ABOUT
The Rise of a Culinary Icon
Julia Carolyn (McWilliams) Child was an influential American chef, author, and television personality. She famously introduced French cuisine to American audiences through her groundbreaking cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, as well as her popular television series The French Chef, which debuted in 1963. In her earlier years, Child grew up in a family with a cook, she did not observe or learn cooking from this person. It wasn't until she met her future husband, Paul, who came from a family passionate about food, that she finally learned to cook.
During 1944–1945, Child was posted to Kandy, Ceylon, where her responsibilities included "registering, cataloging and channeling a great volume of highly classified communications" for the OSS's clandestine stations in Asia. She was later posted to Kunming, China, where she received the Emblem of Meritorious Civilian Service. It was in Kandy that Child met her future husband, Paul Cushing Child, another OSS employee. They were married on September 1, 1946, in Lumberville, Pennsylvania, and later moved to Washington, D.C. Paul Child introduced his wife to fine cuisine. In 1948, the couple moved to Paris after the State Department assigned Paul there as an exhibits officer with the United States Information Agency.
In 1951, Child graduated from the renowned Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris and subsequently studied privately with master chefs like Max Bugnard. Through the women's cooking club Le Cercle des Gourmettes, Child met Simone Beck, who was co-writing a French cookbook for Americans with Louisette Bertholle. Beck proposed that Child collaborate with them to make the book more appealing to American readers. That same year, Child, Beck, and Bertholle began teaching cooking to American women in Child's Paris kitchen, establishing an informal school called L'école des trois gourmandes (The School of the Three Food Lovers). Over the next decade, as the Childs moved around Europe and finally settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the three women researched and repeatedly tested recipes. Child translated the French recipes into detailed, interesting, and practical English.
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. They named the home "La Pitchoune", a Provençal term meaning "the little one", though it was often affectionately referred to as "La Peetch". During the span of five years, Julia was diagnosed with breast cancer and later underwent a mastectomy on February 28, 1968. Throughout the years, Julia Child had become a household name for many women across the United States, and ultimately became an icon for all people. From writing multiple books such as "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", and "The Way to Cook," Julia Child had the opportunity to create and host multiple television shows, colloborating with many famous chefs and various celebrities. Toward the end of her life, Julia Child had accomplished many dreams and had even earned several emmy awards and nominations.
After Paul's death in 1991, Julia continue to pursue other additional opportunities, forever holding her title as a Master Chef. In 2001, Julia Child moved to a retirement community in Montecito, California, donating her house and office in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Smith College. She also donated her custom-designed kitchen, which had served as the set for three of her popular television series, to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, where it is now on display.[49] Additionally, Child's collection of copper pots and pans were exhibited at Copia in Napa, California until August 2009, when they were reunited with her kitchen at the National Museum in Washington, D.C. Sadly, Julia Child passed away from kidney failure on August 13, 2004, just two days before her 92nd birthday. She ended her final book, My Life in France, with the words "...thinking back on it now reminds me that the pleasures of the table, and of life, are infinite - toujours bon appétit!
