The Unexpected Transition to Cooking TV Star
After the war was over, Julia married Paul Child in 1946. Paul decided to take advantage of the peace time by applying to new government jobs in Europe. Child was relocated to Paris to work for the US Information Agency. This was perfect for Julia, because she had dreamed of living in France for a very long time, and she was studying the French language in her spare time.
As a newly married woman, Julia was no longer interested in doing government work, and wanted to try something different with her life. This is when Julia began taking classes at Le Cordon Bleu which is the most prestigious culinary school in all of Paris. She was one of the only women in her class, because there were very few female professional chefs. But she was already used to being surrounded by men in the OSS, and she excelled in cooking with her positive attitude.
In the 1950’s, people were interested in French cooking, but there were very few options outside of a magazine called Gourmet, which had direct translations from French cookbooks. Julia Child met other English-speaking women who had trained at the Cordon Bleu in Paris, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. They published their own cookbook called What’s Cooking in France in 1952. They began working together with Julia Child to write a new cookbook, which was meant to be a comprehensive guide to the most popular French dishes. She wrote the book in such a way that made it easy for people to understand. One of the other goals of the book was to choose recipes with ingredients that were readily available in every American grocery store.
Sadly, after spending five years living in Paris, Paul Child was relocated to Germany, so they had to move. Julia was miserable living in Germany, especially after spending all of World War II seeing them as the enemy. She could not speak German, either, and so she spent more of her time in isolation working on the cookbook. Then, they were relocated to Washington, DC. However, Paul Child ran into some disagreements with his employers, and ended up retiring in 1961.
This is most likely what motivated Julia to finish her cookbook and make it a financial success, in order to help support the both of them. Mastering the Art of French Cooking was published in 1961, when she was 49 years old. The book became a smash hit. After the success of her cookbook, Julia Child went on to star in her own TV series. Her show aired on PBS for over 10 years, and she went on to win an Emmy. The show was considered to be such an important part of American culture, that her kitchen was recreated at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Julia Child was worth $38 million when she died.
Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
A Look Back … Julia Child: Life Before French Cuisine. Central Intelligence Agency. 2007.
Julia Child and the OSS Recipe for Shark Repellent. Central Intelligence Agency. 2007.
A Covert Affair: Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS. Jennet Conant. Simon & Schuster. 2011.
1995 Clip: Julia Child on Joining the O.S.S. KTEHTV. YouTube.
Julia Child. Celebrity Net Worth.
OSS Files- Child, Julia (McWilliams, Julia). Archives.org