April 23, 2020 • 37 mins
Although she didn't even start cooking until her late 30s, Julia Child is known for bringing the art of French cuisine into American home kitchens. Anney and Lauren trace the life of the TV icon in this classic episode.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello, and welcome favorite production of I Heart Radio. I'm
Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vocalbaum, and today we've got
a classic episode for you about Julia Child, one of
our favorites, but particularly for you, Laura. Yes, absolutely well,
Julia Child is is one of my favorite UM figures
and doing this episode was just an absolute joy. I
(00:30):
got super for clumped during it. In this time of
of isolation. UM, I I like sort of like like
rage watched Julia and Julia the other days it is
dreaming on Netflix. UM. And by rage watch, I mean
that Meryl Streep is a beacon of beauty in that film.
(00:50):
And uh, and the Julie character nothing to say against
Amy Adams portrayal, but the Julie character is just one
of my least favorite characters and all of them. Oh
so that's why that's where the rage comes in. That's
where the rage comes in. Yeah, the half of the
movie that is about Julia Child is ridiculously delightful. M
(01:11):
Stanley Tucci playing Paul is also amazing. But but but
but yeah, no, it's it's there's I'm just like, man,
that human seems like not a human that I want
to hang out with Well, luckily you don't have to,
that's true. Yeah, I hope to. I hope Julie isn't
(01:32):
listening to this. Sorry, sorry about it. The film doesn't
portray you in a nice light. I was thinking the
other day, I have no intention to do this, but like,
if you had ever wanted to do the thing that
she does in that movie, which is sort of recreate
all those recipes, right, yeah, like like all like five
hundred and whatever recipes from Mastering the Art of French
(01:54):
Cooking in a single year, so three and sixty five days. Yeah. Wow.
So if that was a project you want to undertake
but hadn't had the time or motivation, I mean maybe
that's that's something you could pick up now. Yeah, yeah,
no time like the present, I suppose. I mean, assuming
that you have like a like good access to to
(02:16):
all those groceries, that's true. Yeah, well you know that
could be an interesting thing too, where like I've had
to make some very fascinating substitutions. Some have worked out,
some have not worked out very much, decidedly not worked out.
But yeah, I like the experimenting aspect of it. Yeah, absolutely, Um,
it is definitely bringing out Um, yes, the innovator in me,
(02:41):
I would say, yes, yes, we are all innovators in
the kitchen. Now, gosh, it's true, it's true. But um yeah.
So so this episode originally aired in the before time
in October UM, and it's actually sort of timely that
we are running it again because a documentary about Julia
(03:01):
Child is currently in production and just this past Friday,
Sony Pictures Classics acquired worldwide rights to it. Um is
being created by the filmmakers who who got that Oscar
nominee last year for the RBG documentary, the Ruth Bader
Ginsburg Documentary. UM and yeah. It should be out next
year and should feature like archival footage that has never
(03:23):
been seen before by the public, plus some personal photos
um and interviews with Julia's family and friends. Uh and yeah.
It's being made in cooperation with them and also with
the Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts.
So looking forward to that one, yeah, totally. And speaking
of the foundation, they just made a fifty thou dollar
(03:44):
grant to World Central Kitchens Chefs for America program, which
is um that thing that Jose Andres Is is running
to help restaurants that have shuddered during COVID nineteen. UM
provide meals to people who are in need of meals,
um and and he he was recipient of the Julia
Child Award from the Foundation, So it all kind of
fits together, but super lovely. UM also shout out to
(04:08):
the Julia Child Foundation's podcast Inside Julia's Kitchen, which is
a lovely show that if you guys have not listened to,
I think you should. There you go a lot of
entertainment recommendations in this one. So yeah, yeah, like it's
some recommendations and some like I don't know if you
want to watch that thing. I want to do with
(04:32):
this information what you will? Yes, yes, we have provided information.
Now you must decide. But all right, I guess we
should get into our classic uh yeah, yeah, taken away
former Annie and Lauren. Hello, welcome to food Stuff. I'm
(05:01):
Lauren Vogelbon and I'm Annie Reese and today it's the
Julia Child episode. Yes, it's finally here. Laurens so excited.
I am. Oh, I'm freaking out just a little bit.
But okay, okay, So you know, we we have intended
to start doing a series of sort of biographical episodes
about famous food personalities, chefs, uh and and other humans. Yes,
(05:22):
and Julia Child is a great place to start. So
what is it? Nope, force of habit but brief bio
in case you don't know. Julia Child was a best
selling author, well known TV chef personality and CIA operative
kind of. She was well known for her love of
(05:45):
French food and she was quite quite, quite quite popular. Um.
There have been movies about her, me Meryl Street playter,
um TV shows made about her, and I think one's
about to come out Julia Cool. Yeah, so she made
quite the impact. Yes, and she she to be super honest,
dear listeners. She made quite an impact on me. I
(06:06):
grew up with my my My father was a chef
and a cook, and my mom was a huge fan
of cooking, and so I grew up watching Julia Child
when I was a child, and watching her videos now
still elicits this extreme nostalgia response. It just makes me
so happy because she's she's so joyous about cooking. She's
so capable and and very physical. She just beats the
(06:31):
crap out of stuff continually, but in a useful way.
And I don't know her whole attitude is is just
very positive. Yes, And I actually knew very little about
Julia Child, so this has been quite a joyous thing
for me to learn about her. So let's let's start
with her early life. Julia Child was born Julia Caroline
(06:53):
mick Williams on August nine and Pasadena, California, to John Jr.
And Julia Carol Caroline excuse me McWilliams Nay Weston called
Carol yep. She was the oldest of three children and
went by several pet names like Jukes and Juju. Her
father was a consultant and financier. He was a second
generation gold pioneer who inherited a lot of his father's
(07:17):
kind of business dealings gold pioneer, and her mother was
the heiress of a paper company from her father and
her father was also the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. Uh.
Julia's great grandparents on her mother's western side might have
known Dr Sylvester Graham. Everyone is connected to doctor Graham.
Oh it's crazy. They lived just a town over from
(07:39):
where Graham did a lot of his preaching. Um. The
Weston family, by the way, also traced back to Plymouth
Rock Like. They were some of the first people to
come over to the United States or to to America.
At the time, it was not yet United through the
Brewster line. Anyway, the mc williams must have been doing
pretty well for themselves because all of their children went
(08:00):
to private schools and the family had a cook and
other servants. Julia was very active and known as a
bit of a prankster at her school um. She was
always tall, taking after her father, and topped out at
six ft two inches. Her sister, Dorothy was six ft three.
Julia was kind of a rabble rouser and a bit
of a ham She always took part in school plays,
(08:21):
though she noted that do perhaps to her height and
the fact that she attended an all girls school, she
was always casts as the man or as a beast,
never the princess. And random fact, on a family trip
to Tijuana, a young Julia encountered Caesar Cardini at his restaurant,
Ak the guy who came up with a Caesar salad.
(08:41):
The dude made the salad table side for them to enjoy,
and years later, when Julia child had become a famous
chef herself, she got Cardini's daughter Rosa to give her
the original recipe. Uh Speaking of food as we are
want to do. Julia's mother, Caro, didn't care for cooking,
so Julia never really touched a kitchen when she was younger.
(09:02):
She she grew up in the kind of family that
eats well, but very plainly. It was also an arrow
when prepackaged foods were kind of trendy. You know, being
able to serve like Hinz mint jelly with your lamb
was a sign of wealth and modernity. Hines mint jelly
in n She graduated from Smith College in Massachusetts with
a b a Bachelor of Arts in history. Her mom
(09:25):
was an alum, and Julia was enrolled at birth day
of her birth and she's enrolled in college okay. After graduation,
she started working for furniture company w n J Sloan
in New York as an ad copywriter. Her goal was
to become a writer, but she wrote in her diary,
I am sadly. I am sadly an ordinary person with
(09:46):
talents I do not use. Yeah, young Julia, harsh on yourself.
She was also very active and outgoing during her college career,
where among things like drama and basketball, she was the
chair of refreshment committee for senior prom and fall dance
and I found this tidbit on the CIA's website. By
the way. Yeah, more on that in a second, but yeah,
(10:09):
So three years would pass before she returned to Pasadena.
She transferred to the Los Angeles w j salone branch,
but she was soon fired for gross and sword in subordination,
which is one of my favorite facts of this whole thing.
I love that. So she started taking ob jobs as
a writer, mostly for various advertising firms, while also doing
(10:31):
volunteer work for the Junior League of Pasadena. She was
a little bit restless at the time. It was expected
in her circles for women to, you know, get married
and have fancy children and have fancy parties, and she
just wasn't interested. She turned down a marriage proposal from
what was considered a smart match um, and inspired by
her mother's relative independence, she insisted on marriage being based
(10:54):
on love. I'm good for you, Julia. Then World War
Two happened and Julia moved to Washington, DC to help
in n but she ran into a snag her height.
Both the woman accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services or WAVES
and Woman's Army Corps w a C rejected her on
(11:16):
the grounds of her being too tall at as Lam
said six ft two inches, So she joined what would
eventually become the CIA, the Office of Strategic Services instead,
as one of the four thousand five women OSS employed.
She started doing mostly clerical work as a research assistant
(11:38):
for the Secret Intelligence Division under the organization's leader, General
William J. Donovan. According to the CIA's website, she typed
up the names of thousands of officers on little white
note cards to keep track of them before you know,
computers and stuff. She had a great drive for for
detail work and organization and this this is thematic. Yes,
(12:00):
but that probably probably sucked. It probably wasn't the most stimulating.
Then in one of my other favorite facts of this episode,
she transferred to the Emergency Sea Rescue Equipment section. M
you ask, what could she be doing there? Developing a
shark repellent. That's right. She helped come up with a
(12:23):
shark repellent that was actually super useful as a coding
for explosives used against German U boats that clumsy sharks
would sometimes bump into and set off. Um from Julia
Child in the book Sister of Spies, I understand the
shark repellent we developed is being used today for down
to space equipment strapped around it so the sharks won't
(12:44):
attack when it lands in the ocean. This is the
only fact I knew about Julia Child going in because
I used to hit videos for Shark Week and I
remembered Julia Child was involved somehow, and I was like, Wow,
what could it be? Now I know Shaker Yes. In four,
Julia Child was sent overseas to Ceylon modern day Sri
(13:07):
Lanka as you might remember from our Cinnamon episode, and
eventually to Kunming, China, where she worked for the OSS
Registry and had top security clearance. She knew the contents
of all incoming and outgoing messages, especially dealing with the
invasion of Malay. During her time at the OSS and Ceylon,
she met her future husband and fellow O s S officer,
(13:31):
Paul Cushing Child. Paul was working designing war rooms for
the generals that were stationed there and and in China.
Their romance was not always assured, however. Paul, who spoke
fluent French, was a black belt in Judo, was an artist,
was ten years older than Julia. In letters to his brother,
Paul described her as wildly emotional and an extremely sloppy thinker,
(13:57):
unable to sustain ideas for very long. Julia was similarly
similarly unimpressed, writing Paul as having light hair which is
not on top, an unbecoming blonde mustache, and a long,
unbecoming nose. Light hair which is not on top might
(14:17):
be my new favorite, Like subtle discs. That's a good one, um.
He was also compared to her six to just five
ft ten inches. However, they both got over these gripes
about each other and were soon in love. Paul now
wrote to his brother, she frankly likes to eat and
(14:37):
user senses and has a keen nose. And she also
washes my shirts. What a dame. They also would bond
over the adventure of trying new foods in China. They
decided to take a few months to get to know
each other in civilian clothes once the World War had ended,
meeting each other's friends and family, traveling across kind country
(15:01):
before getting married in September. Inside note she'd been in
a car accident the previous day and got married with
a bandage on her head. It's actually kind of a
cute picture, um, And Paul was the one who introduced
her to cooking. Previous to meeting him, she pretty much
lived off frozen dinners and once exploded a duck in
(15:21):
the oven and caused a fire, haven't we all? I know,
I've been there. Paul worked for the United States Information
Service after the war and was stationed in the American
Embassy in Paris, France. Julia accompanied him, and on the
way to Paris, they stopped in the town of Rouen
at La Corone, said to be the oldest inn in
the country, and they had a lunch there that Julia
(15:44):
would later call the most exciting meal of my life.
It featured raw oysters, fresh rye, bread and fresh butter sumoniere,
which is a whole fush a whole fish that's cooked
too simply with browned butter and parsley um, a green
salad after the main course, a baguette, cheese and coffee,
and a bottle of white wine, which absolutely shocked shocked Julia,
(16:07):
who was still kind of young at thirty six. Wine
at lunch, My goodness, what an exciting meal. Julia absolutely
adored the experience and fell head over heels for France
and French cuisine, later writing the whole experience was an
opening up of the soul and spirit. For me, I
(16:27):
was hooked and for life, as it turned out. So
that brings us to the beginning of Julia Child's food adventures.
But first let's pause for a quick word from our sponsor,
(16:50):
and we're back, Thank you sponsor. So as Paul and
Julia settled into Paris, they found themselves not quite servantless
that the small two occupant building that they rented floors
on employed a maid, but they were basically cookless. As
they explored the city and especially its restaurants, Julia became
more and more fascinated by French food and culinary culture
(17:14):
and started teaching herself how to cook. She she basically
learned French so that she could communicate with her grocers.
She decided to enroll at the Cordon Blue, which is
a well established hobbyists and sort of pre professional cooking
school in the city, because you know, she finally had
something to be serious about, and she was very serious
about it. She quickly transferred from housewives classes to professional classes,
(17:37):
where she would learn under Chef Max Bulna, who had
learned under the great cuisine chef Augustus Scoffier. She she
had the idea that she might eventually contribute to her
in Paul's household, and you know, keep herself busy by
publishing a cooking pamphlet and teaching cooking classes for other
American expats in Paris in France in general. Um, she
(18:00):
was learning a great deal of technique and kitchen science
at the time. Plus between the connections that she made
through chef bon Jar and Paul's connections via the embassy,
she was getting exposure to the art and culture a
French cuisine. Well, I mean all those connections plus just
both her and Paul's shine. Like the two of them
(18:20):
seem like they were the absolute best folks to have
at parties. I know. I mean Paul speaks ten languages
and does black belt judo, and photographer and a poet.
It's it's very very worldly kind of dude. Um oh.
I should also mention that La Cordon Blue offered demonstrations
in the afternoons and a sort of kitchen theater. Julia
(18:41):
would compare it to to a surgical theater where students
and any civilian with the interest in the money could
come and watch professional chefs and ask questions as they
presented and explained their work. I can check those out. Eventually,
Julia would meet through her friends in France two women
who were working on a cookbook of French cuisine for Americans,
(19:02):
Simone Beck known as Simca and Louisette Bartol. They got
along really well and began offering cooking classes under the
name Icole gormant Uh without the s on the end.
Y'all get the picture. I don't speak French. Uh. Through this, though,
Julia became interested in collaborating on their book, though she
wanted to go even further into detail then Simca and
(19:24):
Louisette had been doing. And her idea here was that
people are intimidated by cooking or not so good at
cooking because they don't have access to what amounts to
the feel of it. She thought that the cold science
approach to cooking that was built up by you know,
aesthetic nutritionists like Kellogg and by function over form home
Mack classes had had left American cooks lacking. They didn't
(19:46):
know that the properties of their ingredients, or why certain
techniques work the way they do, or what a recipe
should look like and feel like during different points in
the process, or or how to troubleshoot any problems that arise.
So starting in the three of them worked researched and
reworked and tested and re reworked every recipe with the
help of Paul and other family and friends on both
(20:07):
sides of the pond. This process would take ten years
and three publishers. UM the first was uncommunicative and they
they never signed a contract. Then UM Houghton Mifflin signed on,
but the deal fell through as deadlines whooshed on by
and the writing started sagging under the weight of its
own detail. Meanwhile, the child's were moving every few years
(20:30):
with Paul's job, from Paris to Marseilles, then Bond then Washington,
d C. Then Oslo and Julia would have to learn
another art along the way, writing in order to make
their their voices and their intentions come through in the book. Finally,
with help from longtime penpal Avis de Voto, the editors
(20:52):
at Not Publishing finally accepted the book, and so the
first volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking published
in nineteen sixty one. Two. Just tremendous praise. That was
our tremendous praise. Noise, Yeah, it was probably much more
enthused than that. Yeah, yeah, that. There were like really
(21:13):
good reviews everywhere. Most people really liked it. It's old
a bunch. Paul had retired early from the Foreign Service
a year earlier, and the childs were living in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Paul had designed the kitchen with Julia's tremendous collection of
cookery and equally tremendous sense of organization in mind. There
were outlines on the pegboard walls for every pot and
(21:34):
every favorite device, and magnetic strips on the walls for knives,
and raised counters to accommodate Julia's height. That's awesome. Then,
in nineteen sixty two, as Julia was working on volume
two of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, she was
invited to speak about it on local public television station
w g b H on a show about books UM,
(21:55):
a live lit interview kind of show. She brought along
a few props and showed showed viewers how to make
an omelet. The station received twenty seven letters about it.
Seven it was it was unheard of at the time.
It was very it was very impressive. UM. The station
asked if she would consider filming a pilot for a
cooking series. The pilot was such a such a success
(22:16):
with their with their producers that they signed on for
twenty six black and white episodes of The French Chef,
which went into production in nineteen sixty three and would
continue filming on and off for nine years and over
two hundred episodes, eventually moving to color in nineteen seventy.
And it was a little bit ramshackle starting out. Um
Paul took up various roles backstage. He was the sieux Chef.
(22:39):
He basically created all the museum, plus he did he
did most of the washing of the dishes. They eventually
had a volunteer crew members to help out, some half
a dozen to a dozen women, who Julia called her
associate cooks and would introduce by saying, it's so much
more fun to cook with friends. Don't you think I
agree with that? Right? Um? To avoid the expensive editing,
(23:01):
they filmed these half hour episodes each in one continuous take,
But because troubleshooting was always part of Julia's kind of
concepts as a cooking teacher, they only ever had to
stop and reshoot maybe like half a dozen times. Ever,
that's astounding, I know. Uh. Child would turn mistakes into
(23:22):
into teaching moments UM. Like when I when a gelatine
began losing its shape after unmolding, she said, never apologize.
Nobody knows what you're aiming at, so just bring it
to the table. When the butter for a recipe hadn't
been taken out to soften before filming, she just explained
what to do when that happens. And of course there's
the famous potato pancake incident during a flip. This thing
(23:43):
just escaped her pan and wound up on the counter
and she just sort of scooped it back in. You
can always pick it up. And if you're alone in
the kitchen, who's going to see? She's not wrong? Right?
Why we've all done it? Wise and beautiful words. The
title The French Chef was chosen because it fit easily
onto a single line in the TV guide. I mean
(24:06):
makes sense. She didn't really like it. She she felt
badly about positing herself as either French or a chef
when really she was an American cook. Total difference um.
At any rate, the show was hugely popular. Child was
basically the first celebrity to emerge from public broadcasting, and
she was the first PBS Personality to win an Emmy.
(24:26):
It was also the first show to include captions for
the hearing impaired, and it said that the popularity of
this basically made public television possible. Wow. Also, people seem
to have the idea that Child was often drinking during filming. UM,
but Paul In one of the show's producers, Ruth Lockwood,
maintain that that any antics that appear on film are
(24:48):
really just Julia being Julia and uh, and they arose
out of spontaneity. Lockwood once said, there's a sort of
rough script, but there's just no telling what's going to happen.
We always say it's thely real suspense show on television. UM.
Although Child often did appear with a wine glass on camera,
rumor has it that the glass contained watered down gravy master,
(25:10):
a dark colored sauce seasoning. She wasn't really drinking it, Okay,
that's about to say, is she doing gravy? My world?
That was a strong stuff, and it's it's been suggested
that that all of this happened at just the right time.
You know, the elegant Kennedy's were employing a French chef
in their White House kitchen. And there's still a little
(25:32):
bit of a post war Francophilia that was influencing American culture,
and and TV broadcasting technology and home TV set technology.
We're really coming into their own and and the American
zeitgeist was leaning towards these modern, exciting interpretations of of
physicality and sensuality, and and here was this woman showing
you that all of that was within reach, and that
(25:53):
you didn't even have to be poised or perfect, you
just had to be willing to try. Within a couple
of years, the French Chef was syndicated to over ninety stations,
and Mastering had sold hundreds of thousands of copies. It
was a legit phenomenon, and it was changing the way
that Americans thought about food and cooking. Speaking of technology,
(26:14):
Julia embraced it. Gadgets electronic or analog, from non stick
pans to food processors to the microwave, anything that could
make things more simple or less laborious. She was in
four and she had always been a bit of a
gadget feendto their stories of her just haunting shops around
Paris and buying way too many things, filling up all
of their kitchens wasn't she a bit of a knife
(26:36):
fiend as well? Oh yeah, they had hundreds. She had
one she called the Monster or something, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Yeah.
She also had a bag that had all of her
oh the Sacred bag. Yeah. She would carry it around
with her on on tour into into sets, and it
would have just these like essential items, like there was
this one measuring cup made of bone that she just
(26:57):
really liked. She was like, this one, this one is important.
You know, you have your go to things, I understand,
but also stuff like extension cords because you know, filmmaking,
you need you need them. Meanwhile, the child had built
a vacation home in Provence, which they spent as much
time and was allowed. She was writing a lot, working
(27:18):
on a book based on her TV series and on
Volume two of Mastering. At the time, she was struggling
with cancer and Paul with various cardiovascular issues, but but
both of them just kind of moved through it with
the sort of joy de viv that both of them embodied.
She would wind up moving away from her working relationship
though with with Simca and Louisette. Both of them had
different ideas about how best to work with recipes and
(27:41):
even what French cooking really meant. Julia also implied that
her sudden fame in America made her relationship with Simca tents,
but she would wear a badge from their cooking school
that at called atual Gormand for the entire run of
The French Chef. After The French Chef ended, Child would
go on to do a number of other shows for
public television, preferring to quote stick with the educators, and
(28:04):
she would write companion books for each of them. For
a couple she actually filmed in her own Cambridge home,
necessitating a rig to be mounted to the ceiling for lights.
The two that I think are particularly of note are
The Way to Cook, which is this extensive book from
nine with an accompanying myriad of videotapes that have since
(28:24):
been put on DVD. There's like hundreds of chapters. It's great.
Um also her collaborations with other celebrity chef and a
personal friend, Jacques pa penn Uh, including the nine Ish
series Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home, in which they
improvised their recipes. That sounds so fun. Oh, they're they're
terrific together, Like they had this amazing banter on screen.
(28:46):
They would, you know, if his back was turned, she
would add butter. If her back was turned, he would
add garlic. It was really cute anyway. Um Child would
also do numerous cooking demonstrations at local colleges and on tour,
both alone and with folks like Jack. She sounds like
she was a very genuine person. She supposedly had her
(29:08):
her name and phone number in the local phone book
in Cambridge and answered her her own phone. Her her
publisher was stunned by this. You know a people. She
said that people like like locals would call in and
ask her for help with a recipe, and she would
just give it to them. She's like the first iteration
of the butter ball hotline, Oh much, I'm sure, far sup,
(29:30):
You're well, I don't know, I don't sorry butter ball,
I don't know anything about it. But but perhaps perhaps less.
I think it's okay if you're less delightful than Julia Child.
I agree, she sounds very delightful. We have a few
more delightful tidbits about her, but first we've got another
quick break for a word from our sponsor, and we're back.
(30:01):
Thank you sponsor. In Julia Child joined the CIA, No,
not that one, the Culinary Institute of America. She later
became the first woman inducted into their Hall of Fame.
And this wasn't the only award Child would receive, Oh No.
She was awarded the Lugean Don Donneur from Jack Papa
(30:24):
in two thousand and In two thousand three, George W.
Bush awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I'm not
sure if it counts as an award, but SNL did
a sketch of the French Chef with Child portrayed by
Dan Ackroyd in ninety eight in in the In the sketch,
she turns a slip of the knife into one of
those teaching moments, spraying the set with blood and walking
(30:44):
the audience through making a tourniquet out of like available
chicken scraps. It's it's real grizzly and real gross and
and hilarious. Julia said that she loved it and kept
taped copy of the sketch by her television at all times. UM.
She also received an honorary doctorate from Harvard in after
her eightieth birthday. UM. The inscription was a Harvard friend
(31:07):
and neighbor who was filled the air with common sense
and uncommon sense. Long may her souflet's rise. That's pretty excellent,
good words. She donated two thousand, five hundred books and
other papers to the Library of Gastronomic Literature there, which
is the largest cookbook collection in the country, or at
least it was at the time. And thanks to the
(31:28):
two thousand one donation from Julia, you can see the
kitchen Paul designed at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
It's got three viewpoints and loads of memos, framed recipes,
various articles, and a television of course, playing her show
on a loop. Uh. In two thousand two, a blogger
(31:48):
began working her way through the entirety of mastering the
art of French cooking, which became the inspiration for a
novel and then the film Julie and Julia in two
thousand nine, starring Meryl Streep. Her biography says it's Streep
reincarnated a child MHM. The relationship and marriage between Julia
and Paul is often pointed to as being ahead of
(32:10):
its time. Once Julia's show became successful, Paul supported her
in her career, testing all the recipes, acting as an agent,
washing the dishes, all those things we said. This was
unusual for the time. In Julia Child's own words, middle
class women did not have careers. You were to marry
and have children and be a nice mother. You didn't
go out and do anything. Paul's attitude toward the whole
(32:31):
thing could be summed up with this quote, how fortunate
we are at this moment in our lives, each doing
what he most wants, in a marvelous, marvelously adapted place,
close to each other, superbly fed and housed with excellent health.
He devoted most of his time to helping Julia succeed
in the later part of their lives in her endeavors
and um. The New York Times wrote in a nineteen
(32:53):
seventy four profile of Julia Child that Paul suffered from
no apparent insecurities of male He would tour with her,
and at one press conference. At that New York Times
article references they were both encouraging newcomers to cooking to
be daring. Paul said they should not be afraid of
hard work. Julia said cooking wasn't really hard once he
(33:16):
mastered the essential techniques. Paul said that mastering the techniques
required much hard work. It just sounds so cute. Um
he would he would pass away in n at the
age of ninety two, and she would follow ten years
later in two thousand four, two days before her ninety
second birthday, what was meant to be a birthday party
turned into a wake and a celebration of her life
(33:39):
before she died, though, Julius at the stage for one
last public series of sorts, the Julia Child Foundation for
Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts. It's a nonprofit based in
Santa Barbara, where Julia moved just a few years before
her death, and it makes grants and awards to other
nonprofits and schools and individuals to support historical research, gen
(34:00):
culinary training and food writing and food literacy. And uh,
we're kind of getting to the to the wrap up
point of the episode if you couldn't tell, So, I
wanted to do a quick shout out to two of
the sources that I drew on extensively for some of
this history. Um. One is a memoir that Julia Child
wrote with her grand nephew, Alex prulom Um called My
Life in France, and the other is a biography that
(34:22):
Child came to like well enough that she would actually
sign copies of um frequently alongside the author. It's called
Appetite for Life, and that's by Noel Riley Fitch. There
are really numerous biographies of her, including her relationship with cats,
but but those are the two that I glommed onto. Um.
And let's let's end with the quote, maybe I find
(34:44):
Julia Child just endlessly quotable. UM. I found one from
just before her death in two thousand four from Time
magazine that I think kind of sums everything up. Food
is very friendly. Just looking at a potato, I like
to pat it. There's something so pleasant about a big
baking potato or a whole bunch of peas in their shells.
To me, the kitchen has never stopped being a place
(35:06):
just full of possibilities and pleasures. That's lovely. Oh yeah,
she I mean there's so much about her. Um. If
you don't, if you're like me and you don't know
too much about her, there's so much out there. Yeah, um,
you can you can also, uh, you can watch a
number of her things on either PBS or YouTube if
(35:27):
you if you're so inclined. Um, and uh, I don't know.
I I'm I'm a little bit for clemped, like I like,
I don't usually get nervous before I come into the studio,
but I got genuinely nervous coming in. I was like,
Julia is going to be listening, she can hear me.
I don't want to let her down. Um yeah, it's
it's it's I find her very inspiring to watch because
(35:49):
she's so so just in control of everything in a
very wild and entertaining way. So if you haven't, if
you haven't seen too much video ever, check her out.
Once you've seen a few episodes, maybe check out that
Dana Acroid skit. It's really great. Yeah, and that brings
us to the end of this our classic episode. We
(36:10):
hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did,
and we were working We got a lot of things
in the works, including hopefully soon fairy Tale Food. It's
a lot of you have written in and said that
you're looking for that, you want more episodes like that,
and we heard you and we're working towards it. Yes,
(36:32):
it is. It is happening, but not necessarily in a
creepy way. But maybe I don't know, but I guess
it depends on your point of view. Really from a
certain point of view. Again, we just give you the information.
We can't we can't tell you what to do with
the information. Ones you have a definitely true, definitely true
(36:53):
um and thanks to all the listeners have been writing
in and sharing what projects you're working on. We love
it and we would love for you to keep that up.
You can email us at hello at savor pod dot com,
or you can get in touch with us on social media.
We are on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at saver pod,
and we do hope to hear from you. Savor is
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
(37:13):
Heart Radio, you can visit the i Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and
Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope
that lots more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome favorite production of I Heart Radio. I'm
Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vocalbaum, and today we've got
a classic episode for you about Julia Child, one of
our favorites, but particularly for you, Laura. Yes, absolutely well,
Julia Child is is one of my favorite UM figures
and doing this episode was just an absolute joy. I
(00:30):
got super for clumped during it. In this time of
of isolation. UM, I I like sort of like like
rage watched Julia and Julia the other days it is
dreaming on Netflix. UM. And by rage watch, I mean
that Meryl Streep is a beacon of beauty in that film.
(00:50):
And uh, and the Julie character nothing to say against
Amy Adams portrayal, but the Julie character is just one
of my least favorite characters and all of them. Oh
so that's why that's where the rage comes in. That's
where the rage comes in. Yeah, the half of the
movie that is about Julia Child is ridiculously delightful. M
(01:11):
Stanley Tucci playing Paul is also amazing. But but but
but yeah, no, it's it's there's I'm just like, man,
that human seems like not a human that I want
to hang out with Well, luckily you don't have to,
that's true. Yeah, I hope to. I hope Julie isn't
(01:32):
listening to this. Sorry, sorry about it. The film doesn't
portray you in a nice light. I was thinking the
other day, I have no intention to do this, but like,
if you had ever wanted to do the thing that
she does in that movie, which is sort of recreate
all those recipes, right, yeah, like like all like five
hundred and whatever recipes from Mastering the Art of French
(01:54):
Cooking in a single year, so three and sixty five days. Yeah. Wow.
So if that was a project you want to undertake
but hadn't had the time or motivation, I mean maybe
that's that's something you could pick up now. Yeah, yeah,
no time like the present, I suppose. I mean, assuming
that you have like a like good access to to
(02:16):
all those groceries, that's true. Yeah, well you know that
could be an interesting thing too, where like I've had
to make some very fascinating substitutions. Some have worked out,
some have not worked out very much, decidedly not worked out.
But yeah, I like the experimenting aspect of it. Yeah, absolutely, Um,
it is definitely bringing out Um, yes, the innovator in me,
(02:41):
I would say, yes, yes, we are all innovators in
the kitchen. Now, gosh, it's true, it's true. But um yeah.
So so this episode originally aired in the before time
in October UM, and it's actually sort of timely that
we are running it again because a documentary about Julia
(03:01):
Child is currently in production and just this past Friday,
Sony Pictures Classics acquired worldwide rights to it. Um is
being created by the filmmakers who who got that Oscar
nominee last year for the RBG documentary, the Ruth Bader
Ginsburg Documentary. UM and yeah. It should be out next
year and should feature like archival footage that has never
(03:23):
been seen before by the public, plus some personal photos
um and interviews with Julia's family and friends. Uh and yeah.
It's being made in cooperation with them and also with
the Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts.
So looking forward to that one, yeah, totally. And speaking
of the foundation, they just made a fifty thou dollar
(03:44):
grant to World Central Kitchens Chefs for America program, which
is um that thing that Jose Andres Is is running
to help restaurants that have shuddered during COVID nineteen. UM
provide meals to people who are in need of meals,
um and and he he was recipient of the Julia
Child Award from the Foundation, So it all kind of
fits together, but super lovely. UM also shout out to
(04:08):
the Julia Child Foundation's podcast Inside Julia's Kitchen, which is
a lovely show that if you guys have not listened to,
I think you should. There you go a lot of
entertainment recommendations in this one. So yeah, yeah, like it's
some recommendations and some like I don't know if you
want to watch that thing. I want to do with
(04:32):
this information what you will? Yes, yes, we have provided information.
Now you must decide. But all right, I guess we
should get into our classic uh yeah, yeah, taken away
former Annie and Lauren. Hello, welcome to food Stuff. I'm
(05:01):
Lauren Vogelbon and I'm Annie Reese and today it's the
Julia Child episode. Yes, it's finally here. Laurens so excited.
I am. Oh, I'm freaking out just a little bit.
But okay, okay, So you know, we we have intended
to start doing a series of sort of biographical episodes
about famous food personalities, chefs, uh and and other humans. Yes,
(05:22):
and Julia Child is a great place to start. So
what is it? Nope, force of habit but brief bio
in case you don't know. Julia Child was a best
selling author, well known TV chef personality and CIA operative
kind of. She was well known for her love of
(05:45):
French food and she was quite quite, quite quite popular. Um.
There have been movies about her, me Meryl Street playter,
um TV shows made about her, and I think one's
about to come out Julia Cool. Yeah, so she made
quite the impact. Yes, and she she to be super honest,
dear listeners. She made quite an impact on me. I
(06:06):
grew up with my my My father was a chef
and a cook, and my mom was a huge fan
of cooking, and so I grew up watching Julia Child
when I was a child, and watching her videos now
still elicits this extreme nostalgia response. It just makes me
so happy because she's she's so joyous about cooking. She's
so capable and and very physical. She just beats the
(06:31):
crap out of stuff continually, but in a useful way.
And I don't know her whole attitude is is just
very positive. Yes, And I actually knew very little about
Julia Child, so this has been quite a joyous thing
for me to learn about her. So let's let's start
with her early life. Julia Child was born Julia Caroline
(06:53):
mick Williams on August nine and Pasadena, California, to John Jr.
And Julia Carol Caroline excuse me McWilliams Nay Weston called
Carol yep. She was the oldest of three children and
went by several pet names like Jukes and Juju. Her
father was a consultant and financier. He was a second
generation gold pioneer who inherited a lot of his father's
(07:17):
kind of business dealings gold pioneer, and her mother was
the heiress of a paper company from her father and
her father was also the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. Uh.
Julia's great grandparents on her mother's western side might have
known Dr Sylvester Graham. Everyone is connected to doctor Graham.
Oh it's crazy. They lived just a town over from
(07:39):
where Graham did a lot of his preaching. Um. The
Weston family, by the way, also traced back to Plymouth
Rock Like. They were some of the first people to
come over to the United States or to to America.
At the time, it was not yet United through the
Brewster line. Anyway, the mc williams must have been doing
pretty well for themselves because all of their children went
(08:00):
to private schools and the family had a cook and
other servants. Julia was very active and known as a
bit of a prankster at her school um. She was
always tall, taking after her father, and topped out at
six ft two inches. Her sister, Dorothy was six ft three.
Julia was kind of a rabble rouser and a bit
of a ham She always took part in school plays,
(08:21):
though she noted that do perhaps to her height and
the fact that she attended an all girls school, she
was always casts as the man or as a beast,
never the princess. And random fact, on a family trip
to Tijuana, a young Julia encountered Caesar Cardini at his restaurant,
Ak the guy who came up with a Caesar salad.
(08:41):
The dude made the salad table side for them to enjoy,
and years later, when Julia child had become a famous
chef herself, she got Cardini's daughter Rosa to give her
the original recipe. Uh Speaking of food as we are
want to do. Julia's mother, Caro, didn't care for cooking,
so Julia never really touched a kitchen when she was younger.
(09:02):
She she grew up in the kind of family that
eats well, but very plainly. It was also an arrow
when prepackaged foods were kind of trendy. You know, being
able to serve like Hinz mint jelly with your lamb
was a sign of wealth and modernity. Hines mint jelly
in n She graduated from Smith College in Massachusetts with
a b a Bachelor of Arts in history. Her mom
(09:25):
was an alum, and Julia was enrolled at birth day
of her birth and she's enrolled in college okay. After graduation,
she started working for furniture company w n J Sloan
in New York as an ad copywriter. Her goal was
to become a writer, but she wrote in her diary,
I am sadly. I am sadly an ordinary person with
(09:46):
talents I do not use. Yeah, young Julia, harsh on yourself.
She was also very active and outgoing during her college career,
where among things like drama and basketball, she was the
chair of refreshment committee for senior prom and fall dance
and I found this tidbit on the CIA's website. By
the way. Yeah, more on that in a second, but yeah,
(10:09):
So three years would pass before she returned to Pasadena.
She transferred to the Los Angeles w j salone branch,
but she was soon fired for gross and sword in subordination,
which is one of my favorite facts of this whole thing.
I love that. So she started taking ob jobs as
a writer, mostly for various advertising firms, while also doing
(10:31):
volunteer work for the Junior League of Pasadena. She was
a little bit restless at the time. It was expected
in her circles for women to, you know, get married
and have fancy children and have fancy parties, and she
just wasn't interested. She turned down a marriage proposal from
what was considered a smart match um, and inspired by
her mother's relative independence, she insisted on marriage being based
(10:54):
on love. I'm good for you, Julia. Then World War
Two happened and Julia moved to Washington, DC to help
in n but she ran into a snag her height.
Both the woman accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services or WAVES
and Woman's Army Corps w a C rejected her on
(11:16):
the grounds of her being too tall at as Lam
said six ft two inches, So she joined what would
eventually become the CIA, the Office of Strategic Services instead,
as one of the four thousand five women OSS employed.
She started doing mostly clerical work as a research assistant
(11:38):
for the Secret Intelligence Division under the organization's leader, General
William J. Donovan. According to the CIA's website, she typed
up the names of thousands of officers on little white
note cards to keep track of them before you know,
computers and stuff. She had a great drive for for
detail work and organization and this this is thematic. Yes,
(12:00):
but that probably probably sucked. It probably wasn't the most stimulating.
Then in one of my other favorite facts of this episode,
she transferred to the Emergency Sea Rescue Equipment section. M
you ask, what could she be doing there? Developing a
shark repellent. That's right. She helped come up with a
(12:23):
shark repellent that was actually super useful as a coding
for explosives used against German U boats that clumsy sharks
would sometimes bump into and set off. Um from Julia
Child in the book Sister of Spies, I understand the
shark repellent we developed is being used today for down
to space equipment strapped around it so the sharks won't
(12:44):
attack when it lands in the ocean. This is the
only fact I knew about Julia Child going in because
I used to hit videos for Shark Week and I
remembered Julia Child was involved somehow, and I was like, Wow,
what could it be? Now I know Shaker Yes. In four,
Julia Child was sent overseas to Ceylon modern day Sri
(13:07):
Lanka as you might remember from our Cinnamon episode, and
eventually to Kunming, China, where she worked for the OSS
Registry and had top security clearance. She knew the contents
of all incoming and outgoing messages, especially dealing with the
invasion of Malay. During her time at the OSS and Ceylon,
she met her future husband and fellow O s S officer,
(13:31):
Paul Cushing Child. Paul was working designing war rooms for
the generals that were stationed there and and in China.
Their romance was not always assured, however. Paul, who spoke
fluent French, was a black belt in Judo, was an artist,
was ten years older than Julia. In letters to his brother,
Paul described her as wildly emotional and an extremely sloppy thinker,
(13:57):
unable to sustain ideas for very long. Julia was similarly
similarly unimpressed, writing Paul as having light hair which is
not on top, an unbecoming blonde mustache, and a long,
unbecoming nose. Light hair which is not on top might
(14:17):
be my new favorite, Like subtle discs. That's a good one, um.
He was also compared to her six to just five
ft ten inches. However, they both got over these gripes
about each other and were soon in love. Paul now
wrote to his brother, she frankly likes to eat and
(14:37):
user senses and has a keen nose. And she also
washes my shirts. What a dame. They also would bond
over the adventure of trying new foods in China. They
decided to take a few months to get to know
each other in civilian clothes once the World War had ended,
meeting each other's friends and family, traveling across kind country
(15:01):
before getting married in September. Inside note she'd been in
a car accident the previous day and got married with
a bandage on her head. It's actually kind of a
cute picture, um, And Paul was the one who introduced
her to cooking. Previous to meeting him, she pretty much
lived off frozen dinners and once exploded a duck in
(15:21):
the oven and caused a fire, haven't we all? I know,
I've been there. Paul worked for the United States Information
Service after the war and was stationed in the American
Embassy in Paris, France. Julia accompanied him, and on the
way to Paris, they stopped in the town of Rouen
at La Corone, said to be the oldest inn in
the country, and they had a lunch there that Julia
(15:44):
would later call the most exciting meal of my life.
It featured raw oysters, fresh rye, bread and fresh butter sumoniere,
which is a whole fush a whole fish that's cooked
too simply with browned butter and parsley um, a green
salad after the main course, a baguette, cheese and coffee,
and a bottle of white wine, which absolutely shocked shocked Julia,
(16:07):
who was still kind of young at thirty six. Wine
at lunch, My goodness, what an exciting meal. Julia absolutely
adored the experience and fell head over heels for France
and French cuisine, later writing the whole experience was an
opening up of the soul and spirit. For me, I
(16:27):
was hooked and for life, as it turned out. So
that brings us to the beginning of Julia Child's food adventures.
But first let's pause for a quick word from our sponsor,
(16:50):
and we're back, Thank you sponsor. So as Paul and
Julia settled into Paris, they found themselves not quite servantless
that the small two occupant building that they rented floors
on employed a maid, but they were basically cookless. As
they explored the city and especially its restaurants, Julia became
more and more fascinated by French food and culinary culture
(17:14):
and started teaching herself how to cook. She she basically
learned French so that she could communicate with her grocers.
She decided to enroll at the Cordon Blue, which is
a well established hobbyists and sort of pre professional cooking
school in the city, because you know, she finally had
something to be serious about, and she was very serious
about it. She quickly transferred from housewives classes to professional classes,
(17:37):
where she would learn under Chef Max Bulna, who had
learned under the great cuisine chef Augustus Scoffier. She she
had the idea that she might eventually contribute to her
in Paul's household, and you know, keep herself busy by
publishing a cooking pamphlet and teaching cooking classes for other
American expats in Paris in France in general. Um, she
(18:00):
was learning a great deal of technique and kitchen science
at the time. Plus between the connections that she made
through chef bon Jar and Paul's connections via the embassy,
she was getting exposure to the art and culture a
French cuisine. Well, I mean all those connections plus just
both her and Paul's shine. Like the two of them
(18:20):
seem like they were the absolute best folks to have
at parties. I know. I mean Paul speaks ten languages
and does black belt judo, and photographer and a poet.
It's it's very very worldly kind of dude. Um oh.
I should also mention that La Cordon Blue offered demonstrations
in the afternoons and a sort of kitchen theater. Julia
(18:41):
would compare it to to a surgical theater where students
and any civilian with the interest in the money could
come and watch professional chefs and ask questions as they
presented and explained their work. I can check those out. Eventually,
Julia would meet through her friends in France two women
who were working on a cookbook of French cuisine for Americans,
(19:02):
Simone Beck known as Simca and Louisette Bartol. They got
along really well and began offering cooking classes under the
name Icole gormant Uh without the s on the end.
Y'all get the picture. I don't speak French. Uh. Through this, though,
Julia became interested in collaborating on their book, though she
wanted to go even further into detail then Simca and
(19:24):
Louisette had been doing. And her idea here was that
people are intimidated by cooking or not so good at
cooking because they don't have access to what amounts to
the feel of it. She thought that the cold science
approach to cooking that was built up by you know,
aesthetic nutritionists like Kellogg and by function over form home
Mack classes had had left American cooks lacking. They didn't
(19:46):
know that the properties of their ingredients, or why certain
techniques work the way they do, or what a recipe
should look like and feel like during different points in
the process, or or how to troubleshoot any problems that arise.
So starting in the three of them worked researched and
reworked and tested and re reworked every recipe with the
help of Paul and other family and friends on both
(20:07):
sides of the pond. This process would take ten years
and three publishers. UM the first was uncommunicative and they
they never signed a contract. Then UM Houghton Mifflin signed on,
but the deal fell through as deadlines whooshed on by
and the writing started sagging under the weight of its
own detail. Meanwhile, the child's were moving every few years
(20:30):
with Paul's job, from Paris to Marseilles, then Bond then Washington,
d C. Then Oslo and Julia would have to learn
another art along the way, writing in order to make
their their voices and their intentions come through in the book. Finally,
with help from longtime penpal Avis de Voto, the editors
(20:52):
at Not Publishing finally accepted the book, and so the
first volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking published
in nineteen sixty one. Two. Just tremendous praise. That was
our tremendous praise. Noise, Yeah, it was probably much more
enthused than that. Yeah, yeah, that. There were like really
(21:13):
good reviews everywhere. Most people really liked it. It's old
a bunch. Paul had retired early from the Foreign Service
a year earlier, and the childs were living in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Paul had designed the kitchen with Julia's tremendous collection of
cookery and equally tremendous sense of organization in mind. There
were outlines on the pegboard walls for every pot and
(21:34):
every favorite device, and magnetic strips on the walls for knives,
and raised counters to accommodate Julia's height. That's awesome. Then,
in nineteen sixty two, as Julia was working on volume
two of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, she was
invited to speak about it on local public television station
w g b H on a show about books UM,
(21:55):
a live lit interview kind of show. She brought along
a few props and showed showed viewers how to make
an omelet. The station received twenty seven letters about it.
Seven it was it was unheard of at the time.
It was very it was very impressive. UM. The station
asked if she would consider filming a pilot for a
cooking series. The pilot was such a such a success
(22:16):
with their with their producers that they signed on for
twenty six black and white episodes of The French Chef,
which went into production in nineteen sixty three and would
continue filming on and off for nine years and over
two hundred episodes, eventually moving to color in nineteen seventy.
And it was a little bit ramshackle starting out. Um
Paul took up various roles backstage. He was the sieux Chef.
(22:39):
He basically created all the museum, plus he did he
did most of the washing of the dishes. They eventually
had a volunteer crew members to help out, some half
a dozen to a dozen women, who Julia called her
associate cooks and would introduce by saying, it's so much
more fun to cook with friends. Don't you think I
agree with that? Right? Um? To avoid the expensive editing,
(23:01):
they filmed these half hour episodes each in one continuous take,
But because troubleshooting was always part of Julia's kind of
concepts as a cooking teacher, they only ever had to
stop and reshoot maybe like half a dozen times. Ever,
that's astounding, I know. Uh. Child would turn mistakes into
(23:22):
into teaching moments UM. Like when I when a gelatine
began losing its shape after unmolding, she said, never apologize.
Nobody knows what you're aiming at, so just bring it
to the table. When the butter for a recipe hadn't
been taken out to soften before filming, she just explained
what to do when that happens. And of course there's
the famous potato pancake incident during a flip. This thing
(23:43):
just escaped her pan and wound up on the counter
and she just sort of scooped it back in. You
can always pick it up. And if you're alone in
the kitchen, who's going to see? She's not wrong? Right?
Why we've all done it? Wise and beautiful words. The
title The French Chef was chosen because it fit easily
onto a single line in the TV guide. I mean
(24:06):
makes sense. She didn't really like it. She she felt
badly about positing herself as either French or a chef
when really she was an American cook. Total difference um.
At any rate, the show was hugely popular. Child was
basically the first celebrity to emerge from public broadcasting, and
she was the first PBS Personality to win an Emmy.
(24:26):
It was also the first show to include captions for
the hearing impaired, and it said that the popularity of
this basically made public television possible. Wow. Also, people seem
to have the idea that Child was often drinking during filming. UM,
but Paul In one of the show's producers, Ruth Lockwood,
maintain that that any antics that appear on film are
(24:48):
really just Julia being Julia and uh, and they arose
out of spontaneity. Lockwood once said, there's a sort of
rough script, but there's just no telling what's going to happen.
We always say it's thely real suspense show on television. UM.
Although Child often did appear with a wine glass on camera,
rumor has it that the glass contained watered down gravy master,
(25:10):
a dark colored sauce seasoning. She wasn't really drinking it, Okay,
that's about to say, is she doing gravy? My world?
That was a strong stuff, and it's it's been suggested
that that all of this happened at just the right time.
You know, the elegant Kennedy's were employing a French chef
in their White House kitchen. And there's still a little
(25:32):
bit of a post war Francophilia that was influencing American culture,
and and TV broadcasting technology and home TV set technology.
We're really coming into their own and and the American
zeitgeist was leaning towards these modern, exciting interpretations of of
physicality and sensuality, and and here was this woman showing
you that all of that was within reach, and that
(25:53):
you didn't even have to be poised or perfect, you
just had to be willing to try. Within a couple
of years, the French Chef was syndicated to over ninety stations,
and Mastering had sold hundreds of thousands of copies. It
was a legit phenomenon, and it was changing the way
that Americans thought about food and cooking. Speaking of technology,
(26:14):
Julia embraced it. Gadgets electronic or analog, from non stick
pans to food processors to the microwave, anything that could
make things more simple or less laborious. She was in
four and she had always been a bit of a
gadget feendto their stories of her just haunting shops around
Paris and buying way too many things, filling up all
of their kitchens wasn't she a bit of a knife
(26:36):
fiend as well? Oh yeah, they had hundreds. She had
one she called the Monster or something, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Yeah.
She also had a bag that had all of her
oh the Sacred bag. Yeah. She would carry it around
with her on on tour into into sets, and it
would have just these like essential items, like there was
this one measuring cup made of bone that she just
(26:57):
really liked. She was like, this one, this one is important.
You know, you have your go to things, I understand,
but also stuff like extension cords because you know, filmmaking,
you need you need them. Meanwhile, the child had built
a vacation home in Provence, which they spent as much
time and was allowed. She was writing a lot, working
(27:18):
on a book based on her TV series and on
Volume two of Mastering. At the time, she was struggling
with cancer and Paul with various cardiovascular issues, but but
both of them just kind of moved through it with
the sort of joy de viv that both of them embodied.
She would wind up moving away from her working relationship
though with with Simca and Louisette. Both of them had
different ideas about how best to work with recipes and
(27:41):
even what French cooking really meant. Julia also implied that
her sudden fame in America made her relationship with Simca tents,
but she would wear a badge from their cooking school
that at called atual Gormand for the entire run of
The French Chef. After The French Chef ended, Child would
go on to do a number of other shows for
public television, preferring to quote stick with the educators, and
(28:04):
she would write companion books for each of them. For
a couple she actually filmed in her own Cambridge home,
necessitating a rig to be mounted to the ceiling for lights.
The two that I think are particularly of note are
The Way to Cook, which is this extensive book from
nine with an accompanying myriad of videotapes that have since
(28:24):
been put on DVD. There's like hundreds of chapters. It's great.
Um also her collaborations with other celebrity chef and a
personal friend, Jacques pa penn Uh, including the nine Ish
series Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home, in which they
improvised their recipes. That sounds so fun. Oh, they're they're
terrific together, Like they had this amazing banter on screen.
(28:46):
They would, you know, if his back was turned, she
would add butter. If her back was turned, he would
add garlic. It was really cute anyway. Um Child would
also do numerous cooking demonstrations at local colleges and on tour,
both alone and with folks like Jack. She sounds like
she was a very genuine person. She supposedly had her
(29:08):
her name and phone number in the local phone book
in Cambridge and answered her her own phone. Her her
publisher was stunned by this. You know a people. She
said that people like like locals would call in and
ask her for help with a recipe, and she would
just give it to them. She's like the first iteration
of the butter ball hotline, Oh much, I'm sure, far sup,
(29:30):
You're well, I don't know, I don't sorry butter ball,
I don't know anything about it. But but perhaps perhaps less.
I think it's okay if you're less delightful than Julia Child.
I agree, she sounds very delightful. We have a few
more delightful tidbits about her, but first we've got another
quick break for a word from our sponsor, and we're back.
(30:01):
Thank you sponsor. In Julia Child joined the CIA, No,
not that one, the Culinary Institute of America. She later
became the first woman inducted into their Hall of Fame.
And this wasn't the only award Child would receive, Oh No.
She was awarded the Lugean Don Donneur from Jack Papa
(30:24):
in two thousand and In two thousand three, George W.
Bush awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I'm not
sure if it counts as an award, but SNL did
a sketch of the French Chef with Child portrayed by
Dan Ackroyd in ninety eight in in the In the sketch,
she turns a slip of the knife into one of
those teaching moments, spraying the set with blood and walking
(30:44):
the audience through making a tourniquet out of like available
chicken scraps. It's it's real grizzly and real gross and
and hilarious. Julia said that she loved it and kept
taped copy of the sketch by her television at all times. UM.
She also received an honorary doctorate from Harvard in after
her eightieth birthday. UM. The inscription was a Harvard friend
(31:07):
and neighbor who was filled the air with common sense
and uncommon sense. Long may her souflet's rise. That's pretty excellent,
good words. She donated two thousand, five hundred books and
other papers to the Library of Gastronomic Literature there, which
is the largest cookbook collection in the country, or at
least it was at the time. And thanks to the
(31:28):
two thousand one donation from Julia, you can see the
kitchen Paul designed at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
It's got three viewpoints and loads of memos, framed recipes,
various articles, and a television of course, playing her show
on a loop. Uh. In two thousand two, a blogger
(31:48):
began working her way through the entirety of mastering the
art of French cooking, which became the inspiration for a
novel and then the film Julie and Julia in two
thousand nine, starring Meryl Streep. Her biography says it's Streep
reincarnated a child MHM. The relationship and marriage between Julia
and Paul is often pointed to as being ahead of
(32:10):
its time. Once Julia's show became successful, Paul supported her
in her career, testing all the recipes, acting as an agent,
washing the dishes, all those things we said. This was
unusual for the time. In Julia Child's own words, middle
class women did not have careers. You were to marry
and have children and be a nice mother. You didn't
go out and do anything. Paul's attitude toward the whole
(32:31):
thing could be summed up with this quote, how fortunate
we are at this moment in our lives, each doing
what he most wants, in a marvelous, marvelously adapted place,
close to each other, superbly fed and housed with excellent health.
He devoted most of his time to helping Julia succeed
in the later part of their lives in her endeavors
and um. The New York Times wrote in a nineteen
(32:53):
seventy four profile of Julia Child that Paul suffered from
no apparent insecurities of male He would tour with her,
and at one press conference. At that New York Times
article references they were both encouraging newcomers to cooking to
be daring. Paul said they should not be afraid of
hard work. Julia said cooking wasn't really hard once he
(33:16):
mastered the essential techniques. Paul said that mastering the techniques
required much hard work. It just sounds so cute. Um
he would he would pass away in n at the
age of ninety two, and she would follow ten years
later in two thousand four, two days before her ninety
second birthday, what was meant to be a birthday party
turned into a wake and a celebration of her life
(33:39):
before she died, though, Julius at the stage for one
last public series of sorts, the Julia Child Foundation for
Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts. It's a nonprofit based in
Santa Barbara, where Julia moved just a few years before
her death, and it makes grants and awards to other
nonprofits and schools and individuals to support historical research, gen
(34:00):
culinary training and food writing and food literacy. And uh,
we're kind of getting to the to the wrap up
point of the episode if you couldn't tell, So, I
wanted to do a quick shout out to two of
the sources that I drew on extensively for some of
this history. Um. One is a memoir that Julia Child
wrote with her grand nephew, Alex prulom Um called My
Life in France, and the other is a biography that
(34:22):
Child came to like well enough that she would actually
sign copies of um frequently alongside the author. It's called
Appetite for Life, and that's by Noel Riley Fitch. There
are really numerous biographies of her, including her relationship with cats,
but but those are the two that I glommed onto. Um.
And let's let's end with the quote, maybe I find
(34:44):
Julia Child just endlessly quotable. UM. I found one from
just before her death in two thousand four from Time
magazine that I think kind of sums everything up. Food
is very friendly. Just looking at a potato, I like
to pat it. There's something so pleasant about a big
baking potato or a whole bunch of peas in their shells.
To me, the kitchen has never stopped being a place
(35:06):
just full of possibilities and pleasures. That's lovely. Oh yeah,
she I mean there's so much about her. Um. If
you don't, if you're like me and you don't know
too much about her, there's so much out there. Yeah, um,
you can you can also, uh, you can watch a
number of her things on either PBS or YouTube if
(35:27):
you if you're so inclined. Um, and uh, I don't know.
I I'm I'm a little bit for clemped, like I like,
I don't usually get nervous before I come into the studio,
but I got genuinely nervous coming in. I was like,
Julia is going to be listening, she can hear me.
I don't want to let her down. Um yeah, it's
it's it's I find her very inspiring to watch because
(35:49):
she's so so just in control of everything in a
very wild and entertaining way. So if you haven't, if
you haven't seen too much video ever, check her out.
Once you've seen a few episodes, maybe check out that
Dana Acroid skit. It's really great. Yeah, and that brings
us to the end of this our classic episode. We
(36:10):
hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did,
and we were working We got a lot of things
in the works, including hopefully soon fairy Tale Food. It's
a lot of you have written in and said that
you're looking for that, you want more episodes like that,
and we heard you and we're working towards it. Yes,
(36:32):
it is. It is happening, but not necessarily in a
creepy way. But maybe I don't know, but I guess
it depends on your point of view. Really from a
certain point of view. Again, we just give you the information.
We can't we can't tell you what to do with
the information. Ones you have a definitely true, definitely true
(36:53):
um and thanks to all the listeners have been writing
in and sharing what projects you're working on. We love
it and we would love for you to keep that up.
You can email us at hello at savor pod dot com,
or you can get in touch with us on social media.
We are on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at saver pod,
and we do hope to hear from you. Savor is
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
(37:13):
Heart Radio, you can visit the i Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and
Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope
that lots more good things are coming your way.
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Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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