Julia Child taught me how to cook. Long before celebrity (and not so celebrity) chefs became popular on TV, there was Julia. Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Vol. 1) was the first cookbook I ever bought for myself. I spent a decade trying to master those techniques. My original copy of that cookbook has disappeared into the void, and has now been replaced not once, but twice, but it still has pride of place among my cookbooks. Today, all these many years later, I still rely on what I learned from her.
Jess, on Julia:
The very first cookbook my mother bought for me was Julia's Kitchen Wisdom. A collection of "forty years of happy collaboration on cookery with colleagues and friends," this is the ultimate starter book for people who want to learn how to cook. In fact, if I could only own two cookbooks (which would certainly help me with storage issues), this would be my first pick (the second would be Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, also given to me by my mom). In the last few years, I was lucky enough to acquire my mom's copy of In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs - thanks to her move to Italy, which required her leaving more than half of her cookbooks behind in the states.
Our affection for Julia Child is about more than just her excellent teaching methods when it comes to cookery. Julia was an inspiration. She wasn't glamorous, she didn't yearn for approval from her audience, she was fearless about being real and oh how she was cool. Her friend Ariane Daguin described her as the "pioneer who elevated good food to a higher priority in this country," and said, "I think that the cult of the kitchen started with Julia. She made people want to cook, talk about food and challenge themselves in the kitchen."
Julia Child was a food pioneer, a fearless woman, a welcoming and joyful person, a cultural icon and an inspiration. Here is a true celebration of Julia, on what would have been her 100th birthday, from PBS:
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