By Adam Rabiner
Julia Child is number one on Thrillist.com’s The 25 Most Influential TV Chefs of All Time, Ranked before Emeril Lagasse, Martha Stewart, Guy Fieri, Gordon Ramsay, James Beard, Mario Batali, and Rachel Ray, not to mention the other 17.
That’s saying a lot because Julia Child died almost 15 years ago, before today’s celebrity chef media saturated era. But Julia Carolyn Child, who lived to the ripe old age of 91, was already an American Icon in 1978 when many who are now adults first became familiar with her through Dan Aykroyd’s hilarious parody of The French Chef, on Saturday Night Live.
Julia! America’s Favorite Chef is an hour-long biography, part of PBS’s American Masters series, Chefs Flight, featuring documentaries of famous chefs such as James Beard, Jacques Pepin, and Alice Waters. Julia! was co-produced by Robin Hessman, a member of the Plow to Plate Movie Series and Safe Food Committee, who will also be leading the Q & A.
Julia Child was born in 1912 in Pasadena, California of blue blood Presbyterian stock with upper crust New England roots. She was the eldest child of John McWilliams, a stern, conservative Republican banker, “the voice of responsibility” and the former Julia Carolyn Weston, a more freewheeling, warm, funny, and extroverted person. She took more after her mom than her dad.
Julia came of age at a time when women, especially those of her class, were expected to marry and not pursue their own careers. However Julia always felt she had a unique spirit and was meant to do something special with her life. She once admitted, if she had settled with the kind of wealthy conservative husband her father would have approved of, “I would have become an alcoholic.”
But Julia was a late bloomer, and it took many years for her to divine what her spirit meant for her to do. Smith, where she attended college, at that time was little more than a finishing school for young ladies, and she spent her time there having a good time and not distinguishing herself in any way. Afterwards she headed to New York City with its “endless possibilities,” continued to party, but failed to land her dream job at the New Yorker, write her novel, or kindle any passion, though she did land a job writing ad copy for a furniture store, W. & J. Sloane.
Child’s “a-hah” moment occurred years later, over lunch at Hotel de La Couronne, France’s oldest restaurant. She loved the entire meal, savoring the oysters and duck over her glass of local white wine, but was particularly enthralled by the classic French dish, Sole meuniere. She was captivated not just by the food, but by the elegant, ritualistic formality of the experience, the sommelier who helped her choose her drink, the uniformed waiter who arrived at the table to debone her fish.
Like in the 2009 drama, Julie & Julia, we see Julia Child’s courtship and long happy marriage to Paul Child, a free spirited artist credited with much of her success. He supported her desire to attend the famous Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris (a blessing with some degree of self-interested; a poor cook before her training, she once exploded a duck). Although the head of the school felt she had no natural talent, she received her certificate in 1957.
Julia Child’s lack of “natural talent,” did not hold her back. More likely, it influenced her to become a teacher and ensure that her two volume 726 page encyclopedic, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, co-written with Frenchwomen Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, contained detailed, step by step, instructions. Her goal was to take the mystery out of haute cooking and always felt, if she could do it, you could too. The ultimate success of the first volume, published in 1961 after years of testing, writing and initial publisher rejection, launched her career in early television.
Julia Child was 49 when she walked into the young WGBH-TV public television studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1962 to film the black and white pilot of the show Aykroyd made fun of. In an era when the food industry, media, and popular culture preached the convenience of frozen meals and the bondage of house-keeping, proto-feminist Julia Child was enthusiastically demonstrating that cooking could be fun and the kitchen an acceptable place to spend some time.
The French Chef ran for ten seasons, airing its final episode in 1973. However, Julia Child remained on TV well into her 80s starring in the 1990s shows: Cooking with Master Chefs, In Julia’s Kitchen with Master Chefs, and as late as 1999, Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home. Julia Child died on August 13th, 2004 just two days shy of what would have been her 92nd birthday.
This documentary makes abundantly clear why Julia Child deserves her Number One Thrillist.com ranking and tribute:
“Child is now, and always shall be, the first name that comes to mind when you think of TV chef, a woman who was teaching Americans the virtues of then-untenable haute French cuisine before Guy Fieri started frosting his tips… Even 13 years after she went on to the big kitchen in the sky, her presence is felt every time a cookbook goes to print or cameras roll in a kitchen.”
Julia Child is number one on Thrillist.com’s The 25 Most Influential TV Chefs of All Time, Ranked before Emeril Lagasse, Martha Stewart, Guy Fieri, Gordon Ramsay, James Beard, Mario Batali, and Rachel Ray, not to mention the other 17.
That’s saying a lot because Julia Child died almost 15 years ago, before today’s celebrity chef media saturated era. But Julia Carolyn Child, who lived to the ripe old age of 91, was already an American Icon in 1978 when many who are now adults first became familiar with her through Dan Aykroyd’s hilarious parody of The French Chef, on Saturday Night Live.
Julia! America’s Favorite Chef is an hour-long biography, part of PBS’s American Masters series, Chefs Flight, featuring documentaries of famous chefs such as James Beard, Jacques Pepin, and Alice Waters. Julia! was co-produced by Robin Hessman, a member of the Plow to Plate Movie Series and Safe Food Committee, who will also be leading the Q & A.
Julia Child was born in 1912 in Pasadena, California of blue blood Presbyterian stock with upper crust New England roots. She was the eldest child of John McWilliams, a stern, conservative Republican banker, “the voice of responsibility” and the former Julia Carolyn Weston, a more freewheeling, warm, funny, and extroverted person. She took more after her mom than her dad.
Julia came of age at a time when women, especially those of her class, were expected to marry and not pursue their own careers. However Julia always felt she had a unique spirit and was meant to do something special with her life. She once admitted, if she had settled with the kind of wealthy conservative husband her father would have approved of, “I would have become an alcoholic.”
But Julia was a late bloomer, and it took many years for her to divine what her spirit meant for her to do. Smith, where she attended college, at that time was little more than a finishing school for young ladies, and she spent her time there having a good time and not distinguishing herself in any way. Afterwards she headed to New York City with its “endless possibilities,” continued to party, but failed to land her dream job at the New Yorker, write her novel, or kindle any passion, though she did land a job writing ad copy for a furniture store, W. & J. Sloane.
Child’s “a-hah” moment occurred years later, over lunch at Hotel de La Couronne, France’s oldest restaurant. She loved the entire meal, savoring the oysters and duck over her glass of local white wine, but was particularly enthralled by the classic French dish, Sole meuniere. She was captivated not just by the food, but by the elegant, ritualistic formality of the experience, the sommelier who helped her choose her drink, the uniformed waiter who arrived at the table to debone her fish.
Like in the 2009 drama, Julie & Julia, we see Julia Child’s courtship and long happy marriage to Paul Child, a free spirited artist credited with much of her success. He supported her desire to attend the famous Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris (a blessing with some degree of self-interested; a poor cook before her training, she once exploded a duck). Although the head of the school felt she had no natural talent, she received her certificate in 1957.
Julia Child’s lack of “natural talent,” did not hold her back. More likely, it influenced her to become a teacher and ensure that her two volume 726 page encyclopedic, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, co-written with Frenchwomen Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, contained detailed, step by step, instructions. Her goal was to take the mystery out of haute cooking and always felt, if she could do it, you could too. The ultimate success of the first volume, published in 1961 after years of testing, writing and initial publisher rejection, launched her career in early television.
Julia Child was 49 when she walked into the young WGBH-TV public television studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1962 to film the black and white pilot of the show Aykroyd made fun of. In an era when the food industry, media, and popular culture preached the convenience of frozen meals and the bondage of house-keeping, proto-feminist Julia Child was enthusiastically demonstrating that cooking could be fun and the kitchen an acceptable place to spend some time.
The French Chef ran for ten seasons, airing its final episode in 1973. However, Julia Child remained on TV well into her 80s starring in the 1990s shows: Cooking with Master Chefs, In Julia’s Kitchen with Master Chefs, and as late as 1999, Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home. Julia Child died on August 13th, 2004 just two days shy of what would have been her 92nd birthday.
This documentary makes abundantly clear why Julia Child deserves her Number One Thrillist.com ranking and tribute:
“Child is now, and always shall be, the first name that comes to mind when you think of TV chef, a woman who was teaching Americans the virtues of then-untenable haute French cuisine before Guy Fieri started frosting his tips… Even 13 years after she went on to the big kitchen in the sky, her presence is felt every time a cookbook goes to print or cameras roll in a kitchen.”