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• by:
• Shapiro, Laura

2008 IACP Award Winner!

One of the most beloved figures in twentieth-century American culture was Julia Child, the buoyant French Chef' who taught millions of Americans to cook with confidence and eat with pleasure. Six feet two inches tall, with a foghorn voice, an irrepressible sense of humor, and a passion for good food, Child ushered in the nation's culinary renaissance and became its chief icon. Unlike the great cooking teachers who preceded her--Fannie Farmer, Irma Rombauer, and James Beard--Child won her audience through the revolutionary medium of television. Millions watched as she spun threads of caramel, befriended a giant monkfish, wielded live lobsters, flipped omelets, and unmolded spectacular desserts. Her occasional disasters and brilliant recoveries were legendary. Yet every step of the way, through every recipe, she was teaching carefully crafted lessons about ingredients, culinary technique, and why good home cooking still matters.

Award-winning food writer Laura Shapiro describes Child's unlikely career path, from California party girl to coolheaded chief clerk in a World War II spy station to bumbling amateur cook and finally to the classes at the Cordon Bleu in Paris that changed her life. Her marriage to Paul Child was at the center of all her work.

Unlike much of what has been written about Child, Shapiro's portrayal is of a woman who was quintessentially American, and whose openhearted approach to the kitchen was a lesson in how to live.