Julia Child: Queen of cooking lived with zest, grace and humor
When America's beloved queen of the kitchen died early yesterday, just two days before her 92nd birthday, she left those fans with the rich flavor of her zest for food and life.
The famed television chef, cookbook author and idol of countless home cooks for more than four decades died in her sleep at her home in a retirement center in Montecito, Calif., near Santa Barbara.
"Our good friend is gone," said Francois Kissel, former owner/chef of Seattle's Maximilien, speaking by phone yesterday from France.
Kissel, one of many in the Northwest food world who came to know Mrs. Child on her many visits to Seattle, described her in an earlier interview as "a great soul," who not only showed Americans how to cook wonderful food but did it with grace.
"She was extraordinary. She was the kindest person. She had such grace and such humor."
When she launched her "French Chef" cooking series on PBS television in 1963, Mrs. Child became the first of what would grow to be a long string of TV chefs informing and hugely influencing America's home cooks.
Her own influence stemmed in part from her enthusiastically independent outlook:
• In an age of haste and frozen dinners, Mrs. Child urged taking the time to cook good food.
• While men still reigned in nearly every professional kitchen, she became the country's most celebrated chef.
• In a culture that worshipped youth, she came to fame in middle age.
• When health concerns set the nation to fretting about too much fat or other dietary woes, she railed against the "fear of food."
• And in an era of public personalities crafted by image-makers, she was real: down-to-earth, plain-spoken, funny.
Beginning in the early 1970s, Mrs. Child, who lived in Cambridge, Mass., and Santa Barbara during much of her career, visited Seattle periodically to give cooking demonstrations, address conferences, autograph her cookbooks or raise money for food-related organizations.
Fans found Mrs. Child — known affectionately to many simply as "Julia" — approachable and warm, even when aides and escorts kept her surrounded.
She also had extraordinary energy, Kissel learned when he was a guest chef on her TV series of the 1980s, "Dinner at Julia's," filmed mainly in Santa Barbara.
With retakes and endless details, Mrs. Child, then in her 70s, "never stopped running for hours," yet never seemed tired or grumpy, Kissel recalled.
To film the opening scenes of that segment, which featured Dungeness crab, Mrs. Child went crabbing in Puget Sound and stayed cheerful even though the catch came to a grand total of one crab, others remembered.
Another local chef, Monique Barbeau, formerly of Fullers restaurant, was a guest on Mrs. Child's PBS series "In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs." The segment was taped in the kitchen of Mrs. Child's rambling old Cambridge house in July 1994.
Mrs. Child's green kitchen was not state-of-the-art, Barbeau later recalled, but she had a wealth of tools hung on peg boards with their shapes outlined so she would know what was missing if a space was empty.
That kitchen, seen on so many of her shows, was immortalized in 2002 when it was reconstructed, piece by piece, at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
The kitchen has been "extraordinarily popular" with visitors, said Paula Johnson, the display's co-curator. With the news of Mrs. Child's death yesterday, "the gallery has been pretty packed. People are paying their respects by seeing the kitchen," and one man left roses.
Mrs. Child sallied onto the world stage of cookery in 1961 with publication of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," co-written with Simone Beck and Loisette Bertholle.
Soon, she was slicing and dicing on "The French Chef" on public television, which made her a household name.
The groundbreaking series introduced countless Americans to the essentials of great cooking: use of the best ingredients, careful techniques, and a willing investment of time over quick convenience. She also made it look like fun.
A string of other cookbooks and television series followed over the next four decades. She was food editor of Parade magazine for several years and regularly appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Her lively style, good humor and warbling voice — not to mention her 6-foot 2-inch height — kept viewers rapt from the start of her first series. French cuisine may have had a snooty image, but the enthusiastic Mrs. Child put on no airs.
Home cooks perhaps identified with Mrs. Child, who, though she clearly knew her sauces and soufflés, also committed bloopers on camera. She dropped things, nicked a finger with a knife, made messes — all while carrying on her high-pitched, breathless commentary. She had flair.
"The only real stumbling block (in the kitchen)," Mrs. Child once said, "is the fear of failure. In cooking, you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude."
When the masterful "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" appeared after 10 years of research and writing, Mrs. Child was 49.
"There was nothing like it," Judith Jones, Mrs. Child's longtime editor at Alfred A. Knopf publishers, said of that first book in an interview several years ago.
"No one had ever really taken French cooking and translated it for Americans in terms of showing why you did things, how to do them, what to do if you made a mistake. It was an analytical approach, a teaching approach. That was really Julia's genius."
The recipes were long and detailed, in both the first book and in Volume II of "Mastering," co-written with Beck, which included a 12-page recipe for French bread.
Daunting though that sounds, home cooks apparently craved such information. Years later, Mrs. Child told an interviewer that the books came along just as Americans were beginning to travel to Europe in growing numbers, whetting their appetites for French cookery. It also helped that Americans had increased leisure time for cooking, she said.
Mrs. Child's early recipes swam in butter and cream, in the French manner. By the time her seventh book, "The Way to Cook," came out in 1989, she had toned that down, but not a lot.
While health authorities and consumers worried about fat and cholesterol, Mrs. Child preached against the "fear of food" she saw sweeping the country.
Eat a variety of foods, in moderation, she said, agreeing with the experts, but don't let health fears sour every bite. Never would Mrs. Child produce a book of low-fat recipes.
Well into advanced age, she displayed remarkable energy. At age 82, her schedule still kept her away from home 300 days a year, an aide said when Mrs. Child visited Seattle in 1995. How was she able to keep up the pace?
"Because I eat good food! Good food, red wine — and gin!" she declared.
Over the years, Mrs. Child's impact on fans seemed to extend beyond her gift of cooking know-how. Her message of respect for good food, prepared with care and shared with friends, appeared soul-nourishing for many.
When Mrs. Child autographed her cookbooks at a Seattle kitchenware shop in 1995, fans' response approached adulation. Some came from as far away as Florida, Chicago and Alaska merely to stand beside the chef, have her sign their books and then fly home.
Mrs. Child is survived by a sister, Dorothy Cousins, of Mill Valley, Calif., three nephews and 3 nieces.
At the time of her death, she had completed about two chapters on her memoir, written in collaboration with a nephew, said a spokesman for her publisher. Knopf will publish the work, probably supplemented with related material, he said.
Said Tom Douglas, owner/chef of several Seattle restaurants:
"We all get old, we all die, but not too many of us live and then die with the grace and charm that Julia did."
This story includes information from Times staff reporters Nancy Leson and Stephanie Dunnewind, and from The Washington Post, The Associated Press, The Detroit News and the books "M.F.K. Fisher," by Joan Reardon, and "The Quotable Cook," edited by Kate Rowinski.
CeCe Sullivan, Seattle Times home economist, will reflect on Julia Child's influence and share some favorite recipes Wednesday in Food
