Julia Child (1912–2004)
Author of My Life in France
About the Author
Julia Child was born in Pasadena, California on August 15, 1912. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Smith College in 1934 and served with the Office of Strategic Services in East Asia during World War II. After the war, Child lived in Paris for six years, attending the famous show more Cordon Bleu cooking school. After graduating from cooking school, Child opened her own culinary institute called, L'Ecole des Trois Gourmandes with her friends Simone Bech and Louisette Bertholle. She achieved critical acclaim with her first cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking which was first published in 1961 and is still in print today and helped to popularized French cuisine in America. Starting in 1963, Child hosted the first of many award winning cooking series on PBS, where she was best known for her exuberant personality and flamboyant cooking style. Her other books include The French Chef Cookbook; From Julia Child's Kitchen; and The Way to Cook. She also filmed an instructional video series on cooking and wrote columns for various magazines and newspapers. She died of kidney failure on August 13, 2004 at the age of 91. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Belongs to Eat Life Photos
Series
Works by Julia Child
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I: 50th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook 956 copies, 8 reviews
Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking (2000) — Author — 918 copies, 3 reviews
As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto (2010) — Author — 631 copies, 15 reviews
Julia Child: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations (The Last Interview Series) (2019) 26 copies, 1 review
Julia's Delicious Little Dinners: Six perfect small dinner parties to share with family and friends. (1998) 23 copies
Julia's Menus for Special Occasions: Six menus for special celebrations--from a cocktail party to a buffet dinner. (1998) 17 copies
Italian Food 3 copies
The French Chef [TV series] 3 copies
McCall's – July 1978 — Contributor — 1 copy
The French Chef Set 1 1 copy
The French Chef Set 2 1 copy
Associated Works
Baking with Julia: Savor the Joys of Baking with America's Best Bakers (1996) — Original PBS Series — 985 copies, 9 reviews
Beard on Food: The Best Recipes and Kitchen Wisdom from the Dean of American Cooking (1974) — Introduction, some editions — 258 copies, 1 review
Eat, Memory: Great Writers at the Table: A Collection of Essays from the New York Times (2008) — Contributor — 170 copies, 6 reviews
The Artist's Table: A Cookbook by Master Chefs Inspired by Paintings in the National Gallery of Art (1995) — Contributor — 37 copies
An American Feast : A Celebration of Cooking on Public Television (1999) — Foreword; Contributor — 35 copies
Wine, Food & The Arts: Works Gathered By the American Institute of Wine and Food. Volume One — Introduction, some editions — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Child, Julia Carolyn
- Other names
- McWilliams, Julia Carolyn
- Birthdate
- 1912-08-15
- Date of death
- 2004-08-13
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Pasadena, California, USA
- Place of death
- Santa Barbara, California, USA
- Cause of death
- Kidney failure
- Places of residence
- Pasadena, California, USA
Paris, France
New York, New York, USA
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Santa Barbara, California, USA
Marseille, France (show all 7)
Washington, D.C., USA - Education
- Smith College (B.A., history, 1934)
- Occupations
- cookbook writer
television host - Relationships
- Child, Paul (husband)
Prud'homme, Alex (nephew)
Jones, Judith B, (editor) - Organizations
- Office of Strategic Services (WWII)
Smith College - Awards and honors
- Legion d'Honneur (2000)
Presidential Medal of Freedom (2003)
Emblem of Meritorious Civilian Service - Agent
- William Loverd
- Short biography
- Julia Child was born in Pasadena, California. She was graduated from Smith College and worked for the OSS during World War II in Ceylon and China, where she met Paul Child. After they married they lived in Paris, where she studied at the Cordon Bleu and taught cooking with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, with whom she wrote the first volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961). In 1963, Boston's WGBH launched The French Chef television series, which made her a national celebrity, earning her the Peabody Award in 1965 and an Emmy in 1966. Several public television shows and numerous cookbooks followed.
Members
Reviews
My Life in France by Child, Julia, Prud'Homme, Alex… by Child
What a fun story of Julia Child's life and her adventures. She was an amazing woman, whom I admire very much.
I Just could not get into this book. I didn't even make it all the way through because I just don't care enough. I look forward to hearing everyone else's review on Tuesday :D (yes, Heather! See you there!!)
This memoir of Julia Child’s association with France is like hearing her talk. If you have watched her shows you can hear her voice coming through every page. She does an introduction on how the material was gathered and some background on her life before France. The book covers the years of 1948 to 1954 in depth and then gives a broader perspective as she intermittently goes to France or meets with friends and co-writers in the following years. When Paul retires from the Foreign Service they settle in Boston and then lease some land from friends in Provence and build a vacation home there. This was a wonderfully anecdotal history of her adaptation to the French lifestyle and her love for French food, leading first to establishing a cooking school and then the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The amount of work that went into creating the cookbook was monumental. Lovely book.… (more)
This was a very enjoyable reread. I love being taken to France with Julia and I love thinking about all that wonderful food. I wouldn't want to do all that cooking, however. I think the writing is adequate, but the story it tells is brilliant.
(written earlier) This is a re-read for me. I just watched the film Julie and Julia (for the umpteenth time) and thought I'd take another look at the original Julia Child book. The other one, by Julie Powell, I didn't like when I began reading it a few years ago and never finished. But this one has been on my favorites shelf at home since I first read it, and those books usually do well with a second (or third) reading. So far, so good.… (more)
(written earlier) This is a re-read for me. I just watched the film Julie and Julia (for the umpteenth time) and thought I'd take another look at the original Julia Child book. The other one, by Julie Powell, I didn't like when I began reading it a few years ago and never finished. But this one has been on my favorites shelf at home since I first read it, and those books usually do well with a second (or third) reading. So far, so good.… (more)
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Statistics
- Works
- 50
- Also by
- 11
- Members
- 17,890
- Popularity
- #1,229
- Rating
- 4.2
- Reviews
- 295
- ISBNs
- 168
- Languages
- 14
- Favorited
- 24
