Julia Child Mastered the Art of Living — Here’s How You Can Too

In honor of the beloved American chef’s birthday, we revisit her long-lasting life lessons

Marilyn Anthony,

AARP

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Published August 14, 2024

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The improbably named recipe for Chicken Melon describes a “boned and stuffed chicken formed, in its own skin, into a pâté the shape of a melon,” covering five pages with step-by-step instructions and several how-to photos. It lists 20 ingredients, including “a big speck of nutmeg” and requires a trussing needle — or “a mattress or sail-makers needle.” I was a 20-something aspiring cook with basic skills, determined to master this complex recipe from the 1978 Julia Child & Company cookbook by dinnertime. Heartened by Child’s brave approach to culinary challenges, I sharpened my knives and set to work.

I remember sweating from exertion trying to debone that chicken without piercing the skin, having to sit back and think hard before moving to the next step, and spending the better part of a day on that project. Hours later, in a kitchen perfumed with deliciousness, my “melon” emerged from the oven. It was magnificent.

Setting the bar

When Child first appeared on the culinary scene in the 1960s, many of us were trapped in a bleak foodscape of canned and frozen convenience food. In our home kitchens, we dined on the faux international cuisine of Italian food by Chef Boyardee, Asian dishes by Chun King, unidentifiably sourced frozen fish sticks and the ultimate multicourse treat of Swanson frozen TV dinners. Fine-dining restaurants featured slabs of medium rare prime rib au jus, foil-wrapped baked potatoes and wedges of pale iceberg lettuce slathered in pink-tinged Russian dressing.

Then Child showed us how to lovingly cook authentic French food from scratch when she debuted her groundbreaking and career-making first book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume One, published by Knopf in 1961. It would be overstating to claim that Child put me on the path to becoming a chef, a professional chef instructor and eventually a restaurant owner, but she certainly, as befits her stature, had an outsize influence, starting with Chicken Melon.

Julia Child demonstrates how to stuff sausages on her cooking show, “The French Chef, ” in 1971.

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From the late 1970s through 2005, I gained plenty of cooking experience. I was a chef at numerous Philadelphia establishments during a restaurant renaissance, ran a prestigious catering business, taught cooking to aspiring chefs at the Restaurant School in Philly and cofounded Everyday Gourmet cooking school for home cooks in Newtown Square. In 2005, I served as CEO of White Dog Cafe, a nationally revered pioneer of the farm-to-table movement, and by 2006, I owned and was operating Summerhouse Grill, a boutique seasonal restaurant serving locally produced food in Montrose, Pennsylvania. Along the way I’ve also been a recipe tester for cookbooks by renowned chefs Marc Vetri and Masaharu Morimoto.

Although I never had the pleasure of meeting Child, my role model, who died in 2004, I was delighted to discover that some of my chef and nonchef friends had encountered her. In recounting their experiences — with the exception of recalling two cherished recipes (coq au vin and a lemony bean soup) — each cited her character. My friends recalled Child’s courage, generosity and persistence; how she came into her own in her 50s, bringing a lifetime of experience, some of which was failure; how she combined deep knowledge with boundless enthusiasm and showed us what it is to be a pioneer, empowering women and changing minds — always with humor and respect for everyone she encountered, from VIPs to worker bees. As more than one person laughingly observed, she taught us it’s OK to drop some food on the floor and serve it anyway.

Timeless lessons

This August 15, as we remember Child’s birthday, it’s worth revisiting some of the timeless lessons she offered to her millions of fans — not just insights about food but advice that is equally applicable to a life well-lived. Throughout her television series and her many cookbooks, she dispensed good sense that still rings true today. Here’s a taste of how Child’s culinary wisdom expands to practical observations for everyday living, taken from the delightful foreword of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

“We therefore urge you, however much you have cooked, always to read the recipe first.”

How many times have you launched into making a new dish only to find midway that you are missing an ingredient, have mistakenly assumed what comes next or have failed to take into account wait times for marinating, chilling or final cooking? Child wrote detailed, nearly textbook-level recipes that require attention be paid. Her foundational advice for all cooks is to understand what the dish asks for or “astonishment, frustration and even disaster” will occur.

For living: No matter how much you think you already know, don’t let your assumptions guide you. A TLDR (too long; didn't read) approach won’t work for most worthwhile endeavors. Before embarking on any venture, think it through. Ask questions. Know the mile markers. Understand the desired outcome.

“Pay close attention to what you are doing.”

As Child learned through practice, precision in small details can elevate passable cooking into fine food. So many changes happen quickly during cooking. Too much or too little results from not closely attending to the task at hand. Will you make a rubbery omelet or an ethereal delight?

For living: Multitasking is the enemy of quality outcomes. The temptation is strong to appear more productive, but there is a cost. Jumping from task to task while juggling multiple devices is the new normal. Mistakes, omissions, stress and an absence of enjoyment in a task itself happen when our attention is divided.

“Allow yourself plenty of time.”

Who hasn’t knocked themselves out up to the very minute guests arrive? Child lobbies against taking on too much, especially when learning to cook and wanting to share the results with family and friends. Be kind to yourself. Take on what you can reasonably manage. By the time company arrives, you’ll be frazzled and possibly even disheveled, too weary to take pleasure from your efforts.

For living: Rushing causes bad things to happen. Time is and always will be our most precious resource. Building in ample time means less heart-pounding, dry-mouthed moments.

“Be sure your oven is hot before the dish goes in.”

Do we really need to be told this? It follows her admonitions to read the recipe and allow the right amount of time because we’re all tempted to cheat a bit. Why not pop that pan in the oven while it preheats. For reasons all cooks will understand. Having the right temperature at the start is the only way to be confident about cooking times. If you ignore proper preheating, Child cautions, things will not turn out well.

For living: Do the work to get ready. Whatever form preparation takes, invest the time and effort to show up with the right information, the right gear, the right attitude.

“A pot-saver is a self-hampering cook.”

If you’ve had the pleasure of viewing Child’s kitchen at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., you know that woman had a lot of purpose-built equipment. She did not skimp by trying to make one bowl or pan do double duty. But she encourages a bit of self-care. Use what you need to do the job well, but soak every used item as you go to make final cleanup easier.

For living: Gear up purposefully. While DIY is a valuable approach and making do is sometimes unavoidable, there are times when it pays to have the right tool for the task — period. That probably does not include the latest must-have gadget, soon to be forgotten in a kitchen cabinet.

Julia Child and husband, Paul Child, enjoying a glass of wine together in 1975.

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“Train yourself to use your hands and fingers; they are wonderful instruments.”

Professional chefs know that human hands are miraculous instruments. Our hands combine the dexterity, sensitivity and strength that enable chefs to judge doneness, execute both delicate and coarse actions, and wield sharp knives for maximum impact. Even as they age, our hands can be valuable kitchen tools.

For living: Recognize your inherent strengths. Just as we may overlook the power of our hands as tools, it is easy to devalue your own personal resources. Learning how to channel and honor what you’ve got at any age, whether it’s curiosity, skill, determination or something more, contributes to your willingness to take on new challenges. Julia knew she did not fit the mold for a television personality or a chef, but she used her unique abilities to overcome such biases.

Now about that Chicken Melon — I never made it again. Why would I when the world that Child invited us into was brimming with so many other wonderful dishes to master and savor and share? Thank you, Julia, for this enduring, life-changing gift. And happy birthday!

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Marilyn Anthony is a former chef, restaurant owner and local foods advocate who greatly enjoys all things related to food. She recently left her role as a professor of strategy and social entrepreneurship to ghostwrite nonfiction books and lives in Philadelphia with her husband and their pampered pit bull.