| By her own admission, Julia Child’s cooking initially left much to be desired. When she was a student at Smith College, the future chef and TV host aspired to be a “Great Woman Novelist,” and she followed her ambition to New York City, where she applied for a job at this very magazine. Child didn’t see much point in the kitchen until years later, when she moved to France with her husband, Paul, whom she’d met while working at the Office of Strategic Services—the precursor to the C.I.A. While in Paris, Child enrolled in a course at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school, and her life was transformed. “Until I got into cooking,” she told Calvin Tomkins, in a charming 1974 Profile, “I was never really interested in anything.” Inspired by her own gustatory education, Child decided to devote her life to sharing her new skills. When she became a collaborator on a book for Americans about French cuisine, she insisted that it be a “ ‘real teaching book’ rather than a mere collection of recipes,” Tomkins writes. “Julia thought that every step and every technique should be thoroughly explained, and that the reasoning behind the various techniques should also be made clear.” The effort succeeded. The first volume of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” earned not only sweeping praise and spectacular sales; it changed the way many Americans viewed their own kitchens. For decades now, home cooks, no longer intimidated by boeuf bourguignon or coq au vin, have returned to Child’s recipes to wow and delight their dinner guests. As Child would sign off on her long-running TV show, “Bon appétit!” | 
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