A Century with Julia Childs

Julia Childs is an amazing woman, and deserving of a celebration on the hundredth anniversary of her birth. She single-handedly attempted to change the cooking landscape in America in the 1960's from a culture obsessed with packaged food to one that valued the virtues of carefully constructed recipes, and food that was worth being savored. She brought the French sensibility about food to the American landscape. Not everyone heard her, and not everyone was a convert, but she gave people the tools to eat well.

Julia Childs came of age during WWII, and like other bright educated women of her era she went to work. She joined the OSS, met her husband-to-be in Ceylon, and after the war and a brief stint in our nation's capital, they were posted to France. Which was a stroke of luck for us all. Childs was very taken with the food, but she was not a gifted cook--she enrolled in cooking schools and spent hours and hours trying to master the very basics of French cooking. Fortunately, what she lacked in beginner's luck she made up for in tenacity, and put together a well-researched and fact checked cookbook that has survived to this day. It may not seem any more significant than 'The Joy of Cooking' to the modern cook, but it was published long before it was possible to browse the local book store shelves and emerge with enough cookbooks to stock library shelves. No, this was a true jewel at a time when there were few to be had. So hats off to you, Julia. You were the leading edge of a wave that continues to flow.