Julia Child brought fancy cooking onto TV screens and helped demystify the culinary arts long before Emeril or the Iron Chef turned kitchen work into mainstream entertainment.
Child died Thursday at her home in Santa Barbara, Calif. She was 91.
She made cooking fun and helped generations learn their way around a stove and oven. She will be most remembered for her first PBS show, “The French Chef,” which debuted in 1963, and her multiple cookbooks. Her home kitchen in Cambridge, Mass., which was used for that series, was dismantled two years ago and moved to the Smithsonian.
She returned to the air with chef Jacques Pepin in the 1990s, introducing a new audience to her particular style.
During World War II, Child served in the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA. She was stationed in Sri Lanka, where she met her husband, Paul Child.
Her colorful life and the joy she took in cooking and food endeared her to a fast food nation.
Au revoir, Mrs. Child.
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