{"id":2721,"date":"2012-09-26T17:52:52","date_gmt":"2012-09-26T22:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gastronomyatbu.wordpress.com\/?p=2721"},"modified":"2018-03-28T17:53:09","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T21:53:09","slug":"all-about-julia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/2012\/09\/26\/all-about-julia\/","title":{"rendered":"All About Julia"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Emily Contois<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Drawing record crowds,\u00a0Siting Julia<\/a>, a day-long symposium hosted by the\u00a0Schlesinger Library<\/a>\u00a0at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study<\/a>\u00a0at Harvard\u00a0explored three sites of Julia\u2019s life:\u00a0Post\u2013World War II Paris;\u00a0Cambridge, Massachusetts; and national television. From the symposium, I\u2019ve put together four key attributes that speakers felt contributed to Julia\u2019s legacy:<\/p>\n

Her Personality\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Keynote speaker\u00a0Laura Shapiro<\/a>\u00a0(author of\u00a0Perfection Salad<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0Something from the Oven<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Julia Child<\/a>)<\/em>\u00a0recounted what Paul Child called \u201cJuliafication\u201d \u2014\u00a0the phenomenon by which Julia\u2019s warmth and attention lit up those around her. While many speakers discussed Julia\u2019s caring, generosity, and sense of humor,\u00a0Dana Polan<\/a>\u00a0(professor of Cinema Studies at NYU\u2019s Tisch School of the Arts and author of\u00a0Julia Child\u2019s \u201cThe French Chef\u201d)\u00a0<\/em>credits Julia\u2019s personality for her success on television. And\u00a0Lisa Abend<\/a>,\u00a0TIME<\/em>\u00a0correspondent in Spain, argues that we have Julia to thank for transforming food into entertainment.<\/p>\n

Her Love of Learning<\/strong><\/p>\n

Julia was the eternal student. Alex Prud\u2019homme (Julia\u2019s grandnephew and coauthor with her of\u00a0My Life in France<\/em><\/a>) spoke of how even at the age of 91, Julia was planning her next project \u2014\u00a0from learning to butcher in Chicago to teaching children to cook.<\/p>\n

Michela Larson, a\u00a0longtime restaurateur in Cambridge and Boston, told of Julia counseling one of her cooks, saying one does not have to go to culinary school to learn about food. The experience of cooking, working with food and under noted chefs, carried just as much weight with her.\u00a0Julia\u2019s own commitment to learning influenced her belief that cooking can be taught, a tenet central to her books and television shows.<\/p>\n

Her Moderate Approach to Food<\/strong><\/p>\n

While Julia is often heralded for her focus on fresh ingredients, her ideas on food were far ranging, often diverging from those currently endorsed by foodies and alternative food movement advocates. For example, she found organic food elitist, thought McDonald\u2019s French fries and Burger King hamburgers were the best, argued we ought not to worry about GMOs, and supported MSG. Julia did not see the point in vegetarianism, and according to Jane Thompson, who equipped Julia Child\u2019s television kitchen and came to know her well, Julia\u00a0once told her hair dresser, \u201cI\u2019m a card carrying carnivore. I eat anything and everything in moderation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her Contributions to Women\u2019s Issues<\/strong><\/p>\n

Keynote speaker Laura Shapiro, argued that Julia Child taught Americans to not belittle women in their domestic roles, and that her legacy is how she created a new way to be a woman that included a kitchen. Dorothy Shore Zinberg, an astoundingly well-rounded academic who was one of Julia\u2019s Cambridge friends and neighbors, contended that Cambridge was a ripe environment for Julia because Cambridge was a town full of unemployed and underemployed women with PhDs who cooked and loved food as an intellectual outlet.<\/p>\n

Julia Child began cooking on television the same year that Betty Friedan published\u00a0The Feminine Mystique.<\/em>\u00a0Both women stand as key figures engaging in women\u2019s issues, albeit in different ways. As artifacts of an amazing woman, Julia Child\u2019s books, papers, and television shows now tell us the story of a woman who found her destiny and chose to fulfill it in the kitchen. So often credited with elevating food in America, Julia also elevated cooking and the women who do it.<\/p>\n

Emily is a current gastronomy student and graduate assistant. Check out her research in food studies, nutrition, and public health on her blog,\u00a0emilycontois.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Emily Contois Drawing record crowds,\u00a0Siting Julia, a day-long symposium hosted by the\u00a0Schlesinger Library\u00a0at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study\u00a0at Harvard\u00a0explored three sites of Julia\u2019s life:\u00a0Post\u2013World War II Paris;\u00a0Cambridge, Massachusetts; and national television. From the symposium, I\u2019ve put together four key attributes that speakers felt contributed to Julia\u2019s legacy: Her Personality\u00a0 Keynote speaker\u00a0Laura Shapiro\u00a0(author of\u00a0Perfection […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14625,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2721"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14625"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8426,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2721\/revisions\/8426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}