History Creator / JuliaChild

* ''Julia'': A 2022 series for Creator/HBOMax created by Daniel Goldfarb which can be viewed as a spiritual companion to ''Series/TheMarvelousMrsMaisel'' (which Goldfarb produces) - a period piece about a woman entering a new chapter of life and discovering the joys of creativity and performance with a little help from her friends and family. It is set during [[TheSixties the early '60s]], and charts the early days of the making of ''The French Chef'' at [[Creator/{{PBS}} WGBH-TV]] in Boston, making it feel a lot like an unofficial sequel to ''Julie & Julia''. Child is played by Sarah Lancashire.

Her Creator/{{PBS}} program ''The French Chef'' [[TropeCodifier pioneered the genre]] of the CookingShow. It was produced from 1963 to 1973, predating PBS itself, and still can be seen in reruns to the present day. Episodes are also available on Website/YouTube and have streamed on Website/{{Twitch}}.

Her Creator/{{PBS}} program ''The French Chef'' [[TropeCodifier pioneered the genre]] of the CookingShow. It was produced from 1963 to 1973, and still can be seen in reruns to the present day. Episodes are also available on Website/YouTube and have streamed on Website/{{Twitch}}.

* LadyDrunk: She was known for her love of liquor and never shied away from making jokes about it. In one famous quote, she remarked "I love cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food"; in another, when asked what her favorite wine was, she happily responded "gin!" Averted, however, in that she ''never'' imbibed on-camera, even though many people remember her consuming the wine she would pour with her meal at the end of each episode of ''The French Chef''.

%%* (Tropeslashing is not permitted) AdaptationDistillation[=/=]AdaptationExpansion: ''The French Chef'' was, essentially, an adaptation of her famous cookbook ''Mastering the Art of French Cooking''. The distillation comes in that only those recipes within the book that were accessible to the intended viewer (the middle-class home cook without staff) were chosen; the expansion comes in that the television format and the 30-minute runtime allowed her to go into much more detail than a written recipe would.

%%* AdaptationDistillation[=/=]AdaptationExpansion: ''The French Chef'' was, essentially, an adaptation of her famous cookbook ''Mastering the Art of French Cooking''. The distillation comes in that only those recipes within the book that were accessible to the intended viewer (the middle-class home cook without staff) were chosen; the expansion comes in that the television format and the 30-minute runtime allowed her to go into much more detail than a written recipe would.

* AdaptationDistillation[=/=]AdaptationExpansion: ''The French Chef'' was, essentially, an adaptation of her famous cookbook ''Mastering the Art of French Cooking''. The distillation comes in that only those recipes within the book that were accessible to the intended viewer (the middle-class home cook without staff) were chosen; the expansion comes in that the television format and the 30-minute runtime allowed her to go into much more detail than a written recipe would.

* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Child is sometimes mistaken for British, but was actually born in [[UsefulNotes/{{California}} Pasadena]]. Like many upper-class Americans of her age, she was taught the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent Mid-Atlantic accent]], a pseudo-British, almost theatrical way of speaking. Compare UsefulNotes/FranklinDelanoRoosevelt, Creator/VincentPrice, or Creator/WilliamDaniels.

* IvyLeagueforEveryone: Julia and her mother Julia attended Smith College (which has a Julia Child Day featuring her recipes), her father attended Princeton, and her husband briefly attended Columbia.

* TropeCodifier: She codified the tropes for CookingShow and celebrity chef.

* HiddenDepths: Most people remember Child as a cook -- but she also worked for the OSS overseas during World War II, and was so praised her for skills that she became a top-secret researcher who worked directly for the organization's leader. Later, she invented the world's first shark repellent (the fish kept setting off underwater explosives) while stationed in East Asia; the repellent was so successful that it's still used today.[[note]]The repellent is sometimes facetiously called "her first recipe".[[/note]] Child received several military honors and awards for her work.

* ''The French Chef'': A pioneering CookingShow produced by [[Creator/{{PBS}} WGBH Boston]] from 1963 to 1973, which she hosted. Won a Peabody Award in 1964 and an Emmy in 1966. Child continued to be associated with this program in particular long after it ceased production and she moved onto other projects for PBS.

* ''The French Chef'': A pioneering CookingShow produced by [[Creator/{{PBS}} WGBH Boston]] from 1963 to 1973. Won a Peabody Award in 1964 and an Emmy in 1966. Child continued to be associated with this program in particular long after it ceased production and she moved onto other projects for PBS.

Just as a warning, American chefs and cooking professionals hold Julia Child to a level of respect and admiration that [[CreatorWorship borders on religious]]. It is better for you to badmouth [[Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood Fred Rogers]] on 4Chan than it is to [[SacredCow badmouth Julia Child]] around a chef, especially if you are badmouthing her in his restaurant.

* FoodPorn: Given that her shows are, well, cooking shows, the food and showing them are the entire point.
* FrenchCuisineIsHaughty: ZigZagged. Child was trained as a chef in France and reinforced the connection between French cuisine and fine dining, but her books and TV shows were meant to demystify the process and show that ordinary Americans could make their own French-quality food at home. Most of her recipes are based more on French home cooking than the elaborate fare you'd get at a high-end restaurant, but on the other hand she also featured recipes for fancy meals such as pressed duck and lobster thermidor. She was also very fond of the In-N-Out burger chain, and was on record about being quite fond of UsefulNotes/McDonalds french fries... until they stopped frying them in beef tallow, at which point she swore off them. In addition, her favorite thing to eat was the incredibly simple and easy-to-prepare (and not particularly French) baked potato.
* FullNameBasis: Always referred to herself onscreen as "Julia Child", never "Julia" nor "Mrs. Child". Averted after the fact - to this day, celebrity chefs and professional cooks will still refer to her simply as "''Julia''" in hushed, reverent tones.
* HiddenDepths: Most people remember Child as a cook--but she also worked for the OSS overseas during World War II, and was so praised her for skills that she became a top-secret researcher who worked directly for the organization's leader. Later, she invented the world's first shark repellent (the fish kept setting off underwater explosives) while stationed in East Asia; the repellent was so successful that it's still used today.[[note]]The repellent is sometimes facetiously called "her first recipe".[[/note]] Child received several military honors and awards for her work.

* SupremeChef: Child brought French cooking to Americans, but she was highly skilled. Media portrayals of her emphasize this fact.

* ''Film/JulieAndJulia'': A combination fantasy and biopic aligning Child's experiences in Europe while she attended the Cordon Bleu school and co-authored her first cookbook, and author Julie Powell's attempt to cook all 524 recipes in the book in one year. Child is played by ''Creator/MerylStreep''.

** ''Julia'': A 2021 documentary chronicling Child's life.
** ''Julia'': A 2022 series for Creator/HBOMax created by Daniel Goldfarb which can be viewed as a spiritual companion to ''Series/TheMarvelousMrsMaisel'' (which Goldfarb produces) - a period piece about a woman entering a new chapter of life and discovering the joys of creativity and performance with a little help from her friends and family. It is set during [[TheSixties the early '60s]], and charts the early days of the making of ''The French Chef'' at [[Creator/{{PBS}} WGBH-TV]] in Boston, making it feel a lot like an unofficial sequel to ''Julie & Julia''. Child is played by Sarah Lancashire.

* ThrowItIn: Invoked deliberately. The show was filmed directly to videotape without interruptions, so if Julia made a mistake, they often just left it in. Julia explained that this helped humanize the process of cooking, showing that even an experienced professional can make a kitchen mistake like you do.

* FrenchCuisineIsHaughty: ZigZagged. Child was trained as a chef in France and reinforced the connection between French cuisine and fine dining, but her books and TV shows were meant to demystify the process and show that ordinary Americans could make their own French-quality food at home. Most of her recipes are based more on French home cooking than the elaborate fare you'd get at a high-end restaurant, but on the other hand she also featured recipes for fancy meals such as pressed duck and lobster thermidor. She was also very fond of the In-N-Out burger chain, and was on record about being quite fond of UsefulNotes/McDonalds french fries... until they stopped frying them in tallow, at which point she swore off them. In addition, her favorite thing to eat was the incredibly simple and easy-to-prepare (and not particularly French) baked potato.

* FrenchCuisineIsHaughty: ZigZagged. Child was trained as a chef in France and reinforced the connection between French cuisine and fine dining, but her books and TV shows were meant to demystify the process and show that ordinary Americans could make their own French-quality food at home. Most of her recipes are based more on French home cooking than the elaborate fare you'd get at a high-end restaurant, but on the other hand she also featured recipes for fancy meals such as pressed duck and lobster thermidor. She was also very fond of the In-N-Out burger chain.

* FrenchCuisineIsHaughty: ZigZagged. Child was trained as a chef in France and reinforced the connection between French cuisine and fine dining, but her books and TV shows were meant to demystify the process and show that ordinary Americans could make their own French-quality food at home. Most of her recipes are based more on French home cooking than the elaborate fare you'd get at a high-end restaurant, but on the other hand she also featured recipes for fancy meals such as pressed duck and lobster thermidor.

Julia Carolyn Child (née [=McWilliams=], August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American chef and author or co-author of a number of cookbooks, most famously ''Mastering the Art of French Cooking'' in two volumes. She became a celebrity in the 1960s and beyond, and is the subject of many an AffectionateParody, given her enthusiastic demeanor and her distinctively plummy voice.

* FullNameBasis: Always referred to herself onscreen as "Julia Child", never "Julia" nor "Mrs. Child".
** Averted after the fact - to this day, celebrity chefs and professional cooks will still refer to her simply as "''Julia''" in hushed, reverent tones.

* HiddenDepths: Most people remember Child as a cook--but she also worked for the OSS overseas during World War II, and was so praised her for skills that she became a top-secret researcher who worked directly for the organization's leader. Later, she invented the world's first shark repellent (the fish kept setting off underwater explosives) while stationed in East Asia; the repellent was so successful that it's still used today. Child received several military honors and awards for her work.
* TinyGuyHugeGirl: Julia stood 6'2", and thus towered over most ''men''. (This was a family trait; her sister Dorothy was just as tall.) Though surviving photographs indicate her husband Paul was about average height for a man, she still stood almost a head taller than he. This is relevant to her works in that Paul built Julia a custom kitchen with countertops several inches higher than the standard so that she would not be constantly hunched over, and the sets on her shows were built the same.