Pop culture – which means younger people – has re-discovered Child’s greatness
Julia Child’s contribution to wine has long been appreciated on the blog. It took the courage of her convictions to advocate for California labels in those long ago days before the Fighting Varietals, when opening a bottle of American-made chablis or something called mountain red was not to be taken lightly.
So imagine my surprise — and joy – to learn that young people have taken to Child, and that social media is atwitter with praise for her accomplishments. It’s one thing to appreciate what Child did to change the way we eat, cook, and drink wine if you’re old enough to have watched “The French Chef” with your mother. It’s another if all you know is an exhibit in a museum.
But there it is. A new documentary. A new HBO series. There’s even a TikTok channel.
“The real Child, in my time with her, she certainly struck me as suffering absolutely no fools, and she was whip smart and even sharp-tongued,” says Doug Frost, MS, MW, who worked with Child at the American Institute of Wine & Food, which she helped start. “She was an admirable person, don’t get me wrong. But there was no room for foolishness in her world. I thought her to be canny and shrewd; she could be charming, sure, but she knew what she wanted at any given time. You did not screw around with Julia Child.”
Which, come to think of it, is a fine role model for young people and especially young women — and one that, sadly, is still not common enough in today’s world.
Child was someone who came to American food when it was mostly women’s magazine recipes that used canned cream of mushroom soup, and she taught us about fresh ingredients and that there was something other for dinner besides beef, a baked potato, and an iceberg lettuce salad with rubber tomatoes. Perhaps most importantly, she tried to teach us we didn’t need to fear wine or food – a lesson too many of us, even in the wine and food business, still haven’t learned.
In addition, she crashed into the male-dominated world of both professional cooking and TV in a way no one had ever quite seen before. Can you imagine a 6-2 woman with that hair being a media star today?
So bring it on, young people, and pay attention to what Child has to say about wine and its place in our food and culture. And then watch the video at the top of the post, where Child puts one over on David Letterman (with maybe a twinkle in her eye, and maybe not). How often did anyone else do that?
