Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Julia Child
Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for having brought French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which premiered in 1963.
Child was born Julia Carolyn McWilliams in Pasadena, California, on August 15, 1912. Child's father was John McWilliams Jr. (1880–1962), a Princeton University graduate and prominent land manager. Child's mother was Julia Carolyn ("Caro") Weston (1877–1937), a paper-company heiress and daughter of Byron Curtis Weston, a lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. Child was the eldest of three, followed by a brother, John McWilliams III, and sister, Dorothy Cousins.
Child attended Polytechnic School and Westridge School from 4th grade to 9th grade in Pasadena, California. In high school, Child was sent to the Katherine Branson School in Ross, California, which was at the time a boarding school. Child played tennis, golf, and basketball as a youth.
Child also played sports while attending Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, from which she graduated in 1934 with a major in history. At the time she graduated, she planned to become a novelist, or perhaps a magazine writer. Following her graduation from college, Child moved to New York City, where she worked for a time as a copywriter for the advertising department of W. & J. Sloane. She was still hoping to become a novelist.
While Child grew up in a family with a cook, she did not observe or learn cooking from this person, and she would not learn until she met her husband-to-be, Paul, who grew up in a family very interested in food.
Julia Child joined the Junior League of Pasadena in 1935 after returning home from college. While a member, she contributed to the League's magazine and helped create children's plays.
Child joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in 1942 after finding that at 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m), she was too tall to enlist in the Women's Army Corps (WACs) or in the U.S. Navy's WAVES. She began her OSS career as a typist at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., but, because of her education and experience, soon was given a position as a top-secret researcher working directly for the head of OSS, General William J. Donovan.
As a research assistant in the Secret Intelligence division, Child typed over 10,000 names on white note cards to keep track of officers. For a year, she worked at the OSS Emergency Sea Rescue Equipment Section (ESRES) in Washington, D.C. as a file clerk and then as an assistant to developers of a shark repellent needed to ensure that sharks would not explode ordnance targeting German U-boats. When Child was asked to solve the problem of too many OSS underwater explosives being set off by curious sharks, "Child's solution was to experiment with cooking various concoctions as a shark repellent," which were sprinkled in the water near the explosives and repelled sharks. Still in use today, the experimental shark repellent "marked Child's first foray into the world of cooking."
Hub AI
Julia Child AI simulator
(@Julia Child_simulator)
Julia Child
Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for having brought French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which premiered in 1963.
Child was born Julia Carolyn McWilliams in Pasadena, California, on August 15, 1912. Child's father was John McWilliams Jr. (1880–1962), a Princeton University graduate and prominent land manager. Child's mother was Julia Carolyn ("Caro") Weston (1877–1937), a paper-company heiress and daughter of Byron Curtis Weston, a lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. Child was the eldest of three, followed by a brother, John McWilliams III, and sister, Dorothy Cousins.
Child attended Polytechnic School and Westridge School from 4th grade to 9th grade in Pasadena, California. In high school, Child was sent to the Katherine Branson School in Ross, California, which was at the time a boarding school. Child played tennis, golf, and basketball as a youth.
Child also played sports while attending Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, from which she graduated in 1934 with a major in history. At the time she graduated, she planned to become a novelist, or perhaps a magazine writer. Following her graduation from college, Child moved to New York City, where she worked for a time as a copywriter for the advertising department of W. & J. Sloane. She was still hoping to become a novelist.
While Child grew up in a family with a cook, she did not observe or learn cooking from this person, and she would not learn until she met her husband-to-be, Paul, who grew up in a family very interested in food.
Julia Child joined the Junior League of Pasadena in 1935 after returning home from college. While a member, she contributed to the League's magazine and helped create children's plays.
Child joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in 1942 after finding that at 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m), she was too tall to enlist in the Women's Army Corps (WACs) or in the U.S. Navy's WAVES. She began her OSS career as a typist at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., but, because of her education and experience, soon was given a position as a top-secret researcher working directly for the head of OSS, General William J. Donovan.
As a research assistant in the Secret Intelligence division, Child typed over 10,000 names on white note cards to keep track of officers. For a year, she worked at the OSS Emergency Sea Rescue Equipment Section (ESRES) in Washington, D.C. as a file clerk and then as an assistant to developers of a shark repellent needed to ensure that sharks would not explode ordnance targeting German U-boats. When Child was asked to solve the problem of too many OSS underwater explosives being set off by curious sharks, "Child's solution was to experiment with cooking various concoctions as a shark repellent," which were sprinkled in the water near the explosives and repelled sharks. Still in use today, the experimental shark repellent "marked Child's first foray into the world of cooking."