Saturday, August 14, 2004

Julia Child Remembered

Last night, we were in the kitchen cooking, while watching the Jim Lehrer NewsHour, where we heard the news that Julia Child passed away at the age of 91.

I had interviewed Child for my book, PBS:Behind the Screen. She pioneered the entire how-to genre for educational television, bringing good French cooking to American housewives. She was an American original.

Child seemed to me exactly as Jacques Pepin described her on the NewsHour broadcast: unpretentious, kind, gracious, "an anti-snob." And as Pepin says in this interview, the food revolution Child helped launch made a big contribution to the abundance of good food and quality ingredients we have today.

If there is a heaven, Julia Child is up there, cooking something right now.

To Julia Child, "Bon Appetit!"