The Wartime Cuisine That Made Julia Child Fall In Love With Cooking
Julia Child's impact on American and French cuisine is unparalleled. Her life's work to bring the cooking she learned in France to the rest of the world continues to inspire both at-home and restaurant chefs. Her seminal work, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," has two volumes that are a must-have for any cookbook library. She practically invented "how-to" cooking programs with "The French Chef" in 1963. In the half-century since then, her various cooking shows haven't stopped airing.
Child has become something of a mythic figure, but what made her so impactful was her approachability, warmth, and charm. Those attributes were on full display when she didn't flinch amid a hilarious cooking fail on David Letterman's late-night show. Her humility was perfectly suited to bring the perceived uppity French cuisine into our homes.
It's worth wondering how she ended up falling so in love with cooking that she needed to share that with the world so generously. It's well known that she was in Paris while her husband was stationed at the U.S. Embassy. But her love of food predates her time in France.
Chinese cuisine helped Julia Child fall in love with cooking, and her husband
During World War II, Child enlisted to become one of the thousands of women working for the Office of Strategic Services, which would evolve into the Central Intelligence Agency. One of her assignments was to help develop a way to keep sharks from accidentally detonating mines meant for German submarines. The resulting shark repellent was a little-known but crucial tool for the war effort.
Eventually, she served in various posts throughout Asia. This was when she met another OSS officer, Paul Child. Eventually, they would marry, move to France, and change the world. Before that, they fell in love while eating at a restaurant in Kunming, China.
Paul wasn't the only thing that she fell in love with in Kunming. As she told the Wall Street Journal, "The Chinese food was wonderful, and we ate out as often as we could. That is when I became interested in food. I just loved Chinese food."
Her love of Chinese food was so deep that she didn't dare disrespect it by attempting to cook any Chinese cuisine. A 1974 New Yorker profile said Child understood it takes an entire lifetime to master all the cuisines of France, so she stayed in her lane of French cooking and left Chinese food for dining out. But, if it came to it, she wrote, "I would be perfectly happy with only Chinese food."
A classic Julia Child recipe, with a Chinese twist
If you've never seen her original show, "The French Chef," it's worth a look. YouTube has many of those original episodes, and they show how almost every cooking show since has followed the same outline. Note her charm and how she translates the intimidating Boeuf Bourguignon into a relatable beef stew with red wine. The station that produced her first TV series, WGBH, provides the recipe for one of her signature dishes. It's worth making.
If you, like Julia Child, have a penchant for Chinese food but, unlike her, are willing to make it for yourself, there are some fantastic versions of beef stew with Chinese flavors. The Woks of Life provides a recipe for Chinese Braised Beef Stew with Daikon. In this case, Shaoxing wine, a foundation for Chinese cooking, takes the place of red wine. And daikon is an interesting alternative to carrots, onions, and mushrooms. It's a simple, hearty, one-pot meal that seems like it would get Child's approval.