Company', 'Julia Child & More Company', and 'Dinner at Julia's', 'Cooking with Master Chefs', 'In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs', 'Baking with Julia', and 'Julia Child & Jacques Pépin Cooking at Home'.
She was a cancer survivor
Child went through a mastectomy in 1968, at age 55, when doctors found a lump in her breast and her biopsy showed cancerous results. She recuperated from her surgery outside of the public eye. She had always been a private person, and so she didn't bring up her cancer battle in much of her conversations. She had spiraled into depression post-surgery and her husband who had been a pillar of support for her at the time had also been a wreck.
She won many accolades for her work
Child won a National Book Award in the category Current Interest, for her 1979 book, 'Julia Child and More Company.' In 1993, she joined the Culinary Institute of America and was inducted into its Hall of Fame that very year. She became the first woman to receive that honor. In 2000, she was awarded the French Legion of Honour. She accepted the US Medal of Freedom in 2003 and received honorary doctorates from Harvard University, Johnson & Wales University, Smith College, Brown University, and several other universities.
Her kitchen is preserved in the Smithsonian
In 2001, Child donated her kitchen from her Massachusetts home, that her husband Paul had designed, to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Americal History in Washington D.C. Child died on August 12, 2004, of kidney failure in Montecito, California. She was only three days shy of turning 92.
