Julia Child

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture, Jan 29, 2002 by Victoria Price

Then Knopf stepped in and in 1961, shortly after Julia and Paul returned to the United States for good, Mastering the Art of French Cooking was released. An immediate success, the cookbook, with its superb quality, clear and precise recipes, and unique pedagogical approach to cooking, became the standard against which all other cookbooks would come to be judged. At 49 years old, Julia Child was hailed as a great new American culinary voice. In a country where most people's meals consisted of canned items, frozen foods, and TV dinners, the food community hailed her classical training. As Karen Lehrman wrote in "What Julia Started," "In the 1950s, America was a meat-and-potatoes kind of country. Women did all of the cooking and got their recipes from ladies' magazine articles with titles like 'The 10-Minute Meal and How to Make It.' Meatloaf, liver and onions, corned beef hash--all were considered hearty and therefore healthy and therefore delicious. For many women, preparing meals was not a joy but a requirement." Julia Child would change all that.

Julia and Paul settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a decision that would ultimately make Julia Child a household name. As the home of many of the country's finest institutions of higher learning, Cambridge boasted the best-funded educational television station, WGBH. Early in 1962, WGBH approached Julia about putting together a cooking show. Filmed in black and white in rudimentary surroundings, the show was a success from the very start. Julia Child was a natural for television. Although each show was carefully planned and the meals meticulously prepared, on-air Julia's easy going manner, sense of humor, and joie de vivre shone through, making her an instant hit.

Within a year, Julia Child's The French Chef was carried on public television stations around the country and Julia Child was a household name with a huge following. As Karen Lehrman describes, "Julia may or may not have been a natural cook, but she certainly was a natural teacher and comedian. Part of the entertainment came from her voice alone, which can start a sentence on a bass note and end of falsetto, and elongate in different keys several seemingly random words in between. But she also had an exceptional presence, a keen sense of timing and drama, and a superb instinct for what's funny. Most important, she completely lacked pretension: She played herself. She made noises (errgh, oomph, pong), called things weird or silly, clashed pot lids like cymbals, knocked things over, and in general made quite a mess. 'When, at the end of the program, she at last brings the finished dish to the table,' Lewis Lapham wrote in 1964, 'she does so with an air of delighted surprise, pleased to announce that once again the forces of art and reason have triumphed over primeval chaos.'"

For the next 30 years, Julia Child would appear on television, but because she viewed herself as a teacher, only on public television. Supported by Paul every step of the way, Julia would transform cooking from a housewife's drudgery to a joyous event for both men and women. In doing so, she changed the culinary face of America. She became a universally recognizable and much loved pop culture icon. Her shows became the object of kindhearted spoof and satire--the best of which was done by Dan Ackroyd on Saturday Night Live--and her image appeared in cartoons. But mostly it was Julia herself who continued to attract devoted viewers of both sexes, all ages, and many classes. As Noël Riley Fitch wrote, "The great American fear of being outré and gauche was diminished by this patrician lady who was not afraid of mistakes and did not talk down to her audience." Julia-isms were repeated with glee around the country, such as the time she flipped an omelet all over the stove and said, "Well, that didn't go very well," and then proceeded to scrape up the eggs and put them back in the pan, remarking, "But you can always pick it up if you're alone. Who's going to see?" Her ability to improvise and to have fun in the kitchen made her someone with whom the average American could identify. As Julia herself said, "People look at me and say, 'Well, if she can do it, I can do it.'"