Posted yesterday at 8:00 a.m.
Julia Child is an American pioneer. Born in 1912, she introduced Americans to French cuisine, but also to the pleasure of cooking and tasting good meals. Series Julia (on Crave) is set in the 1960s, when Julia Child (played by Sarah Lancashire) and her husband are back in the United States, Massachusetts, after spending almost 15 years in Europe. In 1963, she made her television debut with her show The French Chef, which was a huge success. Julia Child then becomes a celebrity, but above all she will change mentalities.
“A true role model”
According to Paula Johnson, curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, Julia Child has inspired several generations of Americans. “She really changed the perception that Americans had of French cuisine,” she explains in an interview. Mme Johnson met Julia Child in 2001, and spent several days in her famous kitchen in Cambridge, near Boston, cataloging all of her utensils and pans which are housed in the museum, where her kitchen has been recreated.
PHOTO JACLYN NASH, SUPPLIED BY THE SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY
Paula Johnson, curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington
“It was wonderful to be around Julia Child. She was brilliant, generous and warm, just like on television! He is a real model, for his persistence, his audacity, his curiosity. She worked very hard, and it was thanks to her personality and her quick-wittedness that she was able to pass on all her knowledge and change beliefs. »
An opinion shared by Sister Angèle, who believes that Julia Child has done a lot for women.
PHOTO ANDRÉ PICHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Sister Angela
She paved the way for us. You had to be solid at the time to impose yourself in a very masculine environment, it was not easy, especially in the United States! She inspired me, and she is a role model for the advancement of women.
Sister Angela
“She believed in what she was doing and she thought it was important. We owe him a lot of credit, ”says Sister Angèle, who met Julia Child in major international culinary fairs in the 1980s.
Nothing is impossible
Nicole-Anne Gagnon, cooking professor at the Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec, admires Julia Child’s way of going for it. “What strength of character! It impresses me, because she had guts, she seemed to be fearless and that’s what is inspiring. » Mme Gagnon recalls that she enrolled in Paris at the Le Cordon Bleu school, where she was the only woman, in addition to being American.
“The message that still resonates today is that nothing is impossible. Asserting yourself as a woman in the 1960s was not easy, especially in a male environment. It took a whole temper and maybe even a little carelessness, believes the professor. Julia Child was brilliant and she dared to be herself. »
Nutritionist Hélène Laurendeau believes that the cook and host was an avant-garde, emancipated and free woman. “She loved life and wanted to share her enthusiasm, her love of good food with as many people as possible. »
She was also lucky to have been surrounded by emancipated women like her and to be in a relationship with a feminist man who loved and admired her.
Hélène Laurendeau, nutritionist
She points out that it’s not given to everyone to be a good communicator, but Julia Child had this talent.
Paula Johnson is often a great passionate pedagogue. She is not surprised that even today, we talk about the legacy of Julia Child. “She had given herself a mission, that of transmitting her knowledge to the general public, in a fun way, because cooking is also fun and the pleasure of sharing a good meal with friends. I meet young people at the museum who are interested in gastronomy, and who see Julia Child as an icon and who make her timeless recipes. And for those who think they have to accomplish everything in their thirties, Julia Child started The French Chef at 51! »
Julia is featured on Crave.
“The Pearl Revolutionary”
Alex Prud’homme is a journalist. He is the great-nephew of Julia Child with whom he co-wrote My Life in France, where she recounts the years from 1948 to 1954, when she lived in Paris and Marseille. They worked together for eight months until the cook died in her sleep, two days before her 92and anniversary, in 2004. He finished the book without her, which became a bestseller when it was published two years later. He inspired half of the movie Julie & Julia which stars Meryl Streep, released in 2009.
“Julia was my great-aunt,” he says in an interview. Her husband, Paul, was my grandfather’s twin brother. I grew up with them, they had no children, so it’s as if we were their children, my sisters and me. » Alex Prud’homme believes that Julia would have liked to see how much her story touches people, even today, whether with the film Julie & Julia or with the TV series Juliawhere we find his spirit and his joie de vivre.
PHOTO SARAH B. PRUD’HOMME, PROVIDED BY ALEX PRUD’HOMME
Alex Prud’homme and Julia Child in 2004
“The godmother of the culinary revolution in the United States”
“Julia Child was truly the first celebrity in American cuisine. She is the godmother of the culinary revolution in the United States, it is her legacy and that is why we still talk about her today, because she exerted a great influence. She was on the cover of the magazine Time in 1966, three years after his television debut, he was a phenomenon! “, he explains.
“I call her the pearl revolutionary because she always wore a pearl necklace. She was a woman who was so charming, unpredictable, funny.
She was modest, but she had this incredible spark and a natural talent for television!
Alex Prud’homme, journalist and great-nephew of Julia Child
“She was able to pass on her love for cooking, she was able to convince Americans not to eat things ready-made in tin cans, which was what the agri-food industry of the time wanted, but to roll up their sleeves, dirty, and to prepare a good meal, with joy and with fresh ingredients, he adds. It was truly revolutionary! »
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE SCHLESINGER LIBRARY, RADCLIFFE INSTITUTE, HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Julia Child prepares artichokes.
“You have to have fun”
Julia Child’s biggest piece of advice? “You have to be ready to take risks in the kitchen, and if it doesn’t go well, never apologize for the result, because you have to have fun!” It was a life lesson that had an effect on women, men and children too! »
According to him, Julia Child arrived at the right time with the right message. “The Kennedys were in the White House in the early 1960s, they had a French chef, René Verdon. The United States was going through a good time, a lot of Americans were traveling. In New York, there were more and more French restaurants. It was good timing and television was becoming a dominant medium in those years. She had good instincts. »
And does he know how to cook? “I’m lucky, my whole family loves to cook! Not just Julia! My grandmother, my uncles and aunts, I was very spoiled. We cooked with Julia, in New York at home, we went to Julia and Paul in Cambridge or in Provence and then in California. We went into the kitchen which was the headquarters of the house, and we helped him wash the lettuce, set the table, and we all cooked together! At Thanksgiving, she cooked turkey, three different cranberry sauces, Brussels sprouts. We learned by being around her and we really had a lot of fun. »