August 20, 2022 • 15 mins
Even the most famous and lauded among us still have a few tasty secrets up their sleeves, and today we’re going to dive into this fascinating side of one of modern cookings most famous gourmands: Julia Child.
-------------------
Thank you to Athletic Greens for being a sponsor for this episode.
To make it easy, Athletic Greens will give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit www.athleticgreens.com/EMERGING to take ownership of your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance!
-------------------
Please support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/foodhistorypod
Find transcripts and sources on the website: www.foodhistorypodcast.com
-------------------
References:
https://allthatsinteresting.com/julia-child-spy
https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/julia-child-and-the-oss-recipe-for-shark-repellent/
https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/julia-child-cooking-up-spy-ops-for-oss/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/05/02/julia-child-hbo-oss-sharks/
https://www.history.com/news/julia-child-oss-spy-wwii-shark-repellent
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fantastic-history-of-food--3591729/support.
-------------------
Thank you to Athletic Greens for being a sponsor for this episode.
To make it easy, Athletic Greens will give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit www.athleticgreens.com/EMERGING to take ownership of your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance!
-------------------
Please support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/foodhistorypod
Find transcripts and sources on the website: www.foodhistorypodcast.com
-------------------
References:
https://allthatsinteresting.com/julia-child-spy
https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/julia-child-and-the-oss-recipe-for-shark-repellent/
https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/julia-child-cooking-up-spy-ops-for-oss/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/05/02/julia-child-hbo-oss-sharks/
https://www.history.com/news/julia-child-oss-spy-wwii-shark-repellent
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fantastic-history-of-food--3591729/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I'd hazard a guess that if you'relistening to the show, then at some
point in your life, you mayhave heard of the acclaimed queen of French
cuisine, Julia Child. Like manyof you, I too have seen the
movie Julie and Julia, where JuliaChild was portrayed by the magnificent Meryl Streep.
Like a fair amount feur of you, I too have tried cooking a
few of Julia's recipes on a lazySunday afternoon before the emergence of little toddler
(00:24):
fingers made having raw meat and sharpknives around less of an option. But
even with all of this knowledge andexperience of Julia Child, I too was
amazed to find out via my friendMelissa over at Bewilderbeast's podcast, that Julia,
before her foray into the culinary world, worked as a World War two
spy, and she came up witha recipe for shark repellent. It seems
(00:47):
that even the most famous and lordedamong us still have a few tasty secrets
up their sleeves. And today we'regoing to dive into this fascinating side of
one of modern cooking's most famous gourmands. Welcome to the fantastic History of food.
Strange but true stories from history thatin some way involved food. I'm
(01:11):
your host, Nick Charlie Key.Julia Child was born Julia Caroline McWilliams on
the fifteenth of August nineteen twelve inPasadena, California. Her family was incredibly
wealthy, as her father was asuccessful banker and her mother was the heiress
(01:34):
to the Western Paper Company of Massachusetts. It's safe to say they didn't struggle
financially, as happens with the childrenof the elite and wealthy. She received
the very best education money could buyand attended the Catherine Branson's School for Girls.
As you may or may not alreadyknow about her, Julia was an
incredibly tall woman, standing at sixft two inches tall or just under a
(01:59):
one hundred ninety centimeters. This meantshe excelled in her time as the captain
of the woman's basketball team, andgave her a sturdy frame with which to
also become the president of the school'shiking club. She would go on to
attend the all female Smith College,where her most notable contribution was policing the
college's well manicured lawns, making surethat no unruly student stepped foot on them.
(02:22):
She herself felt that she was wastingher life somewhat, and once wrote
in her diary, I am sadlyan ordinary person with talents I do not
use. She had no real ambitionto make much of herself, as she
had no need for money or influence, both of which had been bestowed upon
her at birth. She went onto take a secretarial course, but left
(02:43):
after just a month when she wasoffered the job of secretary at W.
J. Sloan, a furniture companyin New York City. Four years later,
she was fired after a catastrophic mixup with some important company documents.
But in a strange twist of fate, it would be the emergence of the
United States a patient in World WarTwo that would forever change her life.
(03:04):
It was September nineteen forty one,just three months before the US would officially
enter the war, and Julia wantedto make herself useful to the cause.
She began volunteering at the Pasadena chapterof the American Red Cross, where she
put her secretarial skills to good use, heading up the Department of Stenographic Services.
Stenography is still mostly used in courtroomstoday, but was the method of
(03:25):
taking down notes and meeting minutes aspeople spoke in a shorthand writing style,
often using symbols to represent words orphrases in order to keep up with the
pace of the speakers. When theUnited States joined the war proper, Julia
was unfortunately rejected for military combat rolesbecause of her unusual height. But this
(03:45):
wouldn't stop her, as for thefirst time in her life she had begun
to feel a sense of purpose inher work. So in nineteen forty two
she would move divisions and become asenior typist with the research unit of the
Office of War Information in Washington,and then by the end of that same
year, she would join the SecretIntelligence branch of the Office of Strategic Services,
otherwise known simply as the OSS.This was the agency that would later
(04:11):
become would we know today as theCIA. In another sideways move across departments,
Julia would end up working for theEmergency cea rescue equipment section of the
Navy. It was by now nineteenforty three and sharks had become a major
(04:32):
concern for naval operations, not leastbecause of the media's sudden interest in it.
In reality, for the first threeyears of the war, they had
only been around twenty incidents of sharkattacks on sailors and downed pilots who had
found themselves caught in shark infested waters. But for the media, this was
the perfect story to latch onto forits gruesome details and the almost supernatural fear
(04:54):
that sharks could inspire in people.Families back home began to fear sharks or
as much as they feared the Nazis. The Navy knew it had to do
something, and so it turned tothe OSS for help in finding a solution
to their shark problem. Scientists hadalready by this point been working for years
to find a solution to scare offthe toothy predators, but nothing they tried
(05:15):
seemed to work. A new taskteam was set up, which included a
scientist from Harvard named Coolidge and aNatural History Museum researcher named Henry Field.
Coolidge would ask Julia to join themin concocting something that would finally work.
Julia Child and her team would endup testing more than one hundred substances,
including common poisons, decaying shark meat, acid, and various other chemical combinations,
(05:42):
but it would be a full yearbefore they would hit upon something that
finally began to show some promise.In true Julia style, they were small
cakes, but these cakes were madeof copper acetate mixed with black dye.
Research showed that it was the closestthing they could reproduce to how dead sharks
smelled to other sharks, and wasa lot more effective for some reason,
than when they had actually just useddead sharks in their earlier tests. The
(06:05):
military wasn't one hundred percent sold onthe idea, but the recipe was put
into action and slowly released to soldiersin the midst of World War Two.
These copper acetate cakes were attached tosailor's life vests and were also given to
airmen to rubble themselves should they crashland in the water. There was a
feeling among the higher ups that evenif it wasn't as effective as it claimed
(06:26):
to be, the placebo effect ofit at least calmed the men down and
gave them more hope of survival thanthey may otherwise have had. As the
war dragged on, they began touse these shark repellent cakes for more than
just personnel uses. Hungry sharks hada nasty habit of nibbling on sea mines
intended for German and Japanese submarines aswell as other naval vessels. This would,
(06:48):
of course result in the swift andblinding demise of the unfortunate shark,
but also meant the navy was losingmines unnecessarily at a rapid rate, so
they began coating these underwater minds inthe same substance with which the cakes were
made, in order to prevent theuntimely death of some hungry and inquisitive sharks.
(07:12):
One of today's sponsors is Athletic Greens. So what is Athletic Greens.
Well, with one delicious scoop ofAthletic Greens, you're absorbing seventy five high
quality vitamins, minerals, whole foodsourced superfoods, probiotics and adaptogens to help
you start your day right. Thisspecial blend of ingredients supports your gut health,
your nervous system, your immune system, your energy, your recovery,
(07:35):
your focus and aging. And bestof all, it's lifestyle friendly. So
whether you follow aquito paleo, vegan, dairy free or gluten free, diet
Athletic Greens fits into all of them. It costs less than three dollars a
day, and for every purchase,Athletic Greens donates to organizations helping to get
(07:56):
nutritious food to kids in need,including No Kid Hungry in the US.
In twenty twenty, Alane Athletic Greensdonated over one point two million meals to
kids. Right now, it's timeto reclaim your health and arm your immune
system with a convelient daily nutrition.It's just one scoop in a cup of
water every day. That's it.No need for a million different pearls and
(08:18):
supplements to look out for your health. To make it easy, Athletic Greens
is going to give you a freeone year supply of immune supporting Vitamin D
and five free travel packs with yourfirst purchase. All you have to do
is visit Athletic Greens dot com slashEmerging Again that's Athletic Greens dot com slash
(08:39):
em E R G I n Gto take ownership over your health and pick
up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance.Junior Child's time spent in the OSS helped
her flourish into the woman with aforceful personality that we have all come to
know. It was here in Hington, d c. That she left behind
(09:01):
her feelings of inadequacy and normalcy andbuilt creativity and confidence in abundance. She
was awarded the Emblem of Meritorious CivilianService for her efforts during the war,
and was recognized for her resourcefulness,industry, and good judgment. After the
war, the OSS would place herat multiple stations overseas, spending time in
(09:22):
China, India, and Sri Lanka, the latter of which being where she
would meet and then ultimately fall inlove with her future husband, Paul Child,
a fellow OSS officer. They weresoon married and packed their bags to
begin a new life together in Paris. Paul was reassigned to work for the
US Information Agency in nineteen forty eight, and it was during this time that
(09:43):
Julia was left to run the household. It was at this point that she
realized, with a sense of shameand horror, that because of her privileged
upbringing, she had never learned anyof the basic skills of homemaking, foremost
of which was her lack of anycooking skills. She knew she wanted to
change this, and before fell headover heels in love with French cuisine.
(10:05):
She often recalled where it all began. Her husband, Paul, had traveled
extensively before they had met, andso had a fine appreciation for a variety
of cuisines. It was because ofhim that one night, early into their
stay in France, he took Juliato a fine dining restaurant in Rouenne called
La Couron French for the Crown.She describes that night as a culinary revelation
(10:28):
and the meal of oysters, soulmunier and fine wine as an opening up
of the soul and spirit. Shewas hooked and wanted to not just consume
these dishes, but also to createthem. She decided that the only thing
for it was to enroll in oneof the most prestigious cooking schools in all
of France and quite possibly the worldat the time, named La cordon Bleux.
(10:50):
Julia was quoted as saying that onher first day of school, all
she knew how to do was boiledthe water to make a cup of tea.
She took to the school like aduck to water, and when she
wasn't in class, she spent hourswandering through the Parisian food markets, purchasing
all manner of local ingredients to experimentwith at home. Once she had graduated
from La cordon Bleu, she wouldgo on to study under a range of
(11:13):
French master chefs, including Max Bonard. She even joined a woman's cooking club
called La Cercle de Gomez, asit was here that fate would intervene in
(11:33):
her life. During one of theclub meetings, she met a woman named
Simone Beck, who was in themiddle of writing a cookbook aimed at an
American audience with her friend Louisette Bertoile. They brought Julia Child on initially as
a consultant for the American audience,but quickly she took to toiling away in
the kitchen, coming up with herown recipes for the first manuscript. Soon
(11:56):
they were offering cooking classes for Americanwomen write in their test kitchen, and
called their informal cooking classes the Schoolof the Three Food Lovers. All the
while they were cooking, testing,writing, and updating their seminal masterpiece.
It would take ten long years beforetheir hard work would pay off and the
book would get picked up by amajor publisher. In that decade, Julia
(12:18):
had moved around Europe with her husband'sassignments and had settled finally in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. A large part of Julia'srole was translating the French recipes accurately and
simply into English, making sure thatthe recipes were detailed, interesting and practical.
Upon its release, Mastering the Artof French Cooking was a smash hit
(12:39):
and had cemented the three women intothe culinary history books Forever. America was
already going through a phase of lovingeverything French, with a particular focus on
its cuisine, so the book landedat the perfect time to rarely explode onto
the scene. The success of thecookbook and Julia's sudden rise to a household
name quickly led to her being offeredher own looking show on television. While
(13:01):
we are inundated with cooking shows,celebrity chefs and the like nowadays, she
was a pioneer in this field,which had not seen anything quite like it
before. She had an easy manneron camera, her trademark singsong voice,
and her commanding stature all led toher being instantly recognizable anywhere she went.
In the years between nineteen sixty threeand nineteen sixty nine, she would record
(13:24):
one hundred and ninety nine episodes ofher show The French Chef. She would
go on to write many more cookbooks, would co found institutes such as the
American Institute of Wine and Food,as well as the Julia Child Foundation for
Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts. Shewas famous for putting flavor and enjoyment above
any semblance of healthy dieting, whichwas shown most notably in her generous use
(13:46):
of butter in all of her cooking. The Child would end up building a
home near Provence in the French countryside, high up in the hills above Cans.
They would name their cottage La Pitchun, a local word meaning the little
One. She would go on towrite cookbooks and star in many television shows
throughout the rest of her life untilthe ripe old age of ninety two,
(14:07):
when she passed away in Montecito,California. In two thousand and four.
Her final book, My Life inFrance, ends with some fantastic words with
which I would like to end thisepisode, she wrote, Thinking back on
it now, it reminds me thatthe pleasures of the table and of life
are infinite. To Joe's born empathy. Thank you for listening to this episode
(14:45):
of the Fantastic History of Food.If you'd like to get in touch,
you can find us on Twitter atfood History Pod. If you enjoyed this
episode, I'd really appreciate you takinga moment to rate the show on Apple
Podcasts or whatever platform you listen on, and if you and leave a review
as well. I also have aPatreon account where you can support the show
and get access to exclusive content,bonus episodes, and even the chance to
(15:09):
choose the topic for an upcoming episode. But all of this is only for
our Patreon subscribers. Everyone who donatesor subscribes will also get a personal shout
out from me on an upcoming episode. Check out our website where you can
find transcripts, show notes, andreferences for each and every episode at food
History podcast dot com.
I'd hazard a guess that if you'relistening to the show, then at some
point in your life, you mayhave heard of the acclaimed queen of French
cuisine, Julia Child. Like manyof you, I too have seen the
movie Julie and Julia, where JuliaChild was portrayed by the magnificent Meryl Streep.
Like a fair amount feur of you, I too have tried cooking a
few of Julia's recipes on a lazySunday afternoon before the emergence of little toddler
(00:24):
fingers made having raw meat and sharpknives around less of an option. But
even with all of this knowledge andexperience of Julia Child, I too was
amazed to find out via my friendMelissa over at Bewilderbeast's podcast, that Julia,
before her foray into the culinary world, worked as a World War two
spy, and she came up witha recipe for shark repellent. It seems
(00:47):
that even the most famous and lordedamong us still have a few tasty secrets
up their sleeves. And today we'regoing to dive into this fascinating side of
one of modern cooking's most famous gourmands. Welcome to the fantastic History of food.
Strange but true stories from history thatin some way involved food. I'm
(01:11):
your host, Nick Charlie Key.Julia Child was born Julia Caroline McWilliams on
the fifteenth of August nineteen twelve inPasadena, California. Her family was incredibly
wealthy, as her father was asuccessful banker and her mother was the heiress
(01:34):
to the Western Paper Company of Massachusetts. It's safe to say they didn't struggle
financially, as happens with the childrenof the elite and wealthy. She received
the very best education money could buyand attended the Catherine Branson's School for Girls.
As you may or may not alreadyknow about her, Julia was an
incredibly tall woman, standing at sixft two inches tall or just under a
(01:59):
one hundred ninety centimeters. This meantshe excelled in her time as the captain
of the woman's basketball team, andgave her a sturdy frame with which to
also become the president of the school'shiking club. She would go on to
attend the all female Smith College,where her most notable contribution was policing the
college's well manicured lawns, making surethat no unruly student stepped foot on them.
(02:22):
She herself felt that she was wastingher life somewhat, and once wrote
in her diary, I am sadlyan ordinary person with talents I do not
use. She had no real ambitionto make much of herself, as she
had no need for money or influence, both of which had been bestowed upon
her at birth. She went onto take a secretarial course, but left
(02:43):
after just a month when she wasoffered the job of secretary at W.
J. Sloan, a furniture companyin New York City. Four years later,
she was fired after a catastrophic mixup with some important company documents.
But in a strange twist of fate, it would be the emergence of the
United States a patient in World WarTwo that would forever change her life.
(03:04):
It was September nineteen forty one,just three months before the US would officially
enter the war, and Julia wantedto make herself useful to the cause.
She began volunteering at the Pasadena chapterof the American Red Cross, where she
put her secretarial skills to good use, heading up the Department of Stenographic Services.
Stenography is still mostly used in courtroomstoday, but was the method of
(03:25):
taking down notes and meeting minutes aspeople spoke in a shorthand writing style,
often using symbols to represent words orphrases in order to keep up with the
pace of the speakers. When theUnited States joined the war proper, Julia
was unfortunately rejected for military combat rolesbecause of her unusual height. But this
(03:45):
wouldn't stop her, as for thefirst time in her life she had begun
to feel a sense of purpose inher work. So in nineteen forty two
she would move divisions and become asenior typist with the research unit of the
Office of War Information in Washington,and then by the end of that same
year, she would join the SecretIntelligence branch of the Office of Strategic Services,
otherwise known simply as the OSS.This was the agency that would later
(04:11):
become would we know today as theCIA. In another sideways move across departments,
Julia would end up working for theEmergency cea rescue equipment section of the
Navy. It was by now nineteenforty three and sharks had become a major
(04:32):
concern for naval operations, not leastbecause of the media's sudden interest in it.
In reality, for the first threeyears of the war, they had
only been around twenty incidents of sharkattacks on sailors and downed pilots who had
found themselves caught in shark infested waters. But for the media, this was
the perfect story to latch onto forits gruesome details and the almost supernatural fear
(04:54):
that sharks could inspire in people.Families back home began to fear sharks or
as much as they feared the Nazis. The Navy knew it had to do
something, and so it turned tothe OSS for help in finding a solution
to their shark problem. Scientists hadalready by this point been working for years
to find a solution to scare offthe toothy predators, but nothing they tried
(05:15):
seemed to work. A new taskteam was set up, which included a
scientist from Harvard named Coolidge and aNatural History Museum researcher named Henry Field.
Coolidge would ask Julia to join themin concocting something that would finally work.
Julia Child and her team would endup testing more than one hundred substances,
including common poisons, decaying shark meat, acid, and various other chemical combinations,
(05:42):
but it would be a full yearbefore they would hit upon something that
finally began to show some promise.In true Julia style, they were small
cakes, but these cakes were madeof copper acetate mixed with black dye.
Research showed that it was the closestthing they could reproduce to how dead sharks
smelled to other sharks, and wasa lot more effective for some reason,
than when they had actually just useddead sharks in their earlier tests. The
(06:05):
military wasn't one hundred percent sold onthe idea, but the recipe was put
into action and slowly released to soldiersin the midst of World War Two.
These copper acetate cakes were attached tosailor's life vests and were also given to
airmen to rubble themselves should they crashland in the water. There was a
feeling among the higher ups that evenif it wasn't as effective as it claimed
(06:26):
to be, the placebo effect ofit at least calmed the men down and
gave them more hope of survival thanthey may otherwise have had. As the
war dragged on, they began touse these shark repellent cakes for more than
just personnel uses. Hungry sharks hada nasty habit of nibbling on sea mines
intended for German and Japanese submarines aswell as other naval vessels. This would,
(06:48):
of course result in the swift andblinding demise of the unfortunate shark,
but also meant the navy was losingmines unnecessarily at a rapid rate, so
they began coating these underwater minds inthe same substance with which the cakes were
made, in order to prevent theuntimely death of some hungry and inquisitive sharks.
(07:12):
One of today's sponsors is Athletic Greens. So what is Athletic Greens.
Well, with one delicious scoop ofAthletic Greens, you're absorbing seventy five high
quality vitamins, minerals, whole foodsourced superfoods, probiotics and adaptogens to help
you start your day right. Thisspecial blend of ingredients supports your gut health,
your nervous system, your immune system, your energy, your recovery,
(07:35):
your focus and aging. And bestof all, it's lifestyle friendly. So
whether you follow aquito paleo, vegan, dairy free or gluten free, diet
Athletic Greens fits into all of them. It costs less than three dollars a
day, and for every purchase,Athletic Greens donates to organizations helping to get
(07:56):
nutritious food to kids in need,including No Kid Hungry in the US.
In twenty twenty, Alane Athletic Greensdonated over one point two million meals to
kids. Right now, it's timeto reclaim your health and arm your immune
system with a convelient daily nutrition.It's just one scoop in a cup of
water every day. That's it.No need for a million different pearls and
(08:18):
supplements to look out for your health. To make it easy, Athletic Greens
is going to give you a freeone year supply of immune supporting Vitamin D
and five free travel packs with yourfirst purchase. All you have to do
is visit Athletic Greens dot com slashEmerging Again that's Athletic Greens dot com slash
(08:39):
em E R G I n Gto take ownership over your health and pick
up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance.Junior Child's time spent in the OSS helped
her flourish into the woman with aforceful personality that we have all come to
know. It was here in Hington, d c. That she left behind
(09:01):
her feelings of inadequacy and normalcy andbuilt creativity and confidence in abundance. She
was awarded the Emblem of Meritorious CivilianService for her efforts during the war,
and was recognized for her resourcefulness,industry, and good judgment. After the
war, the OSS would place herat multiple stations overseas, spending time in
(09:22):
China, India, and Sri Lanka, the latter of which being where she
would meet and then ultimately fall inlove with her future husband, Paul Child,
a fellow OSS officer. They weresoon married and packed their bags to
begin a new life together in Paris. Paul was reassigned to work for the
US Information Agency in nineteen forty eight, and it was during this time that
(09:43):
Julia was left to run the household. It was at this point that she
realized, with a sense of shameand horror, that because of her privileged
upbringing, she had never learned anyof the basic skills of homemaking, foremost
of which was her lack of anycooking skills. She knew she wanted to
change this, and before fell headover heels in love with French cuisine.
(10:05):
She often recalled where it all began. Her husband, Paul, had traveled
extensively before they had met, andso had a fine appreciation for a variety
of cuisines. It was because ofhim that one night, early into their
stay in France, he took Juliato a fine dining restaurant in Rouenne called
La Couron French for the Crown.She describes that night as a culinary revelation
(10:28):
and the meal of oysters, soulmunier and fine wine as an opening up
of the soul and spirit. Shewas hooked and wanted to not just consume
these dishes, but also to createthem. She decided that the only thing
for it was to enroll in oneof the most prestigious cooking schools in all
of France and quite possibly the worldat the time, named La cordon Bleux.
(10:50):
Julia was quoted as saying that onher first day of school, all
she knew how to do was boiledthe water to make a cup of tea.
She took to the school like aduck to water, and when she
wasn't in class, she spent hourswandering through the Parisian food markets, purchasing
all manner of local ingredients to experimentwith at home. Once she had graduated
from La cordon Bleu, she wouldgo on to study under a range of
(11:13):
French master chefs, including Max Bonard. She even joined a woman's cooking club
called La Cercle de Gomez, asit was here that fate would intervene in
(11:33):
her life. During one of theclub meetings, she met a woman named
Simone Beck, who was in themiddle of writing a cookbook aimed at an
American audience with her friend Louisette Bertoile. They brought Julia Child on initially as
a consultant for the American audience,but quickly she took to toiling away in
the kitchen, coming up with herown recipes for the first manuscript. Soon
(11:56):
they were offering cooking classes for Americanwomen write in their test kitchen, and
called their informal cooking classes the Schoolof the Three Food Lovers. All the
while they were cooking, testing,writing, and updating their seminal masterpiece.
It would take ten long years beforetheir hard work would pay off and the
book would get picked up by amajor publisher. In that decade, Julia
(12:18):
had moved around Europe with her husband'sassignments and had settled finally in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. A large part of Julia'srole was translating the French recipes accurately and
simply into English, making sure thatthe recipes were detailed, interesting and practical.
Upon its release, Mastering the Artof French Cooking was a smash hit
(12:39):
and had cemented the three women intothe culinary history books Forever. America was
already going through a phase of lovingeverything French, with a particular focus on
its cuisine, so the book landedat the perfect time to rarely explode onto
the scene. The success of thecookbook and Julia's sudden rise to a household
name quickly led to her being offeredher own looking show on television. While
(13:01):
we are inundated with cooking shows,celebrity chefs and the like nowadays, she
was a pioneer in this field,which had not seen anything quite like it
before. She had an easy manneron camera, her trademark singsong voice,
and her commanding stature all led toher being instantly recognizable anywhere she went.
In the years between nineteen sixty threeand nineteen sixty nine, she would record
(13:24):
one hundred and ninety nine episodes ofher show The French Chef. She would
go on to write many more cookbooks, would co found institutes such as the
American Institute of Wine and Food,as well as the Julia Child Foundation for
Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts. Shewas famous for putting flavor and enjoyment above
any semblance of healthy dieting, whichwas shown most notably in her generous use
(13:46):
of butter in all of her cooking. The Child would end up building a
home near Provence in the French countryside, high up in the hills above Cans.
They would name their cottage La Pitchun, a local word meaning the little
One. She would go on towrite cookbooks and star in many television shows
throughout the rest of her life untilthe ripe old age of ninety two,
(14:07):
when she passed away in Montecito,California. In two thousand and four.
Her final book, My Life inFrance, ends with some fantastic words with
which I would like to end thisepisode, she wrote, Thinking back on
it now, it reminds me thatthe pleasures of the table and of life
are infinite. To Joe's born empathy. Thank you for listening to this episode
(14:45):
of the Fantastic History of Food.If you'd like to get in touch,
you can find us on Twitter atfood History Pod. If you enjoyed this
episode, I'd really appreciate you takinga moment to rate the show on Apple
Podcasts or whatever platform you listen on, and if you and leave a review
as well. I also have aPatreon account where you can support the show
and get access to exclusive content,bonus episodes, and even the chance to
(15:09):
choose the topic for an upcoming episode. But all of this is only for
our Patreon subscribers. Everyone who donatesor subscribes will also get a personal shout
out from me on an upcoming episode. Check out our website where you can
find transcripts, show notes, andreferences for each and every episode at food
History podcast dot com.
Popular Podcasts
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com