CHILD, JULIA

born Aug. 15, 1912, Pasadena, Calif., U.S. ne Julia McWilliams American cooking expert, author, and television personality noted for her promotion of traditional French cuisine. The daughter of a prosperous financier and consultant, Julia McWilliams graduated from Smith College (B.A., 1934) and worked occasionally in advertising. During World War II, from 1941 to 1945, she worked in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and China for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS, the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency), where she met Paul Cushing Child, whom she married in 1945. During the Childs' six-year postwar stay in Paris, she attended the Cordon Bleu cooking school for six months and studied privately with master chef Max Bugnard. She and two French friends, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, in 1951 founded L'cole des Trois Gourmandes ("The School of the Three Gourmands") and later wrote the best-selling cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking, 2 vol. (1961, 1970). The Childs settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1961. From Boston's public television station she then initiated the immensely popular cookery series The French Chef (premiered 1962), followed by the 13-part Julia Child and Company (1978). Two later series, Dinner at Julia's (premiered 1983) and Baking with Julia (1996), featured guest chefs. She produced a book under the name of each of her shows and also wrote The Way to Cook (1989) and Cooking with Master Chefs (1993). Additional reading Nol Riley Fitch, Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child (1997), chronicles Child's life and career.