Julia Child. A Life of Order & Chance

Starting off with a life of social privilege, chance appeared in so many ways for Julia Child who was able to recognize hidden opportunities—and make the most of them.

She might easily have been prodded into a traditional role for women in her day (secretary, wife, mother, etc.)—she began by attending a prestigious women’s college. Fate, however, came her way during the War when she was rejected by the military but found a clerical job with the OSS which afforded her prospects to travel in foreign countries and meet interesting people. One of whom was Paul Child, poet & artist, who became her lifelong companion offering support, contacts, and later, collaboration. In essence the beginning of a life purpose.

After the War, fate again stepped in when Paul, now with the US foreign Service, was given an assignment in Paris. Rather than spend her time only savoring its delights, she enhanced her curiosity about its great cuisine by enrolling in the esteemed Cordon Bleu cooking school. There she not only learned the basics of the renowned gastronomy, but the discipline necessary to succeed in that rigorous ambience. In short, she acquired a model or prototype with which she could readily lend her talents. And she met others who would become fellow collaborating chefs, such as Simone Beck (Simca). Her creativity was activated and off she went!

Julia’s remarkable discipline was evident in repetition and observation of techniques she had acquired expanded by imaginative procedures and combinations, meticulously practiced for the next six years. She had begun her life’s adventure. In her small kitchen, she & her two French colleagues, Simca and Louisette Bertholle, began a cooking school on their own, L’Ecole des Trois Gourmandes. From this collaboration her first cookbook was brewing.

Returning to the US, manuscript in hand, her search for a publisher and a genre began. French cuisine, seen as unachievable by the everyday cook, became her challenge as she launched her meticulous brainchild: “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” Eventually an intuitive editor saw the incredible possibilities in the extraordinary manuscript, abundantly accompanied with Paul’s imaginative art work. When the book came out, Julia was on the verge of not only being able to communicate her venture to an unsuspecting audience, but in the circulation, an upsurge in America’s kitchen was about to occur. When Julia seized the opportunity to pioneer cookery on television, the insurgency fast-tracked.

Again, she amplified her repertory through teaching—teaching by doing. Including publically viewing and coping with her mistakes, a method of learning few, if any, of today’s fashionable television chefs have yet to catch on to.

Once I attended a cooking demonstration Julia gave in a department store. She brought along her longtime colleague, Simca Beck. At one point when they were using a food processor, Simca picked it up and shook it as she might have done with a mixing bowl. Much to the mortification of the Cuisinart representative sitting in the front row who hurriedly rushed to the platform to assure her this procedure was no longer necessary.

Looking back, in seizing those synchronous moments we all have, Julia Child, developed a “product” which no one needed, except perhaps “spiritually hungered” folk.” What an incredible example of the kind of career/job creation that perhaps, of the political candidates, uniquely President Obama recognizes the impact.

Cross Posted from Dennie's blog