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Why do we love Julia?
She's the California girl who combined her love of French cooking with television and in the process blazed a trail for all TV chefs and a
Food Network which followed. Julia McWilliams lived a privileged childhood where the closest she came to cooking was making mud pies
to throw at passing cars. She preferred tennis, and at 6'2'', basketball, and studied enough to get by. After graduating from Smith College,
Julia returned to California with thoughts of becoming a novelist, though she excelled at giving and being the life of parties.
The onset of World War II brought out the civic minded side of Julia and she moved to Washington, D.C. and joined the Office of Strategic
Services, the precursor to today's CIA. She was stationed in Ceylon -- now Sri Lanka -- where she met fellow OSS member, Paul Child. They
married, and after the World War II moved to Paris where Paul served in the diplomatic corps. It was in Paris that Julia discovered French
cooking and enrolled in the Cordon Bleu cooking school. Her training led her to write her first cookbook, Mastering the Art of French
Cooking. While on a publicity tour for the book, she was scheduled for an interview with WGBH-TV in Boston. Knowing television was a
visual medium, Julia brought along eggs, a pan, a copper bowl, and a whisk and demonstrated the proper way to make an omelet. Little did
she know that those eggs would be the beginning of a forty-year career as television's first and foremost chef. Starting with her show, The
French Chef, in 1963, Julia's straight talk and humor has taken the mystique out of French cuisine and brought the joy of cooking to
millions.
In 2001, Julia moved back to California where she plans to retire...someday. Her contribution to American food and entertainment culture is
being honored by the Smithsonian Institution, where the kitchen from her Massachusetts home is being installed at the National Museum of
American History. She's been affectionately spoofed by Saturday Night Live, lent her voice to animated features, and continues to delight
TV audiences with her wit and signature sign-off -- Bon Appetit!
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Biography:
Born - August 15, 1912
Pasadena, California
Died - August 13, 2004
Santa Barbara, California
Achievements:
- Mastering the Art of French Cooking, published in America by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961
- The French Chef, America's first-ever television cooking show, debuts February 11, 1963
- Received the George Foster Peabody Award for distinguished achievement in television in 1965
- In 1967, the awarded the Ordre de Mérite Agricole by the French government
- Received the Ordre de Mérite National in 1975 from the French government
- In 1980, elected the first woman member of the American Chapter of the chefs' society, La Commanderie des Cordon Bleus de France
- Co-founded the American Institute of Wine & Food in 1981
- Lent her voice to the 1993 animated feature, We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story
- Won Daytime Emmy Awards in 2000 and 2001 for Outstanding Service Show Host for Julia & Jacques Cooking at Home (shared with Jacques Pepin)
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In her own words -- On taking the art of cooking and the kitchen:
"For years he (but very rarely she), the chef, was considered, an artisan, not an artist. Professional cooking was a career, but it was not
looked upon by the public as an honored profession...Now, some twenty years later (after Escoffier), chefs and cooks and American cuisine
are indeed news."
"I am very proud indeed that the Smithsonian wants my kitchen. Through this gift to the Smithsonian, if I can influence
Americans to 'keep in the kitchen' and make it a real family room and a real part of their lives, I will have succeeded beyond hope." |
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