The French Chef: Education and Career of Julia Child

The television has been key in fueling the popularity and careers of chefs, many of them high in the ranks of celebrity. But when we speak of the rise of celebrity chefs and food television we must not overlook one of the first pioneers in the food TV/celeb chef industry—Julia Child. She played such a key role in food television that the Smithsonian Institution received permission to relocate her original kitchen to an American History exhibit.

Child’s characteristic voice and affect was so unique that it has been parodied many times. But she was passionate about cooking and the culinary industry and at times hilariously funny. Chef Child’s boiled down French gourmet cooking was available in most American households in the early 1960s, when she became standard public television fare with her now famous program, The French Chef.

If you’re a student chef, don’t miss out on her truly unique style. Many of her television episodes, especially those she did with famous guest chefs, are widely available for free. They are an education in and of themselves.

Julia Child’s Official Chef Training

Julia’s love of French cooking was serendipitous. After marrying Paul Child the couple spent some time in France. Child had an immediate affinity with French fare and her career was borne. She studied officially at the Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, one of the most world-known culinary schools. Students learn a solid foundation in classic French cooking and the fundamentals of the most basic French dishes.

But if you watch Chef Child’s programs, Cooking with Master Chefs, In Julia Child’s Kitchen with Master Chefs and Julia Child and Jacques Pepin Cooking at Home, then you immediately realize that here is a chef continuing her learning and chef education right in front of your eyes alongside some of the world’s best culinary geniuses. Ironically, few of us would even recognize their names today, since they came well before the advent of The Food Network.

Julia Child’s American Institute of Wine and Food

Child was committed to helping along the chef industry, encouraging new chefs, and promoting educational opportunity in the culinary arts. To these ends she helped found and launch the American Institute of Wine and Food in California in concert with Robert Mondavi and Richard Graff. Today this non-profit organization supports community events and provides scholarships to budding culinary students.

Child did not necessarily set out to build a culinary empire, but one did rise up around her. With a dozen successful long-running television programs and specials to her credit, a slew of cookbooks, and a pop-icon status that garnered her much love and affection, she has become the mother of TV chefs with a life and career more than worth aspiring to. She died in 2004.