[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 21653-21654]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                          HONORING JULIA CHILD

 Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, it is a special honor for me to 
celebrate one of Massachusetts' most famous citizens and one of 
America's most famous chefs, Mrs. Julia Child. For over 40 years she 
has brightened our lives with recipes, books, and television shows that 
have broadened our palettes as well as our understanding of the world 
and on November 7 her peers will gather to honor her invaluable 
contributions to her craft. I am proud to join so many of Greater 
Boston's restaurants in celebrating this remarkable career at this and 
the many other events planned to recognize a uniquely American journey.
  Over the past four decades, Julia revolutionized the way America 
cooks and eats, expanding and elevating the sophistication of the 
American appetite. Her influence can be seen in the bookstores of the 
country, where dining and cooking sections have grown to compete with 
history and commerce, and on the television, where cooking shows have 
proliferated and now present and celebrate traditions from all over the 
world.
  Julia is widely credited with exposing the American kitchen to the 
tastes,

[[Page 21654]]

practices and history of international cooking, with specific focus on 
France. Her television shows, all of which were peppered with 
spontaneity, the occasional gaffe and her radiant personality, made 
cooking fun and accessible. She loved the basic mechanics of the 
kitchen, the how and why behind each step. Somehow, in its entirety, 
her career struck that elusive balance between removing the mystery of 
international cuisine while still celebrating its mystique.
  For those who know Julia, who understand the steel and the intellect 
of this magnificent woman, it will come as no surprise that she made 
substantive contributions to American life even before she found fame 
in America's kitchens. After graduating Smith College and volunteering 
at the Red Cross, she joined the CIA's precursor, the Office of 
Strategic Services, OSS, and served throughout the World War II. When 
the OSS announced the need for volunteers to staff offices overseas, 
Julia was thrilled by the prospect of serving her country in a higher 
capacity. Her work in America's first intelligence agency took her to 
Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, India and China. Like so much else in her 
pioneering career, Julia was one of the first women to contribute to 
the war's intelligence effort in such an active position, earning 
promotions and accolades in what was very much a male-dominated agency.
  After the war, Julia and her husband, Paul, moved to Paris where he 
joined the U.S. Information Service. It was in the famed gourmet 
restaurants along the Seine that Julia developed her insatiable love of 
French cuisine. Inspired by the simple yet majestic culinary creations 
found across the Atlantic, French cooking soon became Julia's 
obsession. Determined as ever, she entered the prestigious Corden Bleu 
cooking school, again as the lone woman. Just six years out of culinary 
school, Julia and three fellow expatriates founded the ``L'ecole des 
Trois Gourmandes,'' a school of the culinary arts in Paris. Ten years 
after her first taste of souffle Julia published with two other chefs 
what is still the most thorough and comprehensive French cooking manual 
brought to the States, ``Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 
I.'' In this book, which has since become a classic, Julia made the 
complex and unpronounceable cuisine accessible and appealing to 
mainstream America, forever changing how America approaches cooking, 
dining and entertaining.
  After the publication of Volume I, Julia returned to America and 
commenced one of the most fruitful television careers in history. ``The 
French Chef,'' a show that began with Julia using her own hot plate and 
frying pan in a news studio at WGBH in Boston, became one of the 
longest running television shows in history. As a deeper testament to 
her commitment to the public good, Child donated her whole salary to 
public broadcasting in order to help fund future public television 
endeavors.
  Julia donned the apron in seven other television cooking shows, 
including Dinner at Julia's and The Master Chef Series. She has won 
several Emmy Awards and just last year was elected to the French Legion 
of Honor, an extremely prestigious honor awarded by the French 
Government. Characteristically, Julia has used her success to forge 
many philanthropic efforts and broaden global understanding, including 
the American Institute of Wine and Food and the Julia Child Circle.
  This month Julia is moving to California after devoting more than 
four decades to her profession. She has changed forever the way we will 
cook and eat in America, she upheld the highest standards of 
professionalism and generosity throughout her career, and wrote an 
indelible chapter in the progress of women in our society.
  Her cheer and wit will be greatly missed on our television sets but 
the knowledge and insight she served will remain in our kitchens for a 
long time to come. I honor her to say, and I wish her the best of luck 
as she begins this new chapter in her life by borrowing the phrase that 
she not only concluded every show with, but also added into the popular 
American lexicon--Bon Apetit!

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