The French Chef

The French Chef introduced French cooking to the United States at a time when it was considered expensive restaurant fare, not suitable for home cooking. Child emphasized fresh and, at the time, unusual ingredients. All of the recipes used on The French Chef had originally appeared in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but for the show, Child chose mostly the more domestic recipes from the book, although such showpieces as Beef Wellington, various sorts of soufflé, and some ambitious pastries also made it into the mix if they seemed within the reach of a home cook without staff.

The show was done live-to-videotape from start to finish, leaving little room for mistakes. The resulting occasional accidents became a popular trademark of Child's on air presence, used as "teachable moments" to encourage viewers to relax about the task's demands.

Certain elements became motifs: Julia's fondness for wine; her distinctive voice; her staunch defense of the use of butter (with margarine invariably referred to as "that other spread") and cream; her standard issue "impeccably clean towel"; and her closing line at the end of every show: "This is Julia Child, Bon appétit!"

So good is she that men who have not the slightest intention of going to the kitchen for anything but ice cubes watch her for pure enjoyment.

— Time magazine cover story from November 1966[2]

Child's first appearance cooking on TV had been by happenstance: a guest for another show on WGBH had cancelled their appearance, as did the backup guest. Child was invited to do a cooking demonstration, which received positive feedback and prompted executives to order a pilot.[3]

When the show began, the budget was so low that "volunteers had to be recruited to wash dishes, and the food sometimes had to be auctioned to the audience afterwards to cover expenses."[2]

In 1964 Child received a Peabody Award, crediting her for doing "more than show us how good cooking is achieved; by her delightful demonstrations she has brought the pleasures of good living into many American homes."[4] In May 1966, her show won a Primetime Emmy Award for Achievements in Educational Television – Individuals.[5]

The August 27, 1968 episode of The French Chef (rerun from an episode sometime in 1965) ended with the unexpected collapse of an Apple Charlotte.

The October 31, 1971 episode of The French Chef (on its ninth anniversary) was the first U.S. television show to be captioned for deaf viewers.[6]

The show was produced by Ruth Lockwood and directed by Russell Morash, Russell Fortier, David Griffiths and David B. Atwood.[7] Film composer John Morris wrote the 2nd theme song of The French Chef.

The show eventually became so popular that Child's use of a particular ingredient each week would sometimes cause a surge in demand and lead to grocery stores across the country temporarily selling out of it.[3]

As part of its growing Twitch Creative content, Twitch streamed every episode of The French Chef over a four-day period starting on March 15, 2016, to launch its new food channel.[8][9] Twitch reported that almost a million viewers watched the marathon.[10]

Two companion cookbooks were written along with the show. The French Chef Cookbook was a show-by-show breakdown of the black and white series,[14] while From Julia Child's Kitchen was a somewhat more ambitious work that was based on the color series but also added considerable extra material.[15]

• Julia Child's Kitchen Wisdom (2000)
• Julia and Jacques: Cooking at Home (2003)
• Julia Child: America's Favorite Chef (2004)
• The French Chef: Volume One (2005)
• The French Chef: Volume Two (2005)
• The French Chef with Julia Child (As Seen on Public Television). WGBH 2005 3 DVDs, runtime 432 min. (2005)
• Julia Child! The French Chef (2006)
• The French Chef: Julia Child's French Classics (2012)[16]

• The French Chef at IMDb
• Cover: Julia Child – Nov. 25, 1966 from Time magazine
• The French Chef at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television