Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Julia Child

August is the month of Julia Child's birth and death (1912-2004). As a foodie and new culinary student, I'm going to learn a bit more about Julia and share it with you this month.

Born Julia McWilliams, she was raised in Pasadena, California, schooled at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She spent some time in New York City working in advertising and then moved to Washington, D.C. where she volunteered as a research assistant for a newly formed government intelligence agency, the OSS, the precursor to the CIA.

While on assignment, she met Paul Child, a fellow OSS employee. Following the end of WWII, the couple returned to America and married. In 1948, Paul Child was reassigned to Paris. This was when Julia Child fell in love with food and trained at the Cordon Bleu.

Julia Child did not start her culinary career until she was thirty-six years old!

She and two other Cordon Bleu students, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, adapted sophisticated French cuisine for mainstream Americans and created a two-volume cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. In 1962, Julia became one of the first TV chefs with her program, The French Chef, syndicated on 96 PBS stations across the U.S.

In 2002, the Smithsonian unveiled an exhibit showcasing the kitchen that Julia used in her television shows.

"As a girl I had zero interest in the stove. I've always had a healthy appetite, especially for the wonderful meat and the fresh produce of California, but I was never encouraged to cook and just didn't see the point in it."
-From My Life in France, by Julia Child with Paul Prud'homme

Who knew that Julia Child & I had so much in common?

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