Julia Child

Julia Child (August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004), born Julia Carolyn McWilliams, was a famous American gourmet cook, author, and television personality who introduced French cuisine and cooking techniques to the American mainstream through her many cookbooks and television programs. Her most famous works are the 1961 cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and the television series The French Chef, which premiered in 1963.

Post-war France

Mrs. Child repeatedly recalled her first meal in Rouen of oysters, sole meunière, and fine wine as a culinary revelation. She described the experience once in The New York Times newspaper as "an opening up of the soul and spirit for me". In Paris, she attended the famous Le Cordon Bleu cooking school and later studied privately with master chefs like Max Bugnard. She joined the women's cooking club, Cercle des Gourmettes, where she met Simone Beck who, with her friend Louisette Bertholle, was writing a French cookbook for Americans and proposed that Mrs. Child work with them to make it appeal to Americans.

Related Topics:
Rouen - Oyster - The New York Times - Newspaper - Le Cordon Bleu - Simone Beck

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In 1951, they began teaching cooking to American women in the Childs' kitchen, calling their informal school L'Ecole des Trois Gourmandes (The School of the Three Gourmands). For the next decade as the Childs moved around Europe and finally to Cambridge, Massachusetts, the three researched and repeatedly tested recipes and Mrs. Child translated the French into American English, making the recipes detailed, interesting, and practical.

Related Topics:
Cambridge, Massachusetts - American English

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