Although her later recipes, in a nod to the calorie police, reduced fat here and there, she disdained diet foods, which she called fake food. "I, for one, would much rather swoon over a few thin slices of prime beefsteak, or one small serving of chocolate mousse, or a sliver of foie gras, than indulge to the full on such nonentities as fat-free gelatin puddings," she wrote in the introduction to her 1989 book "The Way to Cook." "In spite of food fads, fitness programs, and health concerns, we must never lose sight of a beautifully conceived meal."
To further the appreciation of gastronomy for amateurs and professionals alike, Child helped found the American Institute of Wine and Food with vintner Robert Mondavi in 1981. She donated 2,500 books, papers and manuscripts -- the largest collection of cookbooks in the country -- to the library of gastronomic literature at the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University and Radcliffe College. And she was a driving force behind the effort to preserve Beard's Greenwich Village brownstone and turn it into a culinary center housing the James Beard Foundation.
Although bent with age and walking with a cane, Child still had the stamina to tape a new show, with master chef Jacques Pepin, when she was 85, and went on the road to promote it and the accompanying book. By then, Paul Child, the man for whom she put on her signature blue apron and took up cooking in earnest, was no longer by her side. Her collaborator, manager, sous-chef and dishwasher, who also provided many of the photographs and drawings that illustrated her bestselling guides, died in 1994 at the age of 92. The couple never had children.
Child is survived by a sister, Dorothy Cousins of Mill Valley, Calif.; three nieces, Dr. Philadelphia Cousins of Golden, Colo., Carol Gibson of Hartland, Vt., and Patty McWilliams of Middletown Springs, Vt.; and three nephews, Sam Cousins of Sherman, Conn., John McWilliams of McLellanville, S.C., and David McWilliams of South Strafford, Vt.
Burial will be private. A public memorial service is being planned.
Alex Prudhomme, her late husband's grandnephew, is completing Child's last book, a memoir of the Childs' years in the diplomatic service, which is due out in 2006 from Knopf.
The woman who considered her paramount life goals to be "marrying a nice man and cooking nice food" said Paul Child's death took some of the fun out of being the doyenne of American home cuisine. But retirement had no appeal either.
In late 2001, Child closed the rambling, three-story house in Cambridge that she had shared with her husband for 40 years and moved permanently to a compact apartment in a planned community in the Santa Barbara area, where they had spent their winters. She donated most of her Cambridge kitchen to the Smithsonian, sending her French copper pots to Copia and keeping a few small no-stick frying pans and her favorite heavy-duty kitchen shears for whipping out a hamburger or a crepe.
Her new kitchen was about the size of a boat galley and could seat only six.
Yet "I never feel lonely in the kitchen," she told Time magazine recently. "Food is very friendly. Just looking at a potato, I like to pat it. There's something so pleasant about a big baking potato or a whole bunch of peas in their shells.... [T]o me, the kitchen has never stopped being a place just full of possibilities and pleasures."
Descriptors: CHILD, JULIA
PHOTO: IN MONTECITO: Child, who would have turned 92 on Sunday, moved into her "nice little pad" in 2001. Her kitchen was about the size of a boat galley and could seat only six. ID NUMBER:20040814h056uyke PHOTOGRAPHER: Mel Melcon Los Angeles Times PHOTO: CARE IN THE KITCHEN: In this 1961 photo, Child uses a spatula to gauge a custard's consistency. ID NUMBER:20040814i2ehu6kf PHOTOGRAPHER: Los Angeles Times PHOTO: TOWERING FIGURE: Julia Child tapes an episode of "The French Chef" in April 1970. Through the program, which made its debut in 1963, she became public television's first bona fide star. ID NUMBER:20040814i2ehrxkf PHOTOGRAPHER: Paul Child PHOTO: ICON: Julia Child in one of her promotional videos. ID NUMBER:20040814i2ehtpkf PHOTOGRAPHER: Michael Lutch May not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission
© Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times
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Top Los Angeles Times Wednesday February 01, 2006
Cooking THE CALIFORNIA COOK Madame's main man * 'La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange' is the French cookbook that inspired Julia Child and Alice Waters. Now, at long last, Paul Aratow has translated it into English.
Home Edition, Food, Page F-1 Features Desk 46 inches; 3309 words Type of Material: Recipe; Infobox (text included here)
By Russ Parsons, Times Staff Writer
ALMOST 40 years ago, Paul Aratow, a UC Berkeley graduate student living in Paris, wandered into a bookstore with the vague intention of learning to cook. He picked up the thickest book he could find and took it home. He cooked his way through it, and it opened up for him a glorious new world.
Eventually he used what he learned to help start a new restaurant back home, called Chez Panisse.
To further the appreciation of gastronomy for amateurs and professionals alike, Child helped found the American Institute of Wine and Food with vintner Robert Mondavi in 1981. She donated 2,500 books, papers and manuscripts -- the largest collection of cookbooks in the country -- to the library of gastronomic literature at the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University and Radcliffe College. And she was a driving force behind the effort to preserve Beard's Greenwich Village brownstone and turn it into a culinary center housing the James Beard Foundation.
Child is survived by a sister, Dorothy Cousins of Mill Valley, Calif.; three nieces, Dr. Philadelphia Cousins of Golden, Colo., Carol Gibson of Hartland, Vt., and Patty McWilliams of Middletown Springs, Vt.; and three nephews, Sam Cousins of Sherman, Conn., John McWilliams of McLellanville, S.C., and David McWilliams of South Strafford, Vt.
Burial will be private. A public memorial service is being planned.
Alex Prudhomme, her late husband's grandnephew, is completing Child's last book, a memoir of the Childs' years in the diplomatic service, which is due out in 2006 from Knopf.
The woman who considered her paramount life goals to be "marrying a nice man and cooking nice food" said Paul Child's death took some of the fun out of being the doyenne of American home cuisine. But retirement had no appeal either.
In late 2001, Child closed the rambling, three-story house in Cambridge that she had shared with her husband for 40 years and moved permanently to a compact apartment in a planned community in the Santa Barbara area, where they had spent their winters. She donated most of her Cambridge kitchen to the Smithsonian, sending her French copper pots to Copia and keeping a few small no-stick frying pans and her favorite heavy-duty kitchen shears for whipping out a hamburger or a crepe.
Her new kitchen was about the size of a boat galley and could seat only six.
Yet "I never feel lonely in the kitchen," she told Time magazine recently. "Food is very friendly. Just looking at a potato, I like to pat it. There's something so pleasant about a big baking potato or a whole bunch of peas in their shells.... [T]o me, the kitchen has never stopped being a place just full of possibilities and pleasures."
Descriptors: CHILD, JULIA
PHOTO: IN MONTECITO: Child, who would have turned 92 on Sunday, moved into her "nice little pad" in 2001. Her kitchen was about the size of a boat galley and could seat only six. ID NUMBER:20040814h056uyke PHOTOGRAPHER: Mel Melcon Los Angeles Times PHOTO: CARE IN THE KITCHEN: In this 1961 photo, Child uses a spatula to gauge a custard's consistency. ID NUMBER:20040814i2ehu6kf PHOTOGRAPHER: Los Angeles Times PHOTO: TOWERING FIGURE: Julia Child tapes an episode of "The French Chef" in April 1970. Through the program, which made its debut in 1963, she became public television's first bona fide star. ID NUMBER:20040814i2ehrxkf PHOTOGRAPHER: Paul Child PHOTO: ICON: Julia Child in one of her promotional videos. ID NUMBER:20040814i2ehtpkf PHOTOGRAPHER: Michael Lutch May not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission
© Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Top Los Angeles Times Wednesday February 01, 2006
Cooking THE CALIFORNIA COOK Madame's main man * 'La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange' is the French cookbook that inspired Julia Child and Alice Waters. Now, at long last, Paul Aratow has translated it into English.
Home Edition, Food, Page F-1 Features Desk 46 inches; 3309 words Type of Material: Recipe; Infobox (text included here)
By Russ Parsons, Times Staff Writer
ALMOST 40 years ago, Paul Aratow, a UC Berkeley graduate student living in Paris, wandered into a bookstore with the vague intention of learning to cook. He picked up the thickest book he could find and took it home. He cooked his way through it, and it opened up for him a glorious new world.
Eventually he used what he learned to help start a new restaurant back home, called Chez Panisse.
