Discover the Best Books Written by Julia Child

Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which premiered in 1963.

On August 15, 1912, Julia Child was born Julia Carolyn McWilliams in Pasadena, California. The child's father was John McWilliams Jr. (1880–1962), a Princeton University graduate and prominent land manager. The child's mother was Julia Carolyn ("Caro") Weston (1877–1937), a paper-company heiress and daughter of Byron Curtis Weston, a lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. The child was the eldest of three, followed by a brother, John McWilliams III, and a sister, Dorothy Cousins.

The child attended Polytechnic School from 4th grade to 9th grade in Pasadena, California. In high school, Child was sent to the Katherine Branson School in Ross, California, a boarding school at the time. At six feet, two inches (1.88 m) tall, the Child played tennis, golf, and basketball as a youth.

The child also played sports while attending Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, from which she graduated in 1934 with a major in history. She planned to become a novelist or magazine writer when she graduated. Following her graduation from college, Child moved to New York City, where she worked for a time as a copywriter for the advertising department of W. & J. Sloane, but it did not work out. In fact, she was still hoping to become a novelist.

While Child grew up in a family with a cook, she did not observe or learn cooking from this person, and she never learned until she met her husband-to-be, Paul, who grew up in a family very interested in food.