17 Of Julia Child's Favorite Foods

Since the debut of her groundbreaking television show "The French Chef," in 1963, Julia Child has inspired throngs of foodies to eat well and live large. Her infectious joie de vivre and capacity to make even the most complex recipe replicable elevated the celebrity chef to icon status. Her legacy has continued to pique the curiosity of a new generation of fans long past her death in August 2004.

One thing that fans frequently wonder about is what Julia Child enjoyed eating on a day-to-day basis. While some of her favorite foods were gourmet delicacies worthy of a Michelin restaurant — like the sole meunière she first enjoyed at the iconic La Couronne in Rouen — others are more humble fare. For example, she surprisingly loved a juicy burger from In-N-Out. Read on to discover what other foods tickled Julia's taste buds, and had her warbling an enthusiastic "bon appétit."

Among the more playful, child-like foods that Julia Child appreciated were Goldfish crackers. Indeed, these happy, dainty, orange fishes made a regular appearance as a Thanksgiving appetizer at the Child's residence. The quintessential host, Julia was a woman of her times, offering passersby throughout the day a cocktail served with goldfish.

"The Snack That Smiles Back" was invented by Pepperidge Farm founder Margaret Rudkin in 1962, just one year before Child launched her iconic television show. They were initially intended to be used as a soup cracker, but were quickly adopted as a popular accompaniment to alcoholic libations. The first flavors to appear on the American market were Original, Cheese, Barbecue, Pizza, and Smoky, with Cheddar joining the ranks in 1966. While many of these would have been ideal served with a glass of champagne, knowing Julia's affinity for novelty, we suspect she would have been serving the latest innovation to her lucky guests.

When you think of Julia Child, fast food may not be the first thing that comes to mind. What many people don't know is that this native Californian had an affinity for a particular fast food chain that was also birthed in the state: In-N-Out. The chain, which emerged in Baldwin Park in 1948, was a popular stop for Child, who purportedly visited the location in Santa Maria on numerous occasions, much to the excitement of its employees.

The self-proclaimed "French Chef" was so fond of In-N-Out that she is said to have kept a list of its locations safely tucked in her purse so that she could always find one when she had a hankering for one of its Double-Double burgers. Julia was also a fan of potatoes, especially those that have been fried, as is evidenced by her episode on the subject, which aired on season 9 of her popular series. This fast food joint makes French fries from scratch using actual potatoes that are sliced directly into the fryer, which must have made Julia very happy, indeed.

One of the most interesting facts about Julia Child is that she was once a member of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency, which led many to suspect that she was a spy for the government. While Child always denied this claim, she did enlist during World War II and was subsequently assigned to serve in posts throughout Asia. It was during this time that she fell in love with her soon-to-be husband Paul Child and Chinese food.

While stationed in Kunming, China, she and Paul began exploring their love of one another and food, he being the de facto guide to both. Julia became so enamored, she was purportedly inspired to begin cooking. Though she was not well-known for cooking Chinese food, something she realized was a unique skill requiring a completely distinct pantry, her affection for the complexity and flavors of this culinary tradition remained strong throughout her life.

Julia took one condiment more seriously than perhaps any other, mayonnaise. She was so fond of making homemade mayonnaise that she dedicated an entire episode to the topic in season 6 of "The French Chef." That said, Child would be the first to state that this condiment is notoriously fickle to execute, requiring careful technique, quality ingredients, and a lot of elbow grease to produce.

While she may have professed that there is nothing better than mayonnaise made from scratch, she wasn't beyond taking a little help in the kitchen when necessary and always kept a jar of Hellman's brand mayo on hand in her pantry. Hellman's featured prominently in some of Julia's favorite recipes, including her go-to tuna salad and her exalted potato salad, which featured a not-so-traditional ingredient, namely starchy potato water, which helped to thicken the creamy dressing. Though Hellman's comes in many different varieties, we suspect Julia would have been a bit of a purist, preferring the most basic variety so that it did not mask the flavor of whatever she was putting it on.

Among the most classic French soup recipes is a simple, yet elegant, potage parmentier or potato leek soup. It is frequently chilled and served cold, when it is called vichyssoise. This chilled version of potato leek soup was a known favorite of Julia Child's. In an episode about soup, on Season 2 of "The French Chef," she featured a recipe for potage parmentier, calling it "the backbone of the nation." In this episode, she also illustrated how to transform it into a vichyssoise.

The recipe requires very few ingredients, including leeks, potatoes, salt, water, milk, heavy cream, and, occasionally, butter. Once the soup has been puréed with either a food mill or immersion blender, it is chilled and served with freshly chopped chives. Ironically, though most people perceive this soup as French in origin, and it is enjoyed by those in France, according to Child, vichyssoise was invented by a French chef named Louis Diat while he was the head of the kitchen at the famed Ritz Hotel in New York City.

If you have watched any of the documentaries, movies, or television series made about the life of Julia Child, a majority of these will depict one pivotal moment in the chef's life, a meal she enjoyed when she first got to France in 1948 at La Couronne. La Couronne is one of the most well-known and enduring restaurants in Rouen, the capital of the Normandy region of France. This meal consisted of a simple, yet elegant, dish known as sole meunière.

Sole meunière consists of lightly battered, pan-fried Dover sole that is served with brown butter, lemon juice, capers, and freshly chopped parsley. Crisp on the outside and moist on the inside, this dish and that meal left Julia Child stating "It came upon me that that was what I was looking for all my life. One taste of that food and I never turned back," according to CNN.

Julia Child spent the majority of the latter part of her life until her death living and, more importantly, eating in and around Santa Barbara, which is now the home of the Julia Child Foundation. In March 2020, an offshoot of the Foundation, the Santa Barbara Experience, was slated to launch a weekend of festivities in honor of the late Child. This event was derailed and postponed due to COVID-19. That said, a map depicting some of Child's favorite places to dine in and around Santa Barbara was disseminated.

Known as "Julia Child's Guide to Santa Barbara," this map indicated that one of the chef's not-so-guilty pleasures was an inexpensive hot dog at Costco's iconic Food Court in Goleta, California. We can't say we blame her. The quarter-pound, all-beef hot dog still retails for $1.50, including a 20-ounce, refillable soda, and it remains popular with shoppers across social media.

According to culinary lore, the first cake Julia Child ever consumed in France was a chocolate almond delight known as Reine de Saba or Queen of Sheba. This elegant, nay sexy, gateau consists of chocolate, butter, flour, eggs, sugar, rum, almond extract, and whole almonds for decorating. It is as decadent as it is boozy.

Child demonstrates how to make this recipe in season 5 of "The French Chef," where she exhibits her penchant for cooking with and enjoying an alcoholic libation or three. In this case, she employs a dark Jamaican rum to give this cake flavor and help to moisten it. Not only does this cake contain rum in the base, but the alcohol is used to create its chocolate butter glaze, which, as Julia notes is the "crown" on the cake, giving the queen her royal appearance. At the end of the episode, Child professes: "I think it's the best cake you've ever tasted."

Though European chocolate is generally hailed as some of the best in the industry for baking, occasionally an American brand breaks through and gains the attention of celebrity chefs for its consistent quality. This is the case with Scharffen Berger Chocolate, which Julia Child once claimed was the best in the U.S. Indeed, Julia first became acquainted with the brand in the late 1990s, when she and colleague Jacques Pepin attended the Aspen Food and Wine Classic, where this chocolate was being sampled. The moment, and the relationship between Child and this brand, are portrayed in the movie "Julie & Julia."

This brand evolved out of the research on chocolate and chocolate-making one of its founders did in Lyon, France. Its "farm-to-bar" approach with a French sensibility is what makes the Scharffen Berger Chocolate brand so unique. Additionally, a key feature that is beloved by professional bakers and celebrity chefs alike, namely adding cocoa percentages of chocolate to the label, was introduced by this brand.

It may seem cliché to base someone's favorite food off of what they'd choose to eat for their final meal, but this is precisely how we know that Julia Child was enamored with her own French onion soup, as it was her final supper on the eve of her death at the age of 91. This recipe was also featured in her famous "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and on season 1 of "The French Chef," which are additional indicators of the centrality of this soup in the life of this icon.

The key to Julia's recipe is in the details, one of which is slowly and carefully slicing and cooking the onions until they are perfectly caramelized and a mahogany brown color, a feat that takes a lot more patience than most people realize. She also tended to make homemade beef stock for this soup, something that is also time-consuming and labor-intensive. Lastly, while many recipes for French onion soup call for topping a crock of soup with cheese and melting it, Julia always served her French onion soup with a crouton of French bread adorned with melted Swiss cheese.

Mushroom risotto was a dish that was not just beloved by Child, but was instrumental in the development of one of her most cherished friendships. She first ate this recipe in 1971 at a restaurant owned by celebrity chef Lidia Bastianich. She was so enamored with it that she asked the chef to show her how to make it. Bastianich subsequently made two appearances on Julia's television show, including one where she produced her famed mushroom risotto, and the two women maintained their friendship until Child's death.

This wasn't the only indication of Julia's penchant for mushrooms. In season 3 of her original show, she dedicated an entire episode to cooking fungi, which she notes is central to French cooking. In this episode she presents some of her most invaluable tricks for cleaning and cooking champignons, including the iconic recommendation depicted in the film "Julie & Julia" of not crowding the mushrooms in a pan.

Critics of La Super-Rica Taqueria are quick to point out that Julia Child was an expert in French cuisine. While that may be the case, she was also a lover of food and would eat with gusto. If she enjoyed something, she was quick to spread the good word so that others would have the chance to experience what she had. This was the case with La Super-Rica Taqueria, which opened in the mid-1980s. Child was so fond of this hole-in-the-wall located in her hometown of Santa Barbara, California, that she gloated about it on "Good Morning America," in an interview with Bon Appétit, and to anyone who would pay her a visit.

According to some reports, her favorite dish there was a plate of tamales. Though perhaps not the most authentic Mexican food around, La Super-Rica Taqueria does make dynamite, freshly made tortillas. It also has an ambiance that is bright and inviting.

Proof of Julia Child's fondness for a classic angel hair pomodoro comes from a 2013 memoir penned by restaurateur Steve DiFillippo named "It's All About the Guest: Exceeding Expectations in Business and in Life the Davio's Way." Within the pages of this trope, this founder of the famed Boston eatery Davio's Northern Italian Steakhouse, recounts his relationship with friend and mentor Julia Child, who was apparently quite enamored with this simple pasta dish.

A classic pasta pomodoro features a basic sauce made from olive oil, garlic, San Marzano tomatoes, fresh basil, oregano, and butter. It is tossed together with hot angel hair pasta and leftover, starchy, pasta cooking water before being garnished with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. While not fancy, this meal is certainly the epitome of comfort food, and perhaps the culprit of a few impromptu cat naps Child took in the back of a limousine while in the presence of DiFilippo.

Île flottante or floating island, is a French dessert that was featured in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." This sweet treat features delicate mounds of pillowy meringue swimming in an ocean of velvety crème anglaise. The result is something elegant and unique that Julia absolutely adored.

While this recipe seems simple enough to execute, it takes a bit of practice to cook to perfection. Not only is meringue notoriously fickle to make, failing to set up with even the most minor of faux pas, including a bowl that isn't properly dried or egg whites that haven't been thoroughly separated from their yolks, but the crème anglaise can swiftly turn from something smooth and silky to a really bad variation on scrambled eggs. Perhaps this is why Julia had such an affinity for the dessert. It not only challenged her as a chef, it yielded something that seemed truly magical when it actually came together without a hitch.

While the sole meunière may have been the star of the first meal Julia ever ate in France at La Couronne, her first course was equally as revelatory for the chef. The meal began with a dozen oysters on the half shell served with rye bread and butter. In her memoir, "My Life in France," Julia comments that the oysters had "a sensational briny flavor and a smooth texture that was entirely new and surprising."

Child's love affair with oysters on the half shell persisted even after returning to the United States. She was a frequent diner at the famed Legal Sea Foods restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which burned down in 1980, and was known to be a regular at the Santa Barbara Shellfish Company located on Stearns Wharf, which specializes in a vast array of seafood and shellfish offerings. It is worth noting that those first oysters at La Couronne were served accompanied by a bottle of Pouilly-Fumé, cementing Julia's fondness for finding the perfect wine to pair with a dish or meal, something that persisted throughout her career and life.

Another local eatery that is featured on "Julia Child's Guide to Santa Barbara," is McConnell's Fine Ice Creams. This ice cream parlor was one of the chef's favorite places to enjoy a sweet treat during the final years of her life, when she was well-known for her insatiable appetite and desire to go out on the town to explore and take in the local scenery.

Opened in 1949, McConnell's Fine Ice Creams got its start by producing ice cream using an authentic European French Pot ice cream-making process, which likely appealed to the francophile. This ice cream differs from others in its rich, thick texture, which is perhaps more akin to gelato than American ice cream tends to be. Though McConnell's produces staples, like vanilla and chocolate, it also specializes in unusual flavors, such as Brazilian coffee, peppermint stick, and a Eureka lemon and marionberries, which captures some of the quintessential flavors of the central California coast.

When welcoming guests to her home, Julia Child was well-known for offering them a cocktail and a helping of Goldfish crackers. Among her preferred cocktails to whip up was something called an upside-down or reverse martini. Unlike a classic martini, this version turns the ratio of ingredients on its head, featuring a greater proportion of dry vermouth to gin or vodka. This not only alters the flavor profile, adding more layers of botanicals, but it lowers the alcohol volume, making these more drinkable and less likely to result in a hangover.

Since the vermouth is the star of this beverage, choosing a high-quality vermouth is of the utmost importance. Though vermouth production originally began in Italy, quality vermouth can be found all across the globe. Many of the best brands hail from Julia's beloved France, including Dolin Blanc. Each vermouth lends a distinctive flavor that can completely change the underlying taste of the martini, making this martini endlessly customizable.