Julia Carolyn Child (néeMcWilliams;[2] August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for having brought French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which premiered in 1963.
Early life
Child was born Julia Carolyn McWilliams in Pasadena, California, on August 15, 1912. Child's father was John McWilliams Jr. (1880–1962), a Princeton University graduate and prominent land manager. Child's mother was Julia Carolyn ("Caro") Weston (1877–1937), a paper-company heiress[3] and daughter of Byron Curtis Weston, a lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. Child was the eldest of three, followed by a brother, John McWilliams III, and sister, Dorothy Cousins.
Child also played sports while attending Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, from which she graduated in 1934 with a major in history.[2][5] At the time she graduated, she planned to become a novelist, or perhaps a magazine writer.[6] Following her graduation from college, Child moved to New York City, where she worked for a time as a copywriter for the advertising department of W. & J. Sloane. She was still hoping to become a novelist.[7]
While Child grew up in a family with a cook, she did not observe or learn cooking from this person, and she never learned until she met her husband-to-be, Paul, who grew up in a family very interested in food.[8]
As a research assistant in the Secret Intelligence division, Child typed over 10,000 names on white note cards to keep track of officers. For a year, she worked at the OSS Emergency Sea Rescue Equipment Section (ESRES) in Washington, D.C. as a file clerk and then as an assistant to developers of a shark repellent needed to ensure that sharks would not explode ordnance targeting German U-boats.[1][9] When Child was asked to solve the problem of too many OSS underwater explosives being set off by curious sharks, "Child's solution was to experiment with cooking various concoctions as a shark repellent," which were sprinkled in the water near the explosives and repelled sharks.[15] Still in use today, the experimental shark repellent "marked Child's first foray into the world of cooking."[16]
During 1944–1945, Child was posted to Kandy, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where her responsibilities included "registering, cataloging and channeling a great volume of highly classified communications" for the OSS's clandestine stations in Asia.[17][18] She was later posted to Kunming, China, where she received the Emblem of Meritorious Civilian Service as head of the Registry of the OSS Secretariat.[1][18]
For her service, Child received an award that cited her many virtues, including her "drive and inherent cheerfulness".[12] As with other OSS records, her file was declassified in 2008. Unlike other files, Child's complete file is available online.[19]
Child repeatedly recalled her first meal at La Couronne in Rouen as a culinary revelation; once, she described the meal of oysters, sole meunière, and fine wine to The New York Times as "an opening up of the soul and spirit for me." In 1951, she graduated from the famous Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris and later studied privately with Max Bugnard and other master chefs.[23] She joined the women's cooking club Le Cercle des Gourmettes, through which she met Simone Beck, who was writing a French cookbook for Americans with her friend Louisette Bertholle. Beck proposed that Child work with them to make the book appeal to Americans. In 1951, Child, Beck, and Bertholle began to teach cooking to American women in Child's Paris kitchen, calling their informal school L'école des trois gourmandes (The School of the Three Food Lovers). For the next decade, as the Childs moved around Europe and finally to Cambridge, Massachusetts, the three researched and repeatedly tested recipes. Child translated the French into English, making the recipes detailed, interesting, and practical.
In 1963, the Childs built a home near the Provence town of Plascassier in the hills above Cannes on property belonging to co-author Beck and her husband, Jean Fischbacher. The Childs named it "La Pitchoune", a Provençal word meaning "the little one" but over time the property was often affectionately referred to simply as "La Peetch".[24]
In his New York Times best-selling book, Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child, author Bob Spitz stated that Child was diagnosed with breast cancer in the mid-60s. She had a mastectomy on February 28, 1968.[25]
The three would-be authors initially signed a contract with publisher Houghton Mifflin, which later rejected the manuscript for seeming too much like an encyclopedia. When it was finally published in 1961 by Alfred A. Knopf, the 726-page Mastering the Art of French Cooking[27] was a best-seller and received critical acclaim that derived in part from the American interest in French culture in the early 1960s. Lauded for its helpful illustrations and precise attention to detail, and for making fine cuisine accessible, the book is still in print and is considered a seminal culinary work. Following this success, Child wrote magazine articles and a regular column for The Boston Globe newspaper. She would go on to publish nearly twenty titles under her name and with others. Many, though not all, were related to her television shows. Her last book was the autobiographical My Life in France, published posthumously in 2006 and written with her grandnephew, Alex Prud'homme. The book recounts Child's life with her husband, Paul Cushing Child, in postwar France.
A 1961 appearance on a book review show on what was then the National Educational Television (NET) station of Boston, WGBH-TV (now a major Public Broadcasting Service station),[28] led to the inception of her first television cooking show after viewers enjoyed her demonstration of how to cook an omelette. The French Chef debuted as a summer pilot series, on July 26, 1962.[29] This led to the program becoming a regular series, beginning on February 11, 1963,[30] on WGBH, where it was immediately successful. The show ran nationally for ten years and won Peabody and Emmy Awards, including the first Emmy award for an educational program. Though she was not the first television cook, Child was the most widely seen. She attracted the broadest audience with her cheery enthusiasm, distinctively warbly voice, and unpatronizing, unaffected manner. In 1972, The French Chef became the first television program to be captioned for the deaf, even though this was done using the preliminary technology of open-captioning.
Child's second book, The French Chef Cookbook, was a collection of the recipes she had demonstrated on the show. It was soon followed in 1970 by Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume Two, again in collaboration with Simone Beck, but not with Louisette Bertholle, with whom the professional relationship had ended. Child's fourth book, From Julia Child's Kitchen, was illustrated with her husband's photographs and documented the color series of The French Chef, as well as provided an extensive library of kitchen notes compiled by Child during the course of the show.[31]
Impact on American households
Child had a large impact on American households and housewives. Because of the technology in the 1960s, the show was unedited, causing her blunders to appear in the final version and ultimately lend "authenticity and approachability to television."[32] According to Toby Miller in "Screening Food: French Cuisine and the Television Palate," one mother he spoke to said that sometimes "all that stood between me and insanity was hearty Julia Child" because of Child's ability to soothe and transport her. In addition, Miller notes that Child's show began before the feminist movement of the 1960s, which meant that the issues housewives and women faced were somewhat ignored on television.[33]
In the 1970s and 1980s, she was the star of numerous television programs, including Julia Child & Company, Julia Child & More Company, and Dinner at Julia's. For the 1979 book Julia Child and More Company, she won a National Book Award in category Current Interest.[34] In 1980, Child started appearing regularly on ABC's Good Morning America.[35]
In 1981, she founded the American Institute of Wine & Food,[36] with vintners Robert Mondavi and Richard Graff, and others, to "advance the understanding, appreciation and quality of wine and food," a pursuit she had already begun with her books and television appearances. In 1989, she published what she considered her magnum opus, a book and instructional video series collectively entitled The Way To Cook.
During the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, Child went from holding homophobic views to being a passionate AIDS activist, triggered by a close associate succumbing to AIDS.[37][38][39][40]
In the mid-1990s, as part of her work with the American Institute of Wine and Food, Child became increasingly concerned about children's food education.
She starred in four more series in the 1990s that featured guest chefs: Cooking with Master Chefs, In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs, Baking with Julia, and Julia & Jacques Cooking at Home. She collaborated with Jacques Pépin many times for television programs and cookbooks. All of Child's books during this time stemmed from the television series of the same names.
Child's use of ingredients like butter and cream has been questioned by food critics and modern-day nutritionists. She addressed these criticisms throughout her career, predicting that a "fanatical fear of food" would take over the country's dining habits, and that focusing too much on nutrition takes the pleasure from enjoying food.[41][42] In a 1990 interview, Child said, "Everybody is overreacting. If fear of food continues, it will be the death of gastronomy in the United States. Fortunately, the French don't suffer from the same hysteria we do. We should enjoy food and have fun. It is one of the simplest and nicest pleasures in life."[43]
Julia Child's kitchen, designed by her husband, was the setting for three of her television shows. It is now on display at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Beginning with In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs, the Childs' home kitchen in Cambridge was fully transformed into a functional set, with TV-quality lighting, three cameras positioned to catch all angles in the room, and a massive center island with a gas stovetop on one side and an electric stovetop on the other, but leaving the rest of the Childs' appliances alone, including "my wall oven with its squeaking door."[44] This kitchen backdrop hosted nearly all of Child's 1990s television series.
Later years
Child in 1994
After her friend Simone Beck died in 1991 at the age of 87, Child relinquished La Pitchoune after a month-long stay in June 1992 with her family, her niece, Phila, and close friend and biographer Noël Riley Fitch. She turned the keys over to Jean Fischbacher's sister, just as she and Paul had promised nearly 30 years earlier. That year, Child spent five days in Sicily at the invitation of Regaleali Winery. American journalist Bob Spitz spent a brief time with Child during that period while he was researching and writing his then working title, History of Eating and Cooking in America. In 1993, Child voiced Dr. Julia Bleeb in the animated film, We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story.
Spitz took notes and made many recordings of his conversation with Child, and these later formed the basis of a secondary biography on Child, published August 7, 2012 (Knopf), five days before the centennial of her birthdate.[45][46] Paul Child, who was ten years older than his wife, died in 1994 after living in a nursing home for five years following a series of strokes in 1989.[47]
In 2001, Child moved to a retirement community, donating her house and office to Smith College, which later sold the house.[48]
She donated her kitchen, which her husband had designed with high counters to accommodate her height, and which served as the set for three of her television series, to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, where it is now on display.[49] Her copper pots and pans were on display at Copia in Napa, California, until August 2009 when they were reunited with her kitchen at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
In 1995, Child established The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and Culinary Arts, a private charitable foundation to make grants to further her life's work. The Foundation, originally set up in Massachusetts, later moved to Santa Barbara, California, where it is now headquartered. Inactive until after Julia's death in 2004, the Foundation makes grants to other nonprofits.[51] The grants support primarily gastronomy, the culinary arts, and the further development of the professional food world, all matters of paramount importance to Julia Child during her lifetime. The Foundation's website provides a dedicated page listing the names of grant recipients with a description of the organization and the grant provided by the Foundation.[52] One of the grant recipients is Heritage Radio Network which covers the world of food, drink, and agriculture.
Beyond making grants, the Foundation was also established to protect Child's legacy. Many of these rights are jointly held with other organizations like her publishers and the Schlesinger Library at The Radcliffe Institute at °Harvard University. The Foundation has been active in protecting these posthumous rights. Child was opposed to endorsements, and the Foundation follows a similar policy regarding the use of her name and image for commercial purposes.[53]
The exhibits in the West Wing (1 West) of the National Museum of American History address science and innovation. They include Bon Appétit! Julia Child's Kitchen.
The Julia McWilliams Child '34 Campus Center at Smith College
Smith College used the proceeds from the sale of Child's house in Cambridge to partially fund an architecturally dramatic campus center that opened in 2003. On November 17, 2022, it honored her by naming it the Julia McWilliams Child '34 Campus Center.[58]
Child was a favorite of audiences from the moment of her television debut on public television in 1963, and she was a familiar part of American culture and the subject of numerous references, including numerous parodies in television and radio programs and skits. Her great success on air may have been tied to her refreshingly pragmatic approach to the genre, "I think you have to decide who your audience is. If you don't pick your audience, you're lost because you're not really talking to anybody. My audience is people who like to cook, who want to really learn how to do it."
In 1996, Child was ranked No. 46 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.[65]
On stage
Jean Stapleton portrayed Child in a 1989 one-woman short musical play, Bon Appétit!, based on one of Child's televised cooking lessons, with music by American opera composer Lee Hoiby. The title derived from her famous TV sign-off "Bon appétit!"[66]
In film
A film titled Primordial Soup With Julia Child was on display at the SmithsonianNational Air and Space Museum's Life in the Universe gallery from 1976 until the gallery closed.[67]
Produced by WGBH, a one-hour feature documentary, Julia Child! America's Favorite Chef, was aired as the first episode of the 18th season of the PBS series American Masters (2004). The film combined archive footage of Child with current footage from those who influenced and were influenced by her life and work.[68]
Keep On Cooking – Julia Child Remixed (2012): A video produced for PBS by musician and filmmaker John D. Boswell as part of the PBS Icons Remixed series in commemoration of Child's 100th birthday. Child's voice is auto-tuned to a melody derived from vocal samples, with synchronized video clips from Child's various television series.
Julia (2021) is a documentary, which chronicles Child's life. It was directed and produced by Julie Cohen and Betsy West.
In 1978, Child and Jacques Pépin were guests on the NBCtalk showTomorrow with Tom Snyder. The program was to include a segment with the two chefs preparing food. Before taping the show, Child borrowed Pépin's knife to cut something and accidentally sliced her finger.[69][70]Tom Snyder was horrified that Child had injured herself, but Child insisted on continuing the program with her bandaged finger.[71] Child told Snyder that, during the taping, Pépin would do the cooking, and Child would taste the dishes.[71] Although Child did not want the television audience to know about her injury, during the taping, Snyder asked Child about her cut finger.[72] After the show, Pépin and Child went to the hospital, where Child received sutures on her sliced finger.[69] Afterwards, Child and Pépin dined at L'Ermitage.[71]Saturday Night Live writers saw the Tomorrow episode with Child and thought it would make a funny sketch.[69] The writers took Child's relatively minor mishap and transformed it into a major accident. Child is parodied by Dan Aykroyd, who is a fan of Julia Child.[69][73] In the sketch, Aykroyd—as Julia Child—continued with a cooking show despite ludicrously profuse bleeding from a cut to his thumb, and eventually expired while advising, "Save the liver."[74] Child had a videocassette copy of the episode, and she reportedly loved this sketch so much she showed it to friends at parties.[45][69][73]
She appears in an episode of This Old House as designer of the kitchen. This Old House was launched in 1979 by Russell Morash, who helped create The French Chef with Julia Child.[75]
On March 14, 2022, the Food Network began a new series called The Julia Child Challenge. The series is based in a replica of Julia's kitchen modified to allow eight contestants (all home cooks) to compete at the same time in a multi-episode cooking challenge. Each episode revolves around one or more episode of one of Child's cooking shows with clips of them interspersed into the contents of the competition. The winner will receive a scholarship to a cooking school in Paris.[76]
In late March 2022, HBO Max began airing Julia, a television series based on Child's life starring Sarah Lancashire in the title role.
Online
In 2002, Child was the inspiration for "The Julie/Julia Project", a popular cooking blog by Julie Powell that was the basis of Powell's bestselling book, Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, published in 2005, the year following Child's death. The paperback version of the book was retitled Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously.[77][78][79] The blog and book, along with Child's own memoir My Life in France, in turn inspired the 2009 feature film Julie & Julia. Child is reported to have been unimpressed by Powell's blog, believing Powell's determination to cook every recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year to be a stunt. In an interview, Child's editor, Judith Jones, said of Powell's blog: "Flinging around four-letter words when cooking isn't attractive, to me or Julia. She didn't want to endorse it. What came through on the blog was somebody who was doing it almost for the sake of a stunt."[80]
On March 15, 2016, Twitch started to stream Child's show The French Chef. This event was in celebration of both the launch of the cooking section of Twitch and the anniversary of Child's graduation from Le Cordon Bleu.[81]
^Burros, Marian (September 26, 1988). "Dining on Arena Floor for AIDS Benefit". B. The New York Times. p. 4. Retrieved November 4, 2021. But the chefs and dinner committee co-chairmen were the heroes of the day and were introduced at the end of the meal by Julia Child, the woman who made cooking fashionable in America. It's a wonderful gaggle of chefs, said Mrs. Child as the audience cheered and chanted Julia, Julia, Julia.
^Shapiro, Laura (April 2, 2007). "Just a Pinch of Prejudice". Boston. Retrieved November 4, 2021. ...she found homosexuality outlandish—not immoral, and certainly not to be criminalized, but a rude disruption in the natural order of things.
^Voss, Brandon (August 7, 2009). "Nora Ephron: Stirring the Pot". The Advocate. Retrieved November 4, 2021. I believe that Julia Child was homophobic out of ignorance, but she became very good friends with lots of the gay men in the food business and forgave them all for being in the food business.
^"Welcome". The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts. Retrieved December 5, 2013.
^"Grants". The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts. Archived from the original on September 9, 2013. Retrieved December 5, 2013.
