"Julia Child, Famous Cook, Dies at 91"

[gotbeer]

Julia Child, Famous Cook, Dies at 91

The Associated Press

Friday, August 13, 2004; 11:09 AM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62684-2004Aug13.html?referrer=email

NEW YORK (AP) -- Julia Child, whose warbling, encouraging voice and able hands brought the intricacies of French cuisine to American home cooks through her television series and books, died in her sleep three days before what would have been her 92nd birthday.

"America has lost a true national treasure," Nicholas Latimer, director of publicity for Alfred A. Knopf publishing, said in a statement Friday. "She will be missed terribly."

The statement said she died Thursday at her home in Santa Barbara, Calif. The cause of death was not given.

A 6-foot-2 American folk hero, "The French Chef" was known to her public as Julia, and preached a delight not only in good food but in sharing it, ending her landmark public television lessons at a set table and with the wish, "Bon appetit."

"Dining with one's friends and beloved family is certainly one of life's primal and most innocent delights, one that is both soul-satisfying and eternal," she said in the introduction to her seventh book, "The Way to Cook." "In spite of food fads, fitness programs, and health concerns, we must never lose sight of a beautifully conceived meal."

Chipper and unpretentious, she beckoned everyone to give good food a try. She wasn't always tidy in the kitchen, and just like the rest of us, she sometimes dropped things or had trouble getting a cake out of its mold.

In an A-line skirt and blouse, and an apron with a dish towel tucked into the waist, Julia Child grew familiar enough to be parodied by Dan Aykroyd on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" and the subject of Jean Stapleton's musical revue, "Bon Appetit." She was on the cover of Time magazine in 1966.

Active and a frequent traveler in her 80s, Child credited good genes and a habit begun in her 40s of eating everything in moderation.

Susy Davidson, a consultant who worked with Child on "Good Morning America," called Child's friendship a great gift.

"She's helped me redefine age, No. 1," Davidson once said. "She is the standard by which I judge all professionals. She's always eager to learn something, to try something new. She just has this generosity of spirit."

She was foremost a teacher and never lost sight of the goal set out in volume one of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking": "Anyone can cook in the French manner anywhere, with the right instruction. Our hope is that this book will be helpful in giving that instruction."

Like her friend James Beard, Child was influenced but not battered by the popularity of fast food, low-fat food, health food.

She aimed "The Way to Cook" at a new generation and while it offered plenty of recipes using butter and cream, it left room for experimentation and variation in its blend of classic French and free-style American techniques. It was a hit, with nearly 400,000 copies in print just four months after publication.

She worried, however, that the health craze was overdone.

"What's dangerous and discouraging about this era is that people really are afraid of their food," she told The Associated Press in 1989. "Sitting down to dinner is a trap, not something to enjoy. People should take their food more seriously. Learn what you can eat and enjoy it thoroughly."

Child did not take a cooking lesson until she was in her 30s. And she was in her 50s when her first television series began in 1963.

[gotbeer]

Over at the National Review, they commented:

JULIA CHILD RIP [Jonathan H. Adler]
Go eat something tasty (and fattening) in her honor.
Posted at 10:53 AM
http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/04_08_08_corner-archive.asp#037868

Gotbeer: It is a shame that the butter- and cream-loving Julia is being remembered as a "fattening" chef. Her cakes and pastries, maybe. But her main dishes were for the most part both healthy and divine.

Rest well, Julia, and thank you for all the meat.

[gotbeer]

from http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Entertainment/US/julia_child_obit_040813-3.html

Not one to be put down, though, Child rallied against the food police, insisting that everything was fine in moderation. Her secret to a long life, she often said, was "red meat and gin."

"Now we're eating all this fat-free, fake stuff, and we're getting fat anyway because we're not satisfied," she once told People.

[brobin]

Truely a loss for the culinary world. At least we will always have her books with those great recipes.

Brobin

[IslandGirl]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62684-2004Aug13.html?nav=headlines

[laurenra]

I loved Julia Child. I grew up watching her. She is the reason I love to cook today. It sure makes this WOL easier when you arent afraid to try new recipes & ingredients!
I will miss her!

[adkpam]

She was so marvelous to watch. I'm still working on cooking,but I do love her stuff.

And why don't the French have our weight problems? Hmmmmm?

[vbrowne]

adkpam, just wanted to let you know you are an inspiration to me. We're the same age, I'm close to your start weight and now you're at your goal. Good for you. (I'm starting all over again now)

Vikki

[bvtaylor]

Late Cooking Diva Julia Child Loved Red Meat, Gin (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&u=/nm/20040813/ts_nm/people_child_dc&printer=1)
1 hour, 23 minutes ago

By Mark Egan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Julia Child, the grande dame of U.S. television cooking shows whose operatic voice and irreverent attitude brought French haute cuisine into America's humble kitchens, has died at age 91 in her sleep at her California home.

"America has lost a true national treasure: Julia Child died in her sleep at her home in Santa Barbara. She will be missed terribly," her publisher Alfred A. Knopf said in a statement released on Friday.

Child has been synonymous with fine cooking in America since 1963, when her first TV show, "The French Chef," became a public television hit.

Armed with a wire whisk, Child amused and endeared herself to viewers with commentary that accompanied her cooking, and her self-deprecating humor about small mistakes or kitchen messes.

Friends said they were devastated by the news, among them Ihsan Gurdal, owner of one of Child's favorite stores, Formaggio Kitchen near her Cambridge, Massachusetts, home.

"She would stand by the counter, taste things, make remarks, tell customers what to buy, what's right, what's not," Gurdal, who knew Child for more than 20 years, told Reuters. "She didn't spare her words. What came into her mind came right out. It was beautiful."

Asked by a radio interviewer once what her ultimate meal would be, Child said: "Red meat and a bottle of gin."

RED MEAT AND GIN

During World War II, Child worked as a file clerk with the first U.S. intelligence agency, the Office of Strategic Services, in Washington, D.C., Sri Lanka and China.

After the war, she moved to Paris with her husband, Paul Child, who worked at the U.S. Embassy. By her own admission, she was barely able to boil water when he introduced her to fine cuisine. She enrolled in the famous French cooking school, the Cordon Bleu, and later studied with master chefs like Max Bugnard.

Then in 1961, in collaboration with French colleagues, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, she wrote the bestseller "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." The book was groundbreaking for introducing French cooking to a nation whose cuisine was best known for meatloaf, hotdogs and hamburgers.

That book spawned the PBS television series "The French Chef" and was followed by several other shows where she brought a simple, American approach to gourmet food.

Author of many cookbooks which sold millions of copies, the exuberant personality and master of classical French cooking was the first to contend that French cuisine was not beyond the average American who owned a TV set.

In an age of convenience foods and microwaves, she argued that "any literate person with a reasonable amount of manual dexterity can concoct praiseworthy French meals."

Born Julia McWilliams on Aug. 15, 1912, in Pasadena, California, Child grew into a six-foot-tall tomboy who seldom set foot in the kitchen. She graduated from Massachusetts' Smith College in 1934 with an undistinguished C average.

In 1961, Paul Child retired from the foreign service and the couple settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Child's breakthrough came when she appeared on a book review show on Boston's public TV station WGBH to discuss her cookbook and made an omelet on air. Russell Morash, who later produced and directed "The French Chef," remembered thinking, "Who is this mad woman cooking an omelet on a book review program?" But viewers loved it, and "The French Chef" debuted Feb. 11, 1963, to immediate success.

As the trend toward healthy eating grew in recent years, Child accused "health experts" who advised cutting out rich foods like red meat and butter as "nutritional Nazis."

"I think these fake foods aren't worth eating," she said in 1992. "Either have the real thing and a little of it or have something else. I like real hamburgers and real meat, real butter. Eat everything. Have fun."

[tholian8]

This woman single-handedly transformed America's kitchens. I will miss her terribly.

[PlaneCrazy]

I too, will miss her humor, her love of fine food and her unwillingness to compromise her beliefs for "modern" trends.

Plane Crazy

[patricia52]

I wanted to live with Julia Child.
She was the first (and best!) cooking show I ever saw that made me think that I could cook really great food! And I did, using her recipes.
I still drag out "Julia Child and Company" every once in a while, some of the stuff is doable in low carb.
And when someone says full-fat is bad for you, we can say "Julia Child lived till she was over 90!".

[steveed]

Julia...ate fat and loved it, and led a full life.
I'll miss the way she pronounced "butter".

[Lobstergal]

The world has an empty place at the table tonight. I loved watching her recent show on PBS...Cooking With Julia and I have one of her more recent cookbooks. I missed her French Chef series as I was 2 when it began but I always liked her and her way of never mincing words.

[CindySue48]

She will be missed. A real class act.

[black57]

She also had an endearing personality. I am glad that she lead a full life up until her death :angel:

[VAgrrl]

I remember watching her show on PBS when I was a kid, I didn't like to cook then, but she was so compelling I just loved to watch her!

and the food she made! even as a dumb kid I could tell it was great stuff

at the end of each show I always wanted to be sitting at the table with her, getting ready to sample the tart or the souffle or the roasted hen with rosemary or whatever it was she had just made!

good bye, Julia, we'll miss you, my dear :angel:

[gadge]

Nothing will ever taste the same. Especially Brussels Sprouts. Drenched in butter. :(

I missed her book appearance a few years ago, and a dinner with her in attendance a few years before that. Now I'll never forgive myself.
RATS!!!!!

[db81971]

She was a legend.....she will be truly missed.

[Quinadal]

I never really liked her, especially after she put a live lobster in the microwave.

[VAgrrl]

I never really liked her, especially after she put a live lobster in the microwave.

umm, maybe the time to have mentioned that was, umm, before she died, since she's not here to defend herself??

especially since the comment is on Mrs. Childs personally, and not her recipes/shows/books which is how she was publicly known :nono:

[Lobstergal]

I never really liked her, especially after she put a live lobster in the microwave.

How does *that* make it different then putting a live lobster in a pot of boiling water? They both would come out dead in the end.....and delicious with melted butter. :)

[vbrowne]

I love lobster but would NEVER cook it at home because of that, I just couldn't put a live lobster in boiling water or the microwave, but I will eat it out when the deed has been done by someone else.

Vikki

[gotbeer]

According to the lobster liberation site http://www.lobsterlib.com/canYouKill.html, Child advocated using a knife between the eyes into the brain to kill the lobster painlessly, although they claim that this is nonsense:

Julia Child, who never met an animal she didn't want in her tummy, once claimed that a lobster "may be killed almost instantly just before cooking if you plunge the point of a knife into the head between the eyes or sever the spinal cord." Nonsense! Like some other animals, lobsters continue to feel pain even after they have been cut in half (like you would if someone cut your legs off). Dr. Jaren G. Horsley, an invertebrate zoologist, says, "The lobster does not have an autonomic nervous system that puts it into a state of shock when it is harmed. It probably feels itself being cut. ... I think the lobster is in a great deal of pain from being cut open ... [and] feels all the pain until its nervous system is destroyed." In other words, the lobster feels being cut in half much like you would, regardless of what Julia Child claims.

[Lobstergal]

According to the lobster liberation site http://www.lobsterlib.com/canYouKill.html, Child advocated using a knife between the eyes into the brain to kill the lobster painlessly, although they claim that this is nonsense:

Another load of *crap* from PETA. What they spew could fertilize thousands of gardens.

I have boiled live lobsters many times and you *quickly* plunge them in head first as soon as the water is at a rolling boil. They do not try to get out nor do they scrape the sides for up to 3 minutes in an attempt to get out. They are killed the *instant* they are plunged into the water.

I come from a LONG line of New Brunswick fishermen and I certainly know what I am talking about.

And what does it matter anyway...it is a lobster and meant to be eaten.