Child, Julia (1912-2004), was a beloved American chef, author, and television personality. She was perhaps best known for hosting several cooking programs on American public television.
Child was born Julia Carolyn McWilliams on Aug. 15, 1912, in Pasadena, California. She graduated from Smith College in 1934. She then worked in advertising and publicity for several years. After the start of World War II in 1939, Julia joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a United States intelligence agency. Her assignments took her to Southeast Asia and to China. She met her husband, Paul Cushing Child, an OSS mapmaker, in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
After the war ended in 1945, Paul Child joined the U.S. Information Service. In 1948, he was assigned to the American Embassy in Paris. There, Julia studied at the Cordon Bleu, a famous school of French cooking. She soon joined with two French cooks, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, to form a cooking school. The three also began writing a cookbook together. The book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, was published in 1961. Julia’s appearance on a book review program led to her first television series, “The French Chef,” which ran from 1963 to 1972.
Julia Child went on to host several other television series. She shared the spotlight with other notable chefs in many of these series, which included “Julia Child and Company” (1978-1979), “In Julia’s Kitchen with the Master Chefs” (1995-1996), “Baking with Julia” (1996-1997), and “Julia Child & Jacques Pepin Cooking at Home” (1999-2000). Nearly all of her television series were accompanied by a cookbook of the same title. Child’s other books include From Julia Child’s Kitchen (1975) and Julia Child’s Menu Cookbook (1991). She wrote Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom (2000) with David Nussbaum. Child died on Aug. 13, 2004. A film about Child’s life, Julie & Julia, was released in 2009.
See also France (Food and drink) .
