Prior to making her mark on America’s home kitchens and restaurants, Julia Child was an American abroad, a fish out of water with an insatiable curiosity and zest for life. How she became the Julia Child, the grand dame of American cooking, and the person credited with introducing Americans to the art and joy of French cooking, is a story for the ages, and one that Richmond’s Virginia Museum of History and Culture tackles in a new exhibit, Julia Child: A Recipe for Life. The exhibit opens Saturday.
How Julia Child found her way into almost every American midcentury home thanks to her revolutionary cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her much-beloved TV show, The French Chef. Visitors to her kitchen at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, DC, know her, as do those who have read her memoir, My Life in France. And some may know her through the reputation of one of her famous disciples, Patrick O’Connell, of The Inn at Little Washington, which has three Michelin stars, one of 13 restaurants in the nation with that distinction. Whatever the connection, visitors will delight in Julia Child: A Recipe for Life.
Through extensive photographs, handwritten letters, recipes, and ephemera (including a charming love sonnet written by her husband Paul Child), as well as a re-creation of the kitchen set from The French Chef, replicas of Child’s copper pots that allow you to actually smell the scent of her famous dishes, and immersive displays that allows visitors to imagine her transformative first meal in France that would be her lifelong love affair with that country’s cuisine, the exhibit is deeply engaging, highly interactive, and will enlighten even the most ardent Child fan.
The exhibit also explores Child’s mark on the work of a handful of notable chefs in Virginia including David Shannon of Richmond’s L’Opossum who worked under Patrick O’Connell at The Inn at Little Washington. The through line of Child’s influence is palpable throughout the exhibit and perhaps nowhere more so than at the entrance where O’Connell’s red wood-burning stove stands as a testament to his success which Child personally nurtured. O’Connell’s Inn, which is now one of the most highly sought-after dining establishments in the country, began, as he notes “with the wood-burning stove, a frying pan, and Julia’s recipes.” Recalling the early days of just starting out, O’Connell recounts, “I dove into that book [Mastering the Art of French Cooking] and became one with it. I cooked myself through it.” Visitors, certainly, will leave feeling inspired to do the same.
Julia Child: A Recipe For Life opens this Saturday, March 16, and runs through Monday, September 2. Tickets are $12; $10 for seniors, educators, and military servicemembers: $8 for children under 17; and free for those under 5. 428 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd., Richmond
Feature image of Julia Child and Patrick O’Connell courtesy Henry Ford Museum
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