All posts tagged: Mastering the Art of French Cooking

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things…About Julia Child

Drawing record crowds, Siting Julia, a day-long symposium hosted by the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard explored three sites of Julia’s life: Post–World War II Paris; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and national television. Rather than regale you with a play-by-play of the day, I’ll instead share the four most wonderful things about Julia that I took from this symposium: Her Personality  Keynote speaker Laura Shapiro (author of Perfection Salad, Something from the Oven, and Julia Child) recounted what Paul Child called “Juliafication” — the phenomenon by which Julia’s warmth and attention lit up those around her. While many speakers discussed Julia’s caring, generosity, and sense of humor, Dana Polan (professor of Cinema Studies at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and author of Julia Child’s “The French Chef”) credits Julia’s personality for her success on television. And Lisa Abend, TIME correspondent in Spain, argues that we have Julia to thank for transforming food into entertainment. Her Love of Learning Julia was the eternal student. Alex Prud’homme (Julia’s grandnephew and coauthor with her of My Life in France) spoke of how even at the age of 91, Julia was planning her …