Julia McWIlliams Child, the woman who brought French cooking to America, fell in love with France as generations have fallen in love with her. Born on August 15, 1912 in Pasadena into a wealthy family that had very very tall children. Julia would attend Smith College and due to her 6” 2 ‘ frame she was perfect for the basketball team but would also play golf, tennis and even act. Graduating with a degree in history in 1934 she wanted to become a writer and moved to New York to chase her dreams but her vision of being the next big novelist wasn’t in the cards. Instead she settled for working in the advertising department for the W & J Sloane furniture firm.
As World War II broke out she wanted to join the Women’s Army Corp but due to her height she was turned away. Joining the Office of Strategic Services, the OSS that would later become the CIA, she worked directly with the head of the OSS. She would also assist in creating a shark repellent, yes you read that right. Apparently the sharks were getting too curious with the underwater explosives and would set them off so a repellent was needed to keep them away.
The job with the OSS would take her to Sri Lanka where she would meet Paul Child in the summer of 1944. Paul was ten years older than her and a man of the world. He had lived for a short time in Paris where he painted and enjoyed the amazing food and wine and Julia found him fascinating. Julia herself was a delight and even was awarded for her “inherent cheerfulness” in the OSS.
The couple married on September 1, 1946 in Lumberville, Pennsylvania. The day before they were in a minor traffic accident and in true Juila and Paul fashion it didn’t stop them even in bandages. For their first meal as man and wife, Julia who never really cooked before decided to really take a leap by cooking calf brains in red wine. Paul was such a love, but they both found it horrible, luckily her skills would vastly improve.
In October of 1948 Paul was offered a job with the OSS in Paris setting up the visual presentation department building the Franco-American relations. Paul was an avid photographer as well as artists so it was the perfect job for him. At 4:45am on November 3, 1948 they arrived in Le Havre to begin one of the most exciting chapters of their lives. Complete with “the Blue Flash”, their Buick station wagon packed with everything they needed, they headed towards Paris. Stopping in Rouen for lunch at the Restaurant La Couronne, one of the oldest restaurants in France dating back to 1345. It was at that meal that she enjoyed her first French baguette, cheese and sole meunière, the dish that would change her entire life.
Early in the evening they arrived in Paris and to their apartment at 81 rue de l’Universite or Roo de Loo as she called it. The two floor apartment with its wonderful large windows was the perfect place to start their French adventure. Filling the days was the hardest part for Julia. Playing bridge and making hats was a bore to her and she wanted something more fulfilling. As a post war wife who didn’t know how to cook she enrolled in the Cordon Bleu much to the chagrin of Madame Elisabeth Brassart. Madame Brassart enrolled her in the general class for housewives that was not challenging to Julia at all and spoke with her again. With her powers of persuasion she convinced Mme Brassart to let her join the chefs class taught by Max Bugnard. Filled with only men, she would win them all over and begin a close friendship with Max Bugnard.
During her years at the Cordon Bleu she joined Le Cercle des Gourmettes and met Simca Beck and Louisette Bertholle, two French women who were writing a French cookbook for Americans. The trio hit it off and started their own small cooking school, L'école des Trois Gourmandes. Offering classes out of Julia’s kitchen for 20 francs, they immediately drew women to their classes and became a hit with the expat Americans in Paris. Simca and Louisette constantly filled Julia in on the trouble they were having with their American consultant and asked Julia to help them with their book.
The project would take up all of her time, researching every detail and testing each recipe over and over and as the only English speaker took over all the writing. It would take almost ten years to complete the book filled with ups and downs with publishers, moving to Marseilles, Germany and Oslo and finally on October 16. 1961 Mastering the Art of French Cooking was released.
Having returned to the US, Paul retired from the OSS and spent his days helping Julia and focusing on his art and taking photos. Traveling around the country promoting the book, she met James Beard and Jacques Pépin and of course her cheerful demeanor created life long friendships.
In February 1962 she was invited to appear on the WGBH show I’ve Been Reading in Boston. Given a thirty minute spot she had no idea how to fill the time so she decided to bring a copper bowl, whisk, eggs and mushrooms. During the show she whipped up an omelet and after the station was flooded with letters and calls asking for more. WGBH asked Julia to come back for three, half hour episodes which was the basis of The French Chef. Premiering on July 26, 1962 it ran for ten years and 191 episodes. Today you can stream every one of them on the PBS app online. Julia would appear in 11 different tv shows and was on tv every week from 1963 - 2000.
The Child’s hearts were always in France and in 1963 after a long visit to Simca’s home in Plascassier, a small Provincial town near Grasse in the south of France they were given the greatest gift. Simca and her husband offered them part of their land for their own home. La Pitchoune was built and was the perfect place for the Child’s to escape too but also for Julia and Simca to work on volume two. Today you can rent that home on Airbnb and have your own Julia Child moment cooking up a quiche or coq au vin.
On October 22, 1970 Mastering the Art of French Cooking volume two was released after many years of work by Simca and Julia and a diligent timeline by Judith Jones. On the road, filming tv shows and writing more books kept Julia busy and Paul was more than happy to follow along.
In October of 1974 after having some healthy issues, Paul was diagnosed with having had a small heart attack. The years were followed by chest pains and his brain that was getting foggier as time went on. The love that they had for each other was more important than any book or tv show. Paul was the ultimate support to her at a time when it was the role of a woman to stay home and raise children.
In 1989 Paul had a series of strokes that forced his move to a nursing home. Heartbroken at the idea of being apart, no matter where she was in the world she would call him on the phone every day at 2pm. Paul would die on May 12, 1994, the love of her life would be gone.
After his death she packed up their Cambridge home and moved to Montecito, California where she would stay the rest of her life. In her final years she sat down with her nephew Alex Prud’homme and her stack of many letters between Paul and his brother and wrote her final book about their years in France. My Life in France released after her death is a lovely stroll through their love of each other and of France.
On August 13, 2004 just two days before her birthday she would die of kidney failure. The night before her final meal would be a bowl of her beloved soupe a l’oignon. I remember waking up that day to the news that she died and gasped and cried and that was long before I fell in love with her.
In 2001, Julia donated her entire Cambridge kitchen to the Smithsonian institute complete with the peg board that organized her pots and pans and the raised counters Paul designed just for her.
In 2009, Meryl Streep portrayed her in Julie & Julia based on her book My Life in France. The movie does an amazing job depicting their life and love in Paris and Meryl Streep brings her back to life. I could watch that movie, especially the Julia parts hundreds of times.
Julia was in her late 30’s when she discovered the meaning of her life and would follow it until she took her last breath. So many of the women we talk about in the podcast lived in the shadows of their husbands and even watched them take credit for what they did. Paul Child couldn’t have loved her more and supported her to become the Julia Child that dreamed of sharing her love of France with generations to come. Thank you Paul and Julia.
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