Julia Child's cuisine is still popular with many housewives around the world. This woman, with her culinary art, influenced not only American society, but also other countries.
early years
A popular TV chef and author, Julia Child, nee Julia Mac-Williams, was born August 15, 1912 in Pasadena, in the North American state of California. She was the eldest of three children. Julia was known by several nicknames such as Juke, Juju and Jukies. Her father, John Mac-Williams, Jr., was a Princeton graduate and worked as a real estate investor in California. His wife, Julia Carolyn Weston, became the heiress of the paper mill. Her father served as vice governor of Massachusetts.
The Julia family has accumulated a significant stock of wealth, and, as a result, the child lived in abundance and, one might say, had a privileged childhood. Julia Child, whose cookery book is still in print today, was educated at Catherine Branson's high-end girls' school in San Francisco. Her height at that time was 6 feet 2 inches, so she was the tallest student in her class. She was a joker who, according to her acquaintances, could make really wild jokes. Julia was also adventurous and athletic, with special talent playing golf, tennis, loved hunting.
Work at first
In 1930, she entered Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, with the intention of becoming a writer. “At that time, there were fairly well-known female novelists, ” she said, “and I was going to become one of them.” Despite the fact that she liked to write short plays that Julia regularly sent for publication in the New Yorker, not one of her works was published. After leaving school, she moved to New York, where she worked in the advertising department of the prestigious home goods company W & J Sloane. After the transfer of the brand to the Los Angeles firm, Julia was fired.
The Second World War
In 1941, at the start of World War II, Julia moved to Washington, DC, where she joined the armed forces as a volunteer as a fellow for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a new government-formed intelligence unit. In her role, Julia played a key role in transmitting classified information between US government officials and intelligence officers in communications. Later, Julia and her colleagues were sent to work at various strategic points around the world. The girl visited China, Colombo, in Sri Lanka. In 1945, while she was in Sri Lanka, Julia met and began dating OSS employee Paul Child. In September 1946, after the end of World War II, Julia and Paul returned to America and got married.
cooking school
In 1948, when Paul was transferred to the US Information Service at the American Embassy in Paris, the Child family moved to France. At that time, Julia had a penchant for French cuisine. She entered the Cordon Bleu culinary school, known throughout the world. This was followed by six months of training, which included private exercises with chef Max Benard. After that, Julia, together with fellow students of Cordon Bleu, Simone Beck and Louise Berthol, formed her culinary school L'Ecole de Trois Gourmandes.
“Mastering the art of French cuisine”
In order to adapt complex French cuisine for ordinary Americans, a trio of culinary girls worked on a two-volume recipe book. Women received an advance of $ 750 for this work. However, the publisher-customer rejected the manuscript because of the very large length of 734 pages. Another publisher eventually accepted the huge cookbook, releasing it in September 1961 under the title Mastering the Art of French Cuisine. Labor is considered an innovative creation, and this book remained a bestseller for five years after its publication. Since then, this book has become the standard guide for the culinary community.
Julia promoted her book by advertising it on Boston’s public television channels, which were near her home. The image of her brand was straightforward and with a sense of humor - on it she cooked scrambled eggs in the air. The public reaction was enthusiastic, Julia began to receive letters from readers in huge quantities, not to mention the endless phone calls. She was then invited to a television channel to run her own cooking program. Initially, Julia earned $ 50 per show, later the fee was raised to $ 200 plus expenses.
Television success
In 1962, the French Chef TV program was broadcast on WGBH, which described how Mastering the Art of French Cuisine managed to change the way Americans treat food, and how Julia became a local celebrity. Soon after, the French Chef was shown at 96 stations across America.
In 1964, Julia received the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award, then in 1966 the Emmy Award. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Julia performed regularly on ABC in the morning show, Good Morning America.
At the same time, she worked intensively in other programs, such as Julia Child and Company (1978), D. Child and Still Big Company (1980), Dinner with Julia (1983). There was also a program where Julia reviewed her cookbooks, which became bestsellers and covered all aspects of culinary art. Her most recent cookbooks were Master Class with Julia Child (1995), Pastries with Julia (1996), Delicious Julia Lunches (1998), and Julia's Casual Lunches (1999), all of which were accompanied by high rated.
Opponents
However, not everyone was a fan of Julia. She was often criticized in letters from viewers for not washing her hands, and for the fact that, in their opinion, her behavior in the kitchen was unacceptable. “You are an absolutely disgusting cook; you don’t even know how to remove meat from bones, ” some wrote. “Yes, I don’t belong to people who are hypersensitive to sanitation, ” Child replied. Others were concerned about the high levels of fat that French cooking has. Julia Child, in response to this, suggested that such people eat in moderation. “I would rather eat one tablespoon of Russe chocolate cake than three cups of jelly, ” she said.
