Today would have been Julia Child's 100 birthday.
She was quite a lady. I remember watching
sometimes her cooking shows. I really
enjoyed her because she was so down to earth.
I found this information from a website about her and
Popular TV chef and author Julia Child was born on August 15, 1912, in
Pasadena, California. In 1948, she moved to France where she developed a
penchant for French cuisine. With a goal of adapting sophisticated
French cuisine for mainstream Americans, she collaborated on a
two-volume cookbook called
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which was considered groundbreaking, and has since become a standard guide for the culinary community. She
also become a television icon with her popular cooking shows such as
The French Chef. Julia Child was also the inspiration behind the 2009 film
Julie & Julia, which was based on a cooking blog by
Julie Powell.
Popular TV chef and author. Julia Child was born Julia
McWilliams, on August 15, 1912, in Pasadena, California. The eldest of
three children, Julia was known by several pet names as a little girl,
including "Juke", "Juju" and "Jukies." Her father John McWilliams, Jr.,
was a Princeton graduate and early investor in California real estate.
His wife, Julia Carolyn Weston, was a paper-company heiress whose
father served as lieutenant governor of Massachusetts.
The family accumulated significant wealth and, as a result, Child
lived a privileged childhood. She was educated at San Francisco's elite
Katherine Branson School for Girls, where—at a towering height of 6
feet, 2 inches—she was the tallest student in her class. She was a
lively prankster who, as one friend recalled, could be "really, really
wild." She was also adventurous and athletic, with particular talent in
golf, tennis and small-game hunting.
In 1930, she enrolled at Smith College in Northampton,
Massachusetts, with the intention of becoming a writer. "There were
some famous women novelists in those days," she said, "and I intended
to be one." Although she enjoyed writing short plays and regularly
submitted unsolicited manuscripts to the
New Yorker, none of her
writing was published. Upon graduation she moved to New York, where
she worked in the advertising department of the prestigious home
furnishings company W&J Sloane. After transferring to the store's
Los Angeles branch, however, Child was fired for "gross
insubordination."
In 1941, at the onset of World War II, Julia moved to
Washington, D.C., where she volunteered as a research assistant for the
Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a newly formed government
intelligence agency. In her position, Julia played a key role in the
communication of top-secret documents between U.S. government officials
and their intelligence officers. She and her colleagues were sent on
assignments around the world, holding posts in Washington, D.C.,
Kumming, China; and Colombo, Sri Lanka. In 1945, while in Sri Lanka,
Child began a relationship with fellow OSS employee Paul Child. In
September of 1946, following the end of World War II, Julia and Paul
returned to America and were married.
In 1948, when Paul was
reassigned to the U.S. Information Service at the American Embassy in
Paris, the Childs moved to France. While there, Julia developed a
penchant for French cuisine and attended the world-famous Cordon Bleu
cooking school. Following her six-month training—which included private
lessons with master chef Max Bugnard—Julia banded with fellow Cordon
Bleu students Simone
Beck and Louisette Bertholle to form the cooking school L'Ecole de Trois Gourmandes (The School of the Three Gourmands).
With a goal of adapting sophisticated French cuisine for
mainstream Americans, the trio collaborated on a two-volume cookbook.
The women earned a $750 advance for the work, which they received in
three payments. The original publisher rejected the manuscript,
however, due to its 734-page length. Another publisher eventually
accepted the 3-lb. cookbook, releasing it in September 1961 under the
title
Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The book was
considered groundbreaking, and remained the bestselling cookbook for
five straight years after its publication. It has since become a
standard guide for the culinary community.
Julia promoted her book on the Boston public television station near
her Cambridge, Massachusetts, home. Displaying her trademark
forthright manner and hearty humor, she prepared an omelet on air. The
public's response was enthusiastic, generating 27 letters and countless
phone calls—"a remarkable response," a station executive remembered,
"given that station management occasionally wondered if 27 viewers were
tuned in." She was then invited back to tape her own series on
cooking for the network, initially earning $50 a show (it was later
raised to $200, plus expenses).
Premiering on WGBH in 1962,
The French Chef TV series, like
Mastering the Art of French Cooking,
succeeded in changing the way Americans related to food, while also
establishing Julia as a local celebrity. Shortly thereafter,
The French Chef
was syndicated to 96 stations throughout America. For her efforts,
Julia received the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award in 1964
followed by an Emmy Award in 1966. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Julia
made regular appearances on the ABC morning show
Good Morning, America.
Child's other endeavors included the television programs
Julia Child and Company (1978),
Julia Child and More Company (1980), and
Dinner at Julia's
(1983), as well as a slew of bestselling cookbooks that covered every
aspect of culinary knowledge. Her most recent cookbooks included
In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs (1995),
Baking with Julia (1996),
Julia's Delicious Little Dinners (1998), and
Julia's Casual Dinners (1999), which were all accompanied by highly rated television specials.
Not everyone was a fan, however. She was frequently criticized by
letter-writing viewers for her failure to wash her hands, as well as
what they believed was her poor kitchen demeanor. "You are quite a
revolting chef, the way you snap bones and play with raw meats," one
letter read. "I can't stand those over-sanitary people," Child said in
response. Others were concerned about the high levels of fat in French
cooking. Julia's advice was to eat in moderation. "I would rather eat
one tablespoon of chocolate russe cake than three bowls of Jell-O," she
said.
Despite her critics, Julia remained a go-to reference for
cooking advice. In 1993, she was rewarded for her work when she became
the first woman inducted into the Culinary Institute Hall of Fame. In
November 2000, following a 40-year career that has made her name
synonymous with fine food and a permanent among the world's most
famous chefs,
Julia received France's highest honor: the Legion d'Honneur. And in
August 2002, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History
unveiled an exhibit featuring the kitchen, where she filmed three of her
popular cooking shows.
Child died in August 2004 of kidney failure at her assisted-living
home in Montecito, two days before her 92nd birthday. Child had no
intentions of slowing down, even in her final days. "In this line of
work...you keep right on till you're through," she said. "Retired people
are boring."After her death Child's last book, the autobiography
My Life in France,
was published with the help of Child's great nephew, Alex Prud'homme.
The book, which centered on how Child discovered her true calling,
became a best seller.
Julia's memory continues to live on, through her various cookbooks and her syndicated cooking show. In 2009, a film directed by
Nora Ephron entitled
Julie & Julia hit theaters. The movie, starring
Meryl Streep and
Amy Adams, chronicled several aspects of Child's life, as well as her influence on aspiring cook
Julie Powell. For her performance, Streep won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress,
and received an Academy Award nomination.
Powell later described Child's television role
as "magical" and groundbreaking. "Her voice and her attitude and her
playfullness ... it's just magical," Powell said. "And you can't fake
that; you can't take classes to learn how to be wonderful. She just
wanted to entertain and educate people at the same time. Our food
culture is the better for it. Our stomachs are the better for it."
August 15, 2012 marks what would have been
Julia Child's 100th birthday.
In celebration of Child's centennial, restaurants nationwide took part
in a Julia Child Restaurant Week, featuring Child's recipes on their
menus.
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