In Memory of Julia Child, TV's Legendary 'French Chef': 20 Years After Her Death

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It's been twenty years since supreme culinary artist Julia Child died at 91. Best known for PBS-TV's iconic French Chef series, Child and her unique gravelly voice introduced the American mainstream audience to the world of French delicacies.

A Closer Look

Julia Child was born Julia McWilliams, on August 15, 1912, in Pasadena, California, the eldest of three children. Her father, John McWilliams Jr., was a Princeton graduate and initial investor in California real estate. Her mother, Julia Carolyn Weston, was a paper-company heiress whose father served as lieutenant governor of Massachusetts.

The Child brood accumulated great wealth and Child lived a privileged childhood of grand world travel and education.

During World War II, Child, at 6' 2", joined the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA. She was sent off to do clerical chores in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where she met Paul Child, a career diplomat who later became a photographer and painter, on the porch of a tea planter’s bungalow in 1943.

They wed in 1946 and two years later were sent to Paris. There, Child enrolled in the famed Cordon Bleu cooking school, partially because she wanted to cook for her husband.

As a result, she was perceived as somewhat off by her friends, who did not do their own cooking.

Then Came Chef TV

In 1963, Julia Child, then 51, made her TV debut as The French Chef, which produced 206 episodes. Child won a Peabody award in 1965 and an Emmy in 1966, and went on to star in several more series for Boston’s WGBH-TV.

She loved food, and the joy of cooking and sharing it. Becoming so popular, Child graced the cover of Time Magazine, while her trademark sign-off, “Bon Appetite,” became the title and subject of Jean Stapleton's musical review

Child, with her A-line skirt and blouse, and an apron with a towel on her waist, was even satirized on Saturday Night Live. So, she knew she had arrived.

Later In Life

Later in life, Julia Child focused on supporting serious food research and preparation. In 1981, she co-founded the American Institute of Wine and Food in San Francisco, and five years later, co-founded the James Beard Foundation in New York City.

In 1994, she teamed with fellow TV chef Jacques Pepin for the PBS special, Julia Child & Jacques Pepin: Cooking in Concert and, in 1996, More Cooking in Concert.

Her husband Paul died in 1994, and in late 2001, Julia, a longtime resident of Cambridge, MA., relocated to Santa Barbara. The couple had no children.

Lasting Impression

Julia Child was no doubt a pioneer in the history of cooking shows on TV.