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It is difficult to overestimate the impact Julia Child had on both the medium of television and the American culinary landscape. As co-author of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” and host of the groundbreaking TV show “The French Chef” (despite being neither French nor a chef), Child was instrumental in popularizing French cuisine and helping create the cooking show as we know it today. Yet she did not do this alone. In one famous photograph from the set of “The French Chef,” five staffers can be seen sitting beneath the statuesque Child during filming, out of sight of the camera, ready to hand her whatever she needs as she cooks.
As was common on television at the time, early episodes of “The French Chef” were shot in a single, continuous, seamless take, with no breaks taken to fetch an ingredient from offscreen, cut ahead in the cooking process, or repeat a misspoken line. Doing an entire episode in one take would likely be an intimidating challenge to most modern cooking show hosts. Nevertheless, Child was able to pull it off through a combination of exacting rehearsals for each program, her characteristic quickness and grace under pressure (as evidenced when she whipped up an impromptu omelet for a spellbound interviewer during her first TV appearance), and the mutual understanding she developed with the show’s crew, who would sometimes lend an unseen hand.
The picture that shows the good humor on the set of The French Chef
The extent to which Child relied upon the hidden hands of her crew while filming is somewhat disputed. Early in an episode of the second season of “The French Chef,” she does indeed appear to be handing several items to someone hidden beneath the table as she demonstrates how to prepare her celebrated coq au vin. However, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History notes that the photograph of crew members huddled under the kitchen table was a prank that allowed Child and the WGBH production team to mock the false perception that she operated entirely on her own.
This good humor was apparently common on set. One Reddit user recalled that the brother of a former boss worked on “The French Chef” during this period; on one occasion, they wrote a crew member hid inside the refrigerator unbeknownst to Child, and when she opened the door to retrieve her fish, the staffer handed it to her. “Ms Child never missed a beat on camera but cracked up as soon as they cut to commercial,” the user wrote.
Multiple truths can coexist. There can be no denying Child’s boundless energy and prodigious work ethic. Still, she frequently relied on others throughout her career, from her TV crews, to her “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” collaborators Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, to her husband Paul, whom she credited with inspiring her love of cooking.
Dining and Cooking