Julia Child Leaves in Excellent Taste

Julia Child was an unlikely TV star, but her TV series "The French Chef" made her a cultural icon. From a best selling book in 1961 called Mastering the Art of French Cooking to her own kitchen at the Smithsonian, she was often a lonely voice in the wilderness in favor of flavor. She passed on just three days short of 92, leaving behind an America that still prefers hamburgers to haute cuisine, but not for want of trying.

Born Julia McWilliams, she was a six foot, C-student at Smith College, and she married at the age of 34 to a Mr. Child, of the US State Department, after serving her country in the OSS (predecessor to the CIA). His posting to France after the war would make her career. Like many diplomats' wives, she had little to do in France of an official nature, so she kept busy with a cooking course at the Condon Bleu. The rest is history.

Her warbling voice, her occasional mistakes or miscues in front of the cameras beginning in the 1960s made her a personality in TV. Before there was a Food Network, an Iron Chef or any cooking show featuring the word "Bam," she was showing that anyone who can read can make a soufflé. Because she lacked the vapid star-quality of commercial TV, this woman on PBS convinced at least two generations of Americans that they, too, could do it. This does a small injustice to her talent and efforts, but it does illustrate her humility and grace.

What endears her most to memory is her latter years in which she made war on the "nutritional Nazis." Eschew carbohydrates? Replace beef with tofu? Not in Ms. Child's kitchen. As she said, ""Either have the real thing and a little of it or have something else. I like real hamburgers and real meat, real butter. Eat everything. Have fun." She once described the ideal meal as "red meat and a bottle of gin." One might have suggested scotch, but the point stands.

The key word there was "moderation," an un-American idea. The obesity disaster in America stems from this failing. The worst affront in Ms. Child's mind was the lack of quality. A nightmare to her was big meal of poorly cooked food -- which is easily purchased at any strip mall in the country. Decent food takes time, and Americans are poor managers of that precious commodity. Ms. Child would suggest making time. Quality beats quantity every time, and here was one woman who knew it.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


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